Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 Contemporary DC Macro OS HSM Lens for Nikon

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I have seen many rumors that this lens is soft at 17mm. After two full days of testing I can put that rumor to rest, this lens is so tack sharp throughout the entire zoom range its hard not to cut yourself on it. At 17mm and f/2.8 the out side edges are slightly softer then the center. But to notice this you have to take multiple photos and zoom in over 300% and really "really" try to look for it. I tested this lens on a Canon Rebel T3i (600D) with a 18mp sensor. I cant say how impressed I am with this lens in terms of both optical and build quality. If you are looking to upgrade from your kit lens or just need a new lens in this zoom range without breaking the bank. Get this one. The only lens on the market for Canon in this zoom range that offer better optical quality is the much more expensive Canon 17-70 f/2.8L Lens. But its optical quality is very very marginal over the Sigma. Pros: - Half stop better lighting performance over most kit lens. - Better construction over most kit lens. - Most importantly, better optical performance over most if not all kit lens. - Does not suffer from zoom creep depute no zoom lock. - Comes with Tulip Lens Hood. - Tight yet smooth zoom even for video. Cons: - No full time manual focus override. You must turn off AF to use manual focus - The focus ring is little to close to the zoom ring. - No weather sealing Other Thoughts: I got this lens to replace my Canon EF 28-135 IS USM Lens. This lens is so much better in both optical and build quality that its jaw dropping. The OS works great, very quiet and the lens is very fast focusing. I cant comment on how this lens would be on other Camera brands like Nikon. But rest assured that if your a Canon user you will love this lens.

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I looked at all the tests.. read the reviews and they are right. This think is sharp like crazy for a standard range zoom. It beats just about any current lens in the 16-80 ish range The best part is that it is consistent at all focal lengths with minimal softening at the edges when wide open at 17 mm The rest of the time It is sharp across the frame. Just about every other lens will have 1-1 very soft corners that require you to stop the lens down to get a consistent sharp image corner to corner. No this lens.. Tests at DPR and SLRGEAR confirm this. DPR talks it down for some reason. But looking at the tests and my experience make it the best "kit range" lens out there for the money. The Sony 16-50 f2.8 might be a bit sharper but has weak ranges and I like the extra 20mm of zoom. The Sony version has no OS.. since the camera has it. Some complain.. I think it means the lens optics dont float and shift the image at all, so I am fine with it being left out of the Sony version. I took off one star for the quiet clicks it makes when focusing that sometimes can be heard on video.

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I love the new generation Sigma lenses, including this one. Fast and tack sharp on a Nikon D7100 without any AF adjustment tweaking. Works great in low light. I prefer the extra 15-20mm on the long end over the shorter constant 2.8 zooms. Superior to the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 in terms of focus and sharpness. Light as a feather, no bulk, unlike the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8. I also bought the Sigma USB dock: A common (focus) issue with Sigma lenses is that theyre not optimized for your particular camera model so in the past I sent them in for a lens firmware update. No longer needed with the dock, you can do it yourself if needed.

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Really love this lens... Its good for all kinds of shots... From wide angled landscapes to portraits to macro. Its really great how close you can get to the object and be able to focus if youre into macro photography.

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Love this lens. Use it for just about everything. Super easy to keep clean, super quiet, and looks great. Autofocus is good. Ive used it for astrophotography, portraits, and landscapes and loved it. Only complaint would be poor image sharpness when using optical stabilization. Youll obviously need to make sure its off when youre using a tripod. In rare cases Ive gotten sharper images handheld with OS off vs on too. Really only an issue in isolated incidents.

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Bought it for general use and macro capabilities. Only had it for a week and have had no problem using it. The photos I have taken have been very good at all focal lengths and F stops. Works just about like the Nikon lenses I already have so not much of a learning curve required.

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***NOTE: Original Review was written July 2013 - UPDATE September 2014 written at bottom of page**** **************************************************************************************************** This lens is very sleek in appearance and somewhat tightly made. It operates very smooth and mounts firmly into place. The visual appearance is a subjective thing, but I find this new design by Sigma to be quite appealing. Focus is silent, quick, and overall accurate as well, though not as accurate as other zooms I have used and especially my primes. Alternative to these compliments, I have to say, unless you photograph center based subjects at less than infinity distances where borders do not matter, you will have some challenges. As noted by both photozone.de and lenstip.com, the wide end of this lens (17-24mm) is quite soft outside the center of images, 24-35 has some softness on the borders and stopping down beyond f5.6 stops does not alleviate the issue. If you use this lens for portrait or close focusing you will never see this issue. In fact, for portrait and close focus, images are quite pleasing and this lens has very smooth, uniformed bokeh with no coma (coma being where an image has a doubling effect - edges of objects will have 2 or more edges instead of one). Overall, images are somewhat clean, but there are CAs to deal with at, again, the wide end of this zoom. Here is a run down of the settings and performance of the lens. ================================================= 17-24mm: Very bad field curvature which yielded soft corners. Only center was okay from f5-f7 24-35mm: Some border softness, but good center sharpness f4-f7 35-50mm: sweet spot for this lens at f5-f8 50-70mm: sweet spot from f5-f8 at center, borders softened at f5 but sharpened by stopping down to f6-f8 Vignetting was pretty bad at f4 and still noticed unless stopped down to f6 stops at 17-24mm and again at 70mm. Colors are very natural and clear. CA was very bad for this lens in any significant contrast at 17-24, but more than tolerable at 35-70 though still not good in high contrast. Auto focus was nice and quiet, mostly decisive except in lower light. Construction definitely above average, but it is plastic and does not have any Weather Seals (not to be expected at this price for a zoom given its feature set). It also felt good on my cameras. Looks really nice too. SUMMARY: ========= Up close shooting such as portrait or close focus/macros was nice, but a bit average even for a zoom. Most mid-range priced/quality zooms are good in the center at close focusing stopped down to f5.6 stops anyway. This lens allows you a 2/3 stop advantage being that it is equally sharp at f4 to f4.5 as opposed to f5.6 for any basic, standard zoom, so this is a bit of an advantage for the Sigma 17-70 C over Kit lenses or other standard zooms. On the other hand, the Tamron 28-75 is an extremely popular lens as is the Pentax 17-70 and 18-135 for Pentax users, and this Sigma 17-70 C does not have any advantages over those lenses in center resolution at all (copy variances aside). In fact, the Pentax 17-70 from 17-50mm and the Tamron 28-75 at f4 stops is equally sharp at the center, has very low CAs, and no Vignetting on an APSC sensor along with excellent sharpness corner to corner. Alternatively, the Sigma 17-70 C lacks at the corners quite a bit and has vignetting, CA, and distortions to deal with. Optical performance is always what matters most. And in the case of this Sigma 17-70, the overall image rendition outside the center was mushy at 17-24mm, borders somewhat soft up to 35mm, and landscape images were somewhat mediocre throughout the zoom range. Even when at its sharpest settings, the images lacked a certain quality or clarity needed for any detailed photography where subjects were towards infinity focus. Alternatively, this lens would be good for closer focus distances, such as portrait, but be advised, because of the border performance at 17-24 or even up to 35mm, group shots might also be a challenge if subjects are near the border of the frame and your focused more than 12-15 feet. 4-stars build quality (5 stars reserved for metal lenses and weather resistance) 4-stars auto focus (less one star for some hesitance in lower light and not being one of the faster focusing lenses I have seen) 2-stars sharpness at infinity focusing/landscape photography/architectural photography 3-stars sharpness as a portrait lens/single subject center-focused photography 3-stars for how clean images are (vignetting, CA, fringing, bokeh, coma, overall clarity) 3-3.5 stars overall. ***UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2014 I purchased yet another lens to give Sigma a chance, especially with so many good reviews on this 17-70 Contemporary lens. This time, I got a good copy of the lens so far as sharpness is concerned. I find the lens performance (sharpness) to be nearly identical as shown on DXOMark. The borders at 17-35mm are very much improved with this copy and shooting wide open (f4)at 70mm is fantastically sharp at center. All above comments in my original review do stand correct, however, as CA is rough at times from 17-24mm, and quite notable at 24-35mm in the edges in high contrast. Also, there is very strong vignetting shooting wide open to 1 stop down at all positions. I do shoot a Pentax K5iis now as opposed to a K5 and the K5iis significantly increases border performance of all my lenses and over all sharpness across the frame while reducing fringing thanks to the removal of an AA filter. So some impact is from the remarkable K5iis, but improvements are noticed in this better copy of the Sigma 17-70 C that I received this week, regardless of what camera I use. RATING FOR MY NEW LENS - 4 STARS: my new copy of the Sigma 17-70 C is a keeper. A very solid 4 star lens indeed for this copy, though previous copies I bought were flawed. Skip the Pentax 18-135 or other 17-70 lenses, and skip any lens 500 and under in this league - get the new Sigma. As with any lens manufacturer, just hope you get a good copy of the lens as sample variation is quite random. However, after so much reading, and this new experience I have had with Sigma, it is easily seen that the new Sigma makeover of 2013 has really proven itself in the year 2014. Thank you Sigma!!!

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3 and a 1/2 stars actually..it looses 2 stars because i suffered lens creep right out of the box ... it was an easy fix but this lens really needs a zoom lock...out side of that very nice lens

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I have two of these lenses and both copies work very well. They are a touch soft at their widest apertures, but that is quickly sharpened up with just a bit of stopping down. I run one of these lenses on a D5100 and the other on a D7100. They focus fast and true, the colors are excellent and the soft bokeh is great.

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por ahora lo unico que puedo desir es que quede contento con el lente lo compre usado casi a mitad de precio regular y me llego como nuevo no marcas afuera ni en el vidrio frontal y trasero me encanto mas adelante pondre fotos yo tengo una Nikon D7200 puse una foto y wow el mejor lente que tengo

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