City: US, Pasadena
I really love this lens. I have even taken clear crisp pictures of the moon and close ups of flowers. The seller did a great job shipping in a timely order. I highly recommend this lens.
I have been using DSLRs for about 5 years. I started with the Canon t3i and when I wore it out I decided to move to Pentax with the K-5IIs. I chose this lens for it because it was both in my price range and had good reviews. That was the best choice I could have made! This is a top-notch lens, especially for the price. I had the long zoom kit lens for my Canon and it was loose and not near the build quality of this lens, nor was it as crystal clear. This lens allows the camera sensor to get the best information possible. I simply cannot say enough good things about it! The only annoyance, as others had noted, was that to zoom past 200mm you have to flip a switch, but its not the end of the world and you get used to it. I literally cried with joy at the images I could get with this. It is quick to focus, stays in the position I put it, is crystal clear, and oh the bokah! Depth of field is amazing, and I am convinced to get a shorter range Sigma for close-up work. You wont regret purchasing this lens. All the photos I am including were taken in low light on a cloudy day late in the afternoon or inside a building with no lights on. No flash was used, just the camera, lens and I.
I purchased this because I wanted to branch out and not only use Nikon products. I looked at a few lenses and based on the reviews, I knew this was going to be a great fit. On the day that it arrived, I took it out of the box and immediately started snapping photos. Here are a few things that I noticed: 1) This lens doesnt have a very large aperture, so its not meant for low-light conditions. Your exposure time needs to go up. Not necessarily the fault of the lens, but if you expect to take some quick exposures in shadows, youll have to bump up the ISO. 2) This is not a silent motor. It makes some noise, so if youre out to shoot some wildlife, you might want to go into manual mode. 3) Speaking of the auto-focus, this one has a hard time focusing on the exact object that you want. This could just be due to how close I was getting to them, but Ive been closer with my Nikon lenses and havent had this issue. 4) The speed of the auto focus isnt as quick as Nikon and even if youre already focused on your subject, it likes to recalibrate itself, so dont expect this to be a zippy lens. 5) When youre focused properly, the images are very sharp. I have no complaints about the quality of the image. 6) The macro feature is great! At first, I didnt realize you needed a minimum of 200mm to switch it on, so that took some getting used to. 7) The lens is a little heavy and will require a tripod if you zoom in, but if youre going 200mm+ you should be using a tripod anyways. I would have loved to give this lens 5 stars, but the quality and speed of the auto focus and leaves a bit to be desired. I would absolutely recommend this and I actually have recommended it to a friend who has a Canon. I dont regret my purchase at all!
Okay, there are reviews that say its slow - so let me say right now I went into this already knowing that. This unit is elegant, solidly built and the phots come out amazing. YES, the autofoucs is slower than the more expensive version so if you are looking for that, put the money into it. That being said - I have taken photos of birds, kids and other things that need a quicker autofocus.
Let me preface this by saying the autofocus didnt work right on my lens and I ended up returning it, so that may affect my impressions of the product. When manually focusing this lens, the image quality is pretty good. The manual focus ring is absurdly sensitive, however, and irritatingly goes beyond infinity. This fiddly focus is exacerbated by the lens creep. If pointed more than a few degrees up or down, the focal length will shift, meaning that perfect manual focus is now useless. The auto focus motor is extremely slow and loud (see above disclaimer) and will often have to focus up to infinity, back down to "0" then up to the proper focus (or close to it in my case). While this does have a macro switch on it that allows you to focus closer, it really isnt close. The minimum focus distance on this lens is 0.9 meters in macro mode, which is only 0.2 meters closer than the Nikkor equivalent without macro. That being said, you can still get pretty close looking images from 3 feet away. It just wasnt what I expected when I purchased a macro lens. That may be a demerit on me rather than the lens, though.
I am so happy about this lens. I am a very non professional photo taker. I have been wanting a macro lens to take pictures of flowers and insects. I was looking at another lens for about 7 times what I paid for this lens and I am so happy I decided not to buy it. I have so much fun with this, I have been taking pictures of all the spring flowers I can find. I love that it blurs the background, while making the focus sharp and crisp. I also really enjoy having a lens that can do macro but can also do normal. Its great for times I dont feel like carrying around numerous lenses. Coming from someone who enjoys taking pictures of small pretty things-this is a great lens.
Pros: + Reasonable price. Outstanding value. + Can produce very sharp photos in the 70-200mm range. + AF is as fast and precise IMO. + Macro extension tubes work extremely well with this lens; combined with a good ring flash it can produce incredible close ups even hand held. Without the extension tubes you will be too far from your subject for a camera-mounted flash to work well. Neutral: ~ Macro switch & 300mm reach are fun but do not produce crisp images, even on a tripod with extremely good lighting. The lens is simply not sharp at 200-300mm. Images are very acceptable but not great. The 70-200mm range can produce great results. ~ Good build quality. Not quite Nikkor, but perfectly acceptable at the price. Made in Japan. Cons: - Lens creep. Even at a 45 degree angle focus will creep if you bump the camera on tripod. - AF is loud. Much louder than the shutter release in a Nikon D3200. - Image quality is not great. There is a decent amount of chromatic aberration, increasing near the edges of the image. - Eats light and lacks optical stabilization -- combined with long reach this means lots of slightly blurry photos. Requires a tripod and/or perfect lighting for sharp photos. Thoughts: Ive taken about a thousand exposures with this lens, from continuous sports shooting to extreme magnification macro. This is a very versatile lens at a good price. It can be challenging to work with; expect to use tripods and fully manual operation to get excellent photos. But I think this is good for a beginner. I think some people blame the lack of sharpness in their photos on the AF in this lens. IMO this is definitely not the case. I have taken very sharp close-ups using the AF, a quality ring flash, and macro extension tubes. I think a lot of complaints about clarity are due to the problematic >200mm range and/or vibrations.
Speaking as an average "Joe" with a tight budget, this lens is okay. Remember your are not spending $800+ on this lens an thus cannot hold it to L-glass or whatever in the upper strata. Images are clear but you may see some vignetting or not the best color rendition possible. This is an f4.0 lens that is light hungry. I originally bought it as a long reach lens for a video shoot using my T5. As time has passed, I am learning how to make the best of what this lens gives me. The macro function was a bit tricky to get in and out of until I more carefully examined the markings on the lens. As long as the zoom is set between 200-300mm AND the focus is above 1.5M, the switch between normal and macro clicks easily. I like the large focus ring as the motorized system can be loud or hunting in low light. It has a nice beefy feel and a sturdy lens shade. I have only used the lens for a few days in the stills roll and am still working out the sweet spots to use this lens and how I want to deploy it. A beginner or the average cellphone selfie person will see any photographs through this lens as brilliant. A more critical eye will see the faults but the creative will see a good beginner zoom with potential.
I dont know why Sigma made 2 versions of this lens and gave them the same model number. Why not creating a different model number? The older lens does not have the built-in motor and therefore AF (auto-focus) will not work with many entry-level Nikon SLRs. Luckily, I did some research and ordered this newer version of the lens and auto-focus works with my 10 year old Nikon D40X. This is a nice entry level tele-lens at an unbeatable price! The mounting is metal which is sturdy. Although I bought a used one, the lens arrived in brand new condition.
I bought it for a cheap replacement while my 1600 dollar sigma telephoto was being repaired. Didnt expect much but find now it was a great investment at a low cost. Found that the 200mm to 300mm macro works well and takes good pictures. Its light, easy to use and still retains the Sigma qualities I like. The only thing that could be better would be a smoother manual focus. It does the job and for one tenth the cost of my other lens it is well worth the price. I actually use it more than the expensive Sigma now. Not disappointed at all.
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