lightweight short lens sharp

none

When I received this lens I was amazed how small and light it was. Although the Pentax mount is plastic, it has stood up very well on my Pentax metal SLR mounts after many changes. In my opinion the lens is sharp. From indoor shots with 800 speed film at 70mm f3.5 and 100 speed film at 24mm f22 I am very pleased with the results. I mainly photograph with 35mm film and process them to 4 X 6 prints.

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Tokina AT-X 24-200 f3.5 - f5.6

Inexpensive

Poor /inconsistent photo quality. Makes me leery of purchasing any Sigma products.

As a journalist, I shoot everything--sports, mugs, architecture, groups, indoor, outdoor, day, night. I just can't get consistently good images out of this lens. I can live with slow speed and cheap construction, but picture clarity/contrast is often poor, particularly at 24mm setting. I happened upon this website because I am looking to replace this lens!

Customer Service

Never Attempted

Similar Products Used:

Vivitar 70-300mm (love it!) Canon 28-55 Tamron 28-80

Cheap. Nice range.

I''ve had this lens for two years, and I''ve never been fully satisfied with the optical quality, especially with color negative film. The results are nowhere near as sharp and contrasty as my Canon lenses, even though they weren''t much more expensive. Will somebody please make a zoom in this range with a constant 2.8 that costs under $400. This lens is slow, and performs poorly wide open. Then there''s the design. The other day I knocked my backpack off a chair. In it was my Canon EOS and this lens, inside a padded camera bag, my flash, and my Leica point and shoot (not padded). The Sigma is now almost completely in two pieces. It broke just behind the zoom collar, where it appears that the front of the lens is joined to the rear with three small plastic L shaped brackets (about 1/4 inch each). Two of the three brackets went. Nothing else in the bag was harmed, padded or not. I''ve had my EOS for 11 years, and my Canon lenses about the same. This lens has not gotten particularly rough treatment by my standards. It''s obviously not designed or built as well as the Canon lenses. Lens cap doesn''t stay on when you focus all the way to infinity unless you have a filter on because the

Do not buy this lens.

Customer Service

Don''t know.

Similar Products Used:

Many

price

weakness

average

Customer Service

no

Similar Products Used:

28-105 f2.8-4.5

Compact & light.

Bad plasticky feel. Focusing ring is underdamped and has a bad feel and sound overall. Sharpness and, most of all, contrast, are mediocre. Distortion is quite visible at wide and long end.

I really can't believe this is a modern Sigma lens. Maybe my sample was defective or something, but results are simply disappointing even for a lens so cheap. Avoid it.

Customer Service

This lens does not deserve a repair, if broken. Simply, rubbish it.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma AF 24/50 f/4-5.6
Tamron AFD 20/40

Compact and light, rather well built, useful focal range.

Optical disappointing, with lack of fine detail. At 70 mm. is softer, but the overall effect is somewhat nicer.

Avoid it. This lens makes almost impossible to take interesting photos (quality is so bad that I even suspect that my exemplar was a faulty one).

Similar Products Used:

Prakticar 28-70 (M42)
Pentax 35-80 MF

Good range. Used on a Nikon Pronea S APS SLR to photograph Egyptian tombs - worked well. Pictures were excellent when the lens was kept stopped down. Not so good wide open at any focal length.

Lots of plastic and rotating front element- difficukt for polarizing filter. No close focus at all

A good lens to use as a standard. Don't use it wide open or you will get some loss of quality. However, a good general purpose optic - works great in Egypt for a general"holiday lens"

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Minolta 28-80
Nikon 35-70 AFD

great optical quality at 24mm; VERY lightweight; quiet shutter; small size

loss of sharpness from 55-70mm; slight flaring; could be faster

Overall, this is a nice general purpose lens. The 24mm setting is great for tight shots, and the lens is definately print-usable at 50-70mm, but you might want to digital edit a bit. Beginners - Buy it with a new camera instead of the included lens.

Customer Service

Excellent - I talked to the head of sales immediately when requested.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 24-70
Canon 28-80

Sharpness good at 24 mm, especially when stopped down to f/8, even compared to 24 mm prime lens. Distortion relatively low 50 - 70 mm. Easy to focus manually.
Compact, light and cheap.

Sharpness really BAD from 50 to 70 mm, even stopped down (the worst I have tried so far). Severe distortion at 24 mm. Front element rotating when focusing, making use of polarising filter etc. difficult. Lots of lens flare and strong refections, even with supplied lens hood.

Cheap, convenient, lots of plastic, poor optical performance.

Customer Service

Not tried

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 35-70/3,3-4,5
Nikkor 35-70/3,3-4,5 AF
Nikkor 28-105/3,5-4,5 AFD
Sigma 28-105/4-5,6 AF

Compact, lightweight and convenient. Love the 24mm setting for tight spaces. Reasonably sharp and relatively free from distortion at the wide angle setting for the price.

Wish it was a little faster - f2.8/4 and slightly longer (85mm) at the telephoto end.

Good value.

Customer Service

Not used yet.

Similar Products Used:

None in the same focal length range.