nice feel, sharpness, colour rendition, contrast

slow focus, took me ages to find one secondhand

Sure, the focus is slow but then how often do you really need to follow action with a 24mm lense? Super sharp, compared on a lightbox on EBX against my other lenses it blows them out the water.

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canon FD 24mm ssc
cosina 19-35mm

Very sharp, solid construction. Great close focus for flower group shots (7.9" I think)

Slow focus, flare.

Great for the money IF you do not shoot towards the sun (flare).

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not needed

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24-70mm Tokina

Light, very sharp lens and quick to autofocus (pentax mz5n)

Vignetting with polariser filter.

An EXCELLENT lens for the money. Some reviewers oversight that this lens is very good value for money.

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Pentax 35mm

Very sharp, light, up-close for macro, wide.

slow focusing, noisy

It can be frustrated if you are so used to a fast motor lens, it is like driving a muscle car and then hop into a station wagon. On top of that you have a noisy motor working to focus your object . Having said all that, I am very happy with this lens in terms of value and quality result. I have had very good luck when shooting outdoor in group photos, landscape and even up-close macro stuff (if you have enough light that you won't be blocking the object). Before buying this lens, I've read all the reviews and it sounded like trouble. But when I analyzed the reviews careflully most of the problems occurred to Nikon and Pentax users. I can't speak for everybody but my Minolta mount lens gives me excellent results on the Maxxum 7.

Forme, I am not in any hurry trying to capture the moment and I don't mind a little noise. If you're after a cheap lens that puts out excellent quality, this is the lens for you.

Value: 5 I bought this lens at a very reasonable price
Quality: 5 It is one of the best quality at 24mm and I have proof to show it
Performance: 4 Slow focusing, noisy
Overal: 4.5 is what my lens should deserve. '4' is too low and '5' is too high. But since they have it no other way I give it a '5'.

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Similar Products Used:

Minolta AF50mm f1.4
Minolta AF100mm f2.8
Minolta AF35-70mm f4
Sigma AF28-80mm f3.5-5.6 Macro

- VERY inexpensive!
- Good sharpness
- Low distortion
- Small and lightweight
- IF (internal focusing)
- Short minimum focus distance (18 cm)
- Metal construction

- Slooow and noisy AF
- Light barrel distorsion, specially in the corners.
- Small filter hood, be careful with vignetting
- Flare

I think this is a great lens from Sigma. It has lots of strengths, and the weaknesses are logical for the price.
It is great for outdoor or indoor photography, when stopped down. Given the maximum aperture and the focal, the DOF is huge when stopping it down to f/8 - f/11.
IMHO it's sharp and the distorsion is low, although I have not tried other alternatives like Nikkor 28mm, 24mm or 20mm primes to compare.
Even having a wide angle zoom (wich I haven't got), it is small and lightweight enough to carry it always in any corner of the bag.
The minimun focus distance (18 cm!) make it suitable for macro. Given the short focal length you are not going to get a good size ratio, but you can get very original shoots from small objects when shooting close up, specially from angled corners (creative distorsion may be very interesting).
The IF (internal focussing) is great when using filters, and I use lots of then in poor light conditions (twilight...), specially the polarizer and graduated Cokins. The filter hood is too small, it should be oversized, you can get easily vignetting with the Coking P filters, and must be careful about its position (remembering to keep the filter holder vertical all the time, a pain in the neck)
The autofocus is painly slooooow and noisy, but this is not for portraits, sports or action, is for landscape/buildings/indoor. I often use a tripod and carefully position the filters, so I don't mind at all the slow focus.
Bottom line: this lens is great for the price, I think it is worth if you cannot afford more expensive lenses from Nikkon, like me. One of the greatest Sigma lenses.

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Similar Products Used:

- Sigma 28-105mm f/2.8-105 D AF
- Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6D AF

Good price/performance
Very sharp

Noisy and slow focusing

It's pretty good lens for lanscape photography, especially for those who don't wanna pay more for Nikon's lens. The good point which is really important is its good sharpness at low price. Anyway, don't forget to try it by yourself.

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Similar Products Used:

Nikon 50/f 1.8
Nikon 28-105/f 3.5-4.5
Nikon 70-300 ED

Sharp, has macro, good value.

Noisy and slow focus.

I'm very happy with this lense. Got it for AU$225 secondhand. I really like the extra impact the 24mm gives compared with 28mm. The macro feature is great too... down to 0.18m which is great for interesting portraits and nature photography. It produces crisp prints.

As many other reviewers have said, the autofocus is loud and kinda slow, but given I use it mostly for landscapes, slow isn't too much of a problem. For the money it's a very usable lense and a very welcome addition to my camera bag.

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Not used.

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Tokina 28mm

Remarkably sharp for its price ($170). I can't get over what a good deal this lens is.

Focusing is noisy and does not sound or feel smooth, but hey, it costs 170 bucks so who cares!

If you are willing to use third party lenses, buy this lens. You will be amazed that you can get a high end 24mm for such a low price.

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None

Extremely sharp at 4.0, but most importantly very sharp at 2.8. It also focuses quickly. (I have a Pentax mount unit)

Nope

As said above, I like the wide angle angle and sharpness. My only complaint is the noisy sound in the lens when focusing. Built very sturdily. I'm having problems using filters on it, too much vinetting. The Hood works well.

Customer Service

None needed.

Similar Products Used:

None.