Sharpness, variability.

86 mm filter

Good lens, far better than my friend''s Sigma 60-300, but not as handy. At aproximately same level as tamron MF 60-300

Customer Service

Never needed

Similar Products Used:

Tamron MF 60-300, Sigma 60-300.

Great focal length range
Sturdy case
Strong tripod mount
Comes with lens hood
SHARP
Contrasty

Filter cost and availability (??86C??)

I bought this lens for wildlife photography, mainly birds, and just got the first 21 rolls back from the lab. Fantastic! Colors are bright, sharp and realistic with little to no bleed.
As a test, just after receiving the lens, I shot 3 rolls of AGFA Ultra 50 at each focal length and aperture to find the best setting to shoot at. The subject was graph paper printed on a color laser printer, light blue and black on stark white paper. These I taped to a board and stretched a piece of .005” wire diagonally from corner to corner. What I found was the sharpest aperture is f8 at any focal length. However, there were no settings that I considered unacceptable, in fact, when I took it into the field I shot at whatever setting was best for the situation. No noticeable vignetting at the corners either.
Finding filters is another issue. Tiffen seems to be the only one that has this size, 86c, and they’re special order. Yea, expensive but that’s to be expected.
As for the weight, I like it. I shoot with a Bogen 3221g and trigger grip ball head and find the weight is perfect for this combination. Shooting hand-held would require ISO 800 or faster, in my opinion, which is something I rarely shoot, preferring the AGFA 50 sharpness and color saturation.
The focusing speed is a bit on the slow side but not enough to concern me, most bird photography doesn’t require high speed focusing. If your looking for a lens to shoot sports, I’d recommend something faster like one of the Canon “L” series which are wonderful lenses. Personally, I can’t justify a lens that has a comma in the price.
Although auto focus with a 2X converter is out of the question, the images were still very sharp. Which brings up the issue of manual focusing. This is the least attractive aspect of the lens. Turning the focusing ring gives you the feeling of cheap. It feels loose and sloppy and it’s real easy to pass the point of perfect focus. The results I saw in my pictures of manual focusing were spotty at best but when they were in focus, they were Sharp. Perhaps I’ll get better with it as time goes on, or maybe I need to have my eyes checked.
This lens is sharp! If I dropped it off a cliff today, I’d rush out and buy another one.

Customer Service

none yet

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-80
Canon 70-300
Tamron 28-200

Sharp, great focal length. Autofocus works great in bright conditions.

Autofocus is slow, and extremely weak to unusable in low light-low contrast conditions.

Great telephoto zoom. Works well with a doubler. I use mainly use this for taking surf pictures, they turn out great. On stormy days with low light and low contrast, I have to use manual focus but otherwise a great lens.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-300, Canon 70-200

Incredibly sharp and colorful pictures using Fuji 800 film. Excellent build quality. Nice lens case. Works fabulously well on both my N70 and my F5.

BIG lens.

This lens is excellent. I have taken virtually all of my shots hand held with Fuji 800 film and they have been fantastic. 200 and 400 Fuji film induced a bit of blur, but at this focal length and without a tripod this is to be expected. The build quality is superior. The case it comes with is a nice touch. You can see some of the photos I have from this lens at http://members.aol.com/jhbanda/index.html. The autofocus speed seems fine to me; considerably faster than the Tamron 28-200.

Customer Service

None necessary.

Similar Products Used:

Considered Tamron 200-400, but I liked the extra reach of the Sigma.

incredibly sharp in medium range.
Got even very good results in max range with f/11 .Very good bargain for the price.Used with 2X converter no autofocus but good results in max range .A very heavy tripod and remote required

long and heavy at when extended
Not to be used handheld at all.

very long

Customer Service

Never tried yet

Similar Products Used:

200-400 Tokina

The amazing range of focal lengths. I've managed some photos taken at 1/250 hand-held.

The autofocus was slow at first,but with use and and a fresh battery, it became much more satifactory.

A very practical lens at the price (£460 in the UK). It may seem heavy at over a kilogram, but considerably lighter than a selection of primes to cover the same range. I use Canon cameras and have had no autofocussing problems even at f6.3/ 500mm in low light conditions. In fact I have read in a recent FAQ somewhere that Sigma lens will quite happily autofocus at f8 on the majority of the more recent lenses.

Customer Service

Not had occasion to use.

Similar Products Used:

No other similar products.

Amazing focal length coverage, in a fairly nice (I won't say compact !) package. I wanted the extra reach of the 500mm rather than the more common 400mm available in other zooms, including Sigma's 135-400mm. Reasonably-priced, too, considering what you're getting. Build quality feels good. I took some test photos (before I parted with my cash) of a tall building with geometric shapes, and of an old courthouse with lots of detail, and at several focal lengths all the way from 170mm to 500mm, everything came out sharp. Amazing considering that it was an overcast, windy day, and some of the 500mm shots were done at 1/250s.

Not a problem, but the 86mm filter is expensive ! Also slow focussing, but is very smooth and silent. At max focal length, the max aperture is quite dark (f/6.3). At maximum extension, it's very long, and this may be a factor in gusty conditions.

Excellent buy. It has some limitations (dark, slow focussing, heavy @ 1.3kg), but if you take these into consideration, still worth it. Highly recommended.

Customer Service

No need to use customer service yet.

Similar Products Used:

Couldn't find a comparable one in this price range.

Solid build- Feels good in the hand-quality images

Focus slow - manual focus gets tricky around infinity

I bought this lens for my trip to Alaska. It paid for itself in catching what is called 'calfing' while at Hubbard glacier. It's when a chunk of the Glacier seperates and crashes into the water. Nailed a bunch of keepers there. Used it about 10% of the time during the fall season. It has performed pretty good. For the money -- it's worth the bucks up front. However, when the time comes i'll sell it and upgrade. I have a Sigma 70-300mm that i think was the best money i have ever spent on a lense (as far as the amount of keepers i've shot with it) I have missed some great bird shots because of it's suspect focusing at times. If you want long and you can't presently afford the other brands-then this is good money spent. If you can afford to wait or take a hit to the check book, seek elsewhere.

Similar Products Used:

None

Purely sharp, Colour reproduction almost 99%

A bit heavy

I ve tested the lense by photographing flowers and to my amazement, the pictures were fantasticly excellent. This is to compare from pictures that I took from other lense like Tokina 270 pro11, Sigma 20-200, Canon 28-80 lense. Even I can recommend this to anyone that the lense is well priced. I would like to test the 50-500 APO from Sigma which is double the price, but I think this lense is worth owing.

Similar Products Used:

None

Great zoom range
Clear, Crisp Focus
Sturdy Tripod Mount that is removable (Nice)
Lens Hood included

Slightly heavy - Not very hand-holdable
Expensive/Hard to find filter size (86C)
Slow focusing

This lens is worth the money. With the purchase of this lens, my bird shots have improved in focus and quality. The focus is slow, but not an issue (most of the time).

I would highly recommend this lens to anybody needing a variable zoom this is a great deal for the cost.

Customer Service

Never used

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-200 (NICE!)
Quantaray 70-210
Canon 50mm