Excellent optics, Sturdy build

Not compatable with the Canon 20D. Bad manual focus design. Expensive 82mm UV filter. Sigma knows about the Canon 20D compatability problems but continues to ignore it. ( In their words "We hope to have a fix for it in the future"

The Sigma 24-70mm EX DG DF Macro gives excellent sharpness when it focuses correctly. I had to send mine back to B&H because this lens along with the Sigma 18-50mm EX DG and Sigma 17-35 EX DG HSM all have focus and exposure problems with the Canon 20D body. (Do a text search of the Forums in dpreview.com) The sad thing is the optics are capable of such excellent images. I think they are as sharp as the Canon 24-70L. But if you put it on a EOS 20D body with an external flash it won't focus properly. This is a problem with the rest of the new Sigma lenses. After several emails to Sigma they finally confirmed it to me. I also hate the funky manual focus. You have to flip the manual focus switch and then pull the focus ring. The build is sturdy. And the price is good. But Sigma tech support is worthless.

Customer Service

Sigma's customer service is hopeless. It took me 3 emails to get the truth from them that they know about compatability issues with the Canon 20D and their new lenses.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 18-50 f2.8 ex dg Sigma 17-35 f2.8 ex dg hsm Sigma 70-200 f2.8 ex apo hsm (this lens is great) Canon 24-70L (This is the best lens in it's class)

sharp sharp sharp..good colours..super bokeh ..feeling..super contrast...yep the BEST PRO lens on the market NOW ..in the range between 28-100 with 2,8 F stop!

hmm a little noisy and stiff..and heavy..but folks..for 400 grands huh??

I also have tried most of the pro made lenses in the 24-100 mm area of length with 2,8 F stop!,all i can say this is the latest model of the Sigma 24-70 2,8 DG DF Macro version is Brutally sharp,extreme correct colour,neutral and precise,very fast focus and very precise focus w.both canon d10 and d2o and other cams from canon; it also has fantastic bokeh and contrast on par with the canon 50 mm 1,8 and 1,4 or even better! what more can you demand :prime quality from a zoom,hearsay!The only thing is that it is a little noisy some times and stiff but that is only on the extreme,in fact you wont notice it at all.According to others it will dissapear soon. To do a very long story short; right now you cant get a better product on the market even if you spend the double up! I use it everyday for PRO work and my clients is so impressed in all stages of the result and outcome.Sigma seems to be unbeatable regarding best buy.

Customer Service

nope

Similar Products Used:

tamron 28.-75 di,canon 28-70 2,8 L, canon 24-70 2,8 L,sigma 28-70 2,8. .

Price overall performance speed of AF good glass for DSLRs (no ghosting)

way too soft wide open at 24 or 70mm

I was quite excited to get this lense. I have heard very many great things about Sigma's offerings of late, and moving over to digital was a large enough investment that I was looking to save some $$$. Sadly, this lense let me down right away. During some test shots, I noticed the details in a decorative lamp were very soft at 2.8....reshot at F8 and the difference was outstanding. I purchased this lense because I need an all purpose zoom that would give me some low light performance. Sharpness at 2.8 is a necessity. While I don't expect my 50mm prime level sharpness...the results I had were unacceptable. I did some research and was told to shoot some newsprint at various angles and depths...and the results were quite clear. At wide open...the only same depth was 30-50mm....anything shorter or longer was too soft. The lense performed EXCEPTIONALLY well at 40. Almost prime lense quality! But the difference between low, mid and high depths was just too great to be acceptable for me.

Customer Service

I emailed their CS to ask if this was a technical issue or the performance the camera was supposed to get...and this was their reply: "Especially with a high speed zoom lens, there might be focusing offset at close distance because of spherical aberration. The slight focusing offset with Digital cameras exists not only on the Sigma but also on any other Camera/ Lens manufacturer. This can be corrected by re-aligning the focus on the camera (adjusting the distance from the lens mount to the sensor), but if you want to send the lens in for testing, please do so." So you decide how to take that answer. I returned the lense the next day and purchased the Tamron 28-75 2.8 Di...I'll post a review once I get it.

Similar Products Used:

Pentax FAs Canon primes Sigma primes

Build quality, decent glass, good price for f2.8

82mm filters, a pain when switching from auto to manual focus

the 24-70f2.8 has a nice solid feel,the zoom ring was a tad stiff at first but seems to be ok after a few months use, the manual focus ring has a nice smooth action. the only slight nag is the two operations when switching from manual to auto focus. optically there seems a lot of varying opinions in the reviews,possibly sigmas qaulity control? anyway the lens i have is fine even wide open it performs well and stopped down a stop its excellent at all focal lengths,contrast is fine and control of flare is ok.At the moment i've only used it with my 10d so the 1.6x factor comes in. The auto focus is quick enough and noisey compared to hsm sigmas, however i have found that when focusing its sometimes inaccurate, so when useing it wide open manual focus is a must.

Customer Service

never used

Similar Products Used:

tamron 28-80sp,sigma 28-105 f2.8-4

2.8 24mm on wide side. well built. good feel to hand. works well in low light.

noisy motor. filter sze.

I just picked this lens up to take the place of my 28-135 MM IS, as I wanted a 2.8 for lower light work. I have had this lens now for one week and I put it through almost everything I could think of. I tested the lens on my Canon 10D. I have come to the following conclusions. The lens is very sharp on my camera from 24mm to 70mm. I have noticed the things that have been stated in other reviews. No that may be because of the 1.6 crop of the 10D. The extra 4MM on the 24MM side from my canon 28-135MM is noticeable to me. I needed that extra for inside shots. The loss of the 135 side is a drawback but I also purchased the 70-200mm 2.8 sigma so they work well together. The speed of the lens for low light is great, and needed when dealing with digital cameras. I did notice that the zoom ring was stiff at first, but after using it for 300 pics it has started to get better. The focus motor in the lens is noisy compared to other lens I own, but it’s not that bad. I can easily live with it. The size of the lens is big and the filter size is up there. But in all, the lens is well worth the money I spent on it. I would recommend it to anyone. It has performed very well and I have soon really great photos from it.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

28-135mm IS Canon

- F/2.8 glass for a very reasonable price - Sharp throughout its range - Excellent contrast - Excellent bokeh

- Zoom ring a bit stiff - AF somewhat noisy, fast for a regular AF, but not nearly as speedy as HSM. - Heavy, bulky (but that's the price you pay on any brand for f/2.8 glass...)

The Sigma 24-70 EX f/2.8 (not to be mistaken with the flimsy f/3.5-5.6 version) is an AWESOME "general purpose" fast lens which approaches the quality of Canon 24-70 or Nikon 28-70 for less than 1/3 of the price. The lens is sharp and contrasty throughout the entire range.

Customer Service

Never used (touching wood...)

Similar Products Used:

- Nikkor 28-70 - Nikkor 35-70

Price, quality built, sharp image throughout the range.

filter cost is quite steep!

This lens performs extremely well in low light and considering the price, it is a bargain. It does what you want a lens of this focus length to do for a lot less that what a prime would cost. It is well built, the HSM works fast and quiet enough that I can't notice the difference between this lens and the prime.

Customer Service

Haven't needed to yet.

Similar Products Used:

multiple Sigma f2.8 lenses, Canon USM and IS lens

Very useful focal range. Build quality reasonable. Good image quality at mid-apertures. Generous focus ring and smooth manual focusing. Auto focus reliable.

Not really a weakness, but dig deep for the filter! You can still auto focus with focus ring set to "manual" and damage the lens motor. Need to remember...

When all is considered, this lens is fairly priced, although you must remember to include the cost of the 82mm filter (UV, skylight, 81A) – another £55. It’s also worth noting at the outset that at f3.5, under strong contrast conditions (and accidental over-exposure), fringing of the image was obvious. It was noticeable only in the corners of very wide shots where stark branches and twigs stood out against the sky. Under most shooting conditions it will be a manageable problem. As for general image quality, the 100% detail images below show that this lens performs reasonably well for the price, and compares favourably with my reliable Canon original Ultrasonic EF 70-210mm f3.5-4.5, a lens I have used extensively over the years. The Sigma results compared to those from my 35mm prime EF lens should make me want to throw my new zoom lens in the bin – and that’s with 1.6x cropping! But I just need to think a moment: I already know from experience that zoom lenses are not supreme optical performers (more so those from independent manufacturers), so the test results need to be viewed in context, with one eye firmly on image-editing techniques. I bought this lens with its limitations and PHOTO-PAINT software editing advantages in mind. Regardless of aperture, my Sigma, at 24mm especially, gets nowhere near my 35mm prime lens, but I know that I can optimise results in the field by eliminating camera shake and shooting at f5.6 to f11. At 24mm at f11 the corners of the Sigma are less soft than at f5.6, but at f11 the centre of the frame is less sharp than at f5.6. So for optimal results I should, when possible, shoot at f5.6 to f8. To these typical zoom characteristics we should add the fact that barrel and pincushion distortion are quite noticeable, especially at extreme focal lengths. Independent zoom lenses need to be assessed in context - they will never perform as well as prime lenses. Until I discover very good reasons not to, I shoot hi-res JPEGs and to get more neutral results I set the 300D to Parameter 2, although it’s worth remembering that when Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation and Colour Tone are set to zero, they are in fact set to 3 on a scale of 5. My neutral JPEG images are loaded into PHOTO-PAINT and immediately converted to a lossless format for possible editing. Image-editing improves the performance of your lens! It is definitely worthwhile spending time adjusting the contrast levels and the sharpening values. You will end up with very good images that will look acceptably sharp, even at larger sizes, all taken with a lens that costs a lot less than the Canon L equivalent! As expected, the Sigma’s build quality is more than acceptable, but not impressive. I feel it’s not quite on a par with the old 28-70mm, but it’s more than good enough and doesn’t give the impression it’s about to fall apart anytime soon. The finish is reasonably durable, too. In practice, outdoors on a bitterly cold day, I found the lens easy to use, and that includes switching from manual to AF, using the small button on the side along with the push-pull action of the focus ring. I don’t do a lot of manual focusing so it’s really not a problem, although if you do a search for this lens you’ll find lots of people who disagree: they are irritated by the push/pull focus ring action. The auto focus is noisy, not unlike the 28-70mm, but it works quickly enough and so far I’ve had no real problems on a dull overcast day. I quickly got into the way of auto focusing, clicking off the AF/manual button, selecting a mid-tone, recomposing and firing off a shot. (I have my EOS 50 set up to do this.) If you’re into manual focusing you’ll like the feel of the generous focus ring. This is a heavy lens and the zoom ring needs a very firm grip, but if you’ve reasonably strong hands this combination won’t be a problem. However, the zoom ring is a little narrow for a man’s fingers, so a tight grip is essential. I like the weight of the lens on the camera – it’s manageable and very stable. The lens hood will help to prevent flare, but I’m not sure how effective it will be. Some have complained about flare with this lens. It’s interesting to note that the camera’s 1.6x cropping means the lens hood could be a little longer without appearing in the shots. Conclusion: I got what I expected for the money I paid. Don’t let the varied limitations of less expensive independent zooms stop you from taking impressive shots! (Test Images are included with this text at: http://www.theimageplane.net/tip2_022.htm)

Customer Service

None required yet, thankfully.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-70mm, original Japanese-built lens. Really like it.

All round excellence, ease of use, not too heavy for a lens of this class. Very sharp at all settings. Very good value for money.

High cost of Sigma EX multi-coated filters.

Bought specifically for my EOS10D. This lens came nicely packaged in a decent bag, appearance is nice, and with my lens the Zoom ring is nice and smooth throughout. The AF is very fast, quiet and accurate. Very Sharp throughout the entire range but for some unknown reason seems to work better overall when used in Program modes than Point and Shoot modes. I find that the Autofocus works just as accurately as the MF so there is no need to do this work yourself. I would buy this lens again.

Customer Service

I have used Sigma for years and never needed help from them.

Similar Products Used:

Many & various. Currently using 4 EX Sigma lenses.

Low cost, 2.8 aperature, 24mm

noisy, cannot switch from AF to MF(or vice vesa easily), expensive filters, not durable, zoom ring is stiff, no HSM motor

I purchased an elan 7e and was straped for cash so after alot of research I narrowed it down to this lense and the canon 28-135 with IS. When I got this lense I was fairly happy with it. Image quality is above average and it looked good. I shot many rolls with it and was happy with it until I purchased a sigma 70-200 2.8. After that I realized what i had been missing. When I compared the two it was like night and day. The 24-70 was VERY noisy, the zoom ring was very stiff at 24mm, it doesn't have internal focus, and you could not manual focus when AF was turned on( it is a pain to switch back and forth from AF to MF). The filters for this lense are also incredibly expensive. The construction/durabilty of this lense is at best OK. Then about a month ago I placed my camera on a table and it fell about 2.5 feet onto carpet with a thick padding underneath. It first landed on the off camera flash and then onto the lense, which at the time was set to AF, and broke. The glass is still fine but it will not allow me to focus closer than 5 ft any more. My recommendation to other Canon users would be to go with the 28-135 with IS. I used it after I purchased the 24-70 and almost cryed because I liked it so much more. I am prepping out to get the 28-135 and you would be wise to do the same.

Customer Service

not yet used

Similar Products Used:

sigma 70-200 f2.8(awesome) canon 28-135 IS(much better)