Well balanced Center sharpness @ wide angle

Bad distortion at edges.

Serious distortion problem out toward the edges at the wider angles, 24-30mm. Soft at the edges throughout its range, I don't care what aperture you use. I think that the 24mm wide was just too much for sigma to bite off. The 28-70 performs better in almist every way. Flare is the same as any intermediate CANON lens. Not great not bad.

Customer Service

WHO KNOWS

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 24-85 Nikon 35-70 Sigma 28-70

Good sharpness at most apertures. Excellent focal range. Good construction.

Heavy. Poorly designed AF/Manual switching

Excellent lens overall. Heavy for modern glass. Poorly designed Manual/AF switching for EOS (you must pull the outer ring AND flip the AF switch, or risk damaging the focusing mechanism).

Customer Service

Unknown, not needed.

Similar Products Used:

Canon

Sharp, good color. Good size and weight. Very Cheap for the quality.

The Lens body extends too much when zooming wide. Quiet soft at F2.8. 82mm filter size too large. Needs Quite an effort to turn the zoom ring.

Great Lens for the money, good look though it has a plastic body. Feels very solid on hand. Good companion for DSLR, I use Nikon D100 and the lens provides resonable zoom range with constant F2.8

Customer Service

Not Needed

Similar Products Used:

minolta, sigma zoom lenses.

Image quality, well constructed & price!

Prone to flare, needs an 82mm filter (not cheap). Size and weight will not balance well on small SLR's. Larger cameras no problems.

Good optic for the money. The F2.8 gives bright clear viewing. If you need the fast apatures often, then you will need to buy better and pay a lot more money. Really good lens from F4.5 onwards. Gives good range of focal lengths. Comes out as 36-105mm on my digital.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-200mm EX Sigma 28-70mm EX Many of the Nikon lenses.

Well, it was nice when it worked, but definitly NOT anywhere close to professional quality. It does have the minolta D mount, but you'll have to get it rechipped, and really, D is a little over-rated unless you do a lot of on camera flash work.

Sharpness issues with all focal lengths from f/5.6-2.8 It also has some pretty bad distortion at all focal lengths. EXTREMELY CHEAP PLASTIC BODY!!! Must be rechipped for minolta D mount. Fairly large and heavy (but that didn't really bother me ever). Zoom ring is too close to the body, I constantly hit the lens release button. Zoom ring is also really tight, but I got used to it after a month or so.

This is an ammendment to my previous review after horrible encounters with Simga Customer "Service." After having the lens rechipped by Sigma it was sent back to me about a week later in working condition, only it had a small dent on the zoom ring. I never mentioned it because it wasn't very noticable and I didn't want to go another week without the lens. In hindsight, that was a big mistake. Then sometime last month I picked it up out of its protective pouch after not using it for a week and it just split open on me. I heard a crack and it just fell apart, only a small piece of plastic kept it all together. I then emailed them, sent them the lens. And over the past month I've only received a repair bill for $130 and a few emails. I've sent them over 5 emails and only received 2 emails back. After my last 2 they haven't responded in over 2 weeks. I was very nice at first asking them to refund the lens because of all the problems I've had with it. But, they said it wasn't part of the warranty. Since then I have had to threaten them with contacting the better business bureau or some other agency that deals with crooked businesses. But they have completely stopped returning emails. I would not suggest this or any sigma lens made from plastic for any one. It may seem nice to have a cheaper lens, but you'll pay for it in the long run.

Customer Service

HORRIBLE! They were quick on the rechipping, but that is about it.

Similar Products Used:

Various Nikon pro lenses and a few minolta ones.

fastness and sharpness

flare

great contrast and sharpness , notice a change of exposure when switching between 24 to 70 range at 2.8 , very strange.

Similar Products Used:

nikkor 28-70mm 2.8

Constant 2.8 even though you don't want to have to use it. Heavy sturdy feel to it.

Heavy sturdy feel to it. You need a good strap. Big filter is both good and bad. Good=bright viewfinder... Bad=expensive

I bought this lens after much research and looking at reviews posted here. I have not been disapointed. I believe this lens is of great quality both in the build of the lens and the optical performance. The filter size is huge and even a UV filter will cost 1/6 the price of the lens itself. But it is better than buying a new one. Because it is a "professional" quality lens, it really seperates itself from other third party lenses in its build quality. I have the Tamron 70-300mm macro that I am just not pleased with now having seen the difference. I know that this Sigma lens is not L quality but you don't pay L price either. So for me at this level it is not worth the extra money, and I am totally and completely happy with this lens. By the way if you look on ebay there is always a few of these on there and the lady that sold it to me said she can get them for like $310 or $330 with second day shipping ( I think her ebay name was hamyhamster or something) It was new in box with original warranty and everthing... absolutly new. This is a good deal especially since my local store had it for $600. Anyway a great buy for a great lens.

Customer Service

Not needed yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 50mm 1.8 unbelievable lens Tamron 70-300mm Macro(Will probably replace with the 70-200mm 2.8 Sigma)

Excellent price/performance ratio, sharp above f4.5, 24-70mm good range for Canon D60, good build quality, 80% of an L lens for 1/3 the price. Also, the 82mm filter size for this lens is the same as on the Fujinon and Canon 2/3" mount broadcast video lenses. So if you know any videographers or are a videographer you can use the same filters.

Non-HSM motor (a bit loud), not sharp at f2.8-f4.0, long and heavy, 82mm filter size, focus ring requires repositioning to use manually, doesn't autofocus as well on a D60 as similar Canon lenses

Nice lens for the money. Not very useful at f2.8, but plenty sharp at f4.5 and higher. The lens is big and heavy, and proper balance on a Canon D60 really requires the optional BG-ED3 battery grip (especially at 24mm). Autofocus is not as fast or as sure on the D60 as it would be with, say, a Canon 28-70 f2.8L - but this doesn't matter with the kind of shooting I normally do. For anyone shooting action or in low light situations, the autofocus performance might not be adequate. The lens barrel is all plastic, but the quality of the materials is high and the tolerances are tight. I've not experienced either a stiff zoom ring or any zoom creep. The focus ring snaps between manual and AF, which is a bit gimmicky, and I've cranked on the AF motor by mistake more than once when focusing manually. No damage, but a little scary. 82mm filter size is HUGE and filters are expensive. Overall, however, a great lens for casual to semi-serious use.

Customer Service

Not required yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 Sigma 17-35mm f2.8-4.0 HSM Canon 28-70mm f2.8L

Wide aperture f2.8 throughout the whole zooming range. Very good sharpness and contrast.

Relatively bulky and heavy (this is the price paid for the large aperture and quality). Significant resistance in zoom control ring. Large filter size 82mm. Large hood size - be careful when flash is used resulting in shadows especially at the wide-angle end.

Very good lens. Very good sharpness in the range of F4.5-8.0. Excellent contrast. Clearly visible distortions at 24 mm. Good value for money. The lens has been used with Minolta Dynax 7. The system is very fast (autofocus) and reliable(exposure).

Customer Service

The brand new lens initially did not fully cooperated with Minolta Dynax 7 depth of field electronic display (the lens displayed wrong results). The lens has been upgraded with a new chip in Sydney -

Similar Products Used:

Minolta 28-70/F2.8G Sigma 35-135/F3.5-4.5

Robust, well constructed. Optical quality. Price.

Not well adapted to my Pentax MZ-S: -Aperture ring -Chip should be updated. Heavy

This lens is robust but heavy and bulky. Optically is quite a good lens, unfortunatelly is not well adapted to my Pentax MZ-S, the aperture ring is almost impossible to manipulate without breaking your finger nails (if they are long enough to press the lock)and the display gives random shutter speeds with the flash (should synchronize at 1/180). In fact it must be a good lens in other bodies but in my case I'm regretting having bought it.

Customer Service

Sigma France didn't solved the synchro bug and after a couple of months told me it was normal (wich is not).

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-200 2.8EX Pentax SMC-A 50 1.7