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This is a must have lens for anyone, yes its heavy but oh so crisp and fast. The images are amazing, the focus easy and quick. And value for money when compared to the Nikon version, tbis is a must have lens. Bite the bullet and get one, you wont be disappointed
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I couldn't have got better for the price. It does exactly what it says on the box. It's Tack Sharpe & I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who may be unable to afford the extra exspence of Nikon's own 70-200mm f/2.8 Lens.
I have purchased this lens as my first lens specifically bought for candid shots indoors without flash. Eg Weddings This particular model while cheaper does have a couple of limiting factors which I will come to later, but also has MANY fantastic properties. FIRST IMPRESSIONS The first thing you notice with this lens is its size and weight! At just over a kilo it's a lot of glass. All the components seem "well made" and you certainly feel you have a quality lens before you take a single image. ADVANTAGES The Fixed f2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range makes this lens useable without flash indoors and other low light situations. The f2.8 also produces the smoothest and most natural bokeh (Blured off background)of any of the lenses I have. There is minimal vignetting throughout the zoom range, in fact hardly noticed any. I tend to use this lens with apertures between f2.8 - f8 and throughout this range I get consistently sharp images with no softness at all. HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) focussing gives very fast and almost silent autofocus even in poor light. Another nice feature of this lens is that even when you set to Autofocus, you can still adjust the focus with the focussing ring on the lens. The lens comes with a tripod mount collar, which considering the weight of the lens takes the strain of your arms and more importantly re-balances the camera when you do use a tripod. (No drift, and no stress on the lens mounting ring) Focus and Zoom rings are easy to use without taking your eye from the viewfinder. DISADVANTAGES It's HEAVY, so bear this in mind if you want to carry it all day. It's got a massive filter thread diameter (78mm) which makes filters a little pricey. The model I purchased does not have any image stabilisation, and does not have a "Macro" facility. These would have been useful, as sometimes I want to take a candid shot of something closer than 1.5m away but is not disasterous. In low light I originally felt I had a "soft lens" but in fact I was trying to handhold shots at full zoom in the low light and shutter speeds were just a little to slow. In short I was asking just a little too much of the lens and my shaky hands. Now I use the lens on a tripod for my indoor shots and I have to say they are beautifully sharp! The newer (and slightly more expensive) lenses have a "Macro" feature allowing closer focusing distances. So far no sigma's have any Image Sabilisation yet... you need to buy Canon or Nikon equivalents for tihs...but for that you'll be looking at £1000-£1500 The matt coating on the lens does wear off where the tripod collar attaches. SUMMARY A quality lens, at an excellent price. Provided you can carry it! The optical quality is certainly on a par with its Nikon and Canon counterparts!! If you have a limited budget you'll be very happy with this lens. If you have a slightly larger budget then I would perhaps recommend the newer marco version to free up more photographical possibilities. OVERALL I'm really glad I bought this lens and would recommend it. I've rated it 4 out of 5 simply for the fact that it doesn't have the macro facility, or it would have been 5 out of 5.Read full review
excellent lens, need a metal body to balance correctly , built like a tank and relatively heavy can be a little soft at 2.8.........and can also be a super portrait lens
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