| Author: | | Junior Member Registered: May, 2015 Posts: 33
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 17, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Best Buy | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Autofocus: 10
New Or Used: New
| |
So, I bought the SIGMA 17-50 f2.8. Honestly is the best zoom I ever used since I own a Pentax... and I have owned a few (Pentax 18-55 and 18-55 AL II, Tamron 18-200, Tamron 17-50 f2.8, Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5, Pentax 16-50* f2.8).
This lens is sharp straight from 2.8. CA are showing only at f2.8 depending on the light source. Starting with f4 is razor sharp... In the past I have owned Tamron 17-50 f2.8 and Pentax 16-50* 2.8.
The comparison with tamron is pointless. Tamron is a noisy lens that hesitates to focus in many cases.
Compared to the Pentax 16-50 *, the HSM engine is a bit noisier, but nothing to be afraid of. Optically, I think that SIGMA is superior to Pentax 16-50 * f2.8 lens. The Pentax starts to be sharp after f4, and CA are until f5.6... Or perhaps I have owned a bad copy. Regarding the colours, well... I don't know what to say... The star lens 16-50 from Pentax, has something of the Pentax flavour compared to Sigma...
In my opinion this SIGMA worth his price and does a great job mounted on an APS-C camera. Can wait the summer holiday to take some amazing shots with this lens....until then..I leave two photos taken with this lens mounted on my k3 shot at f2.8 and f4 (the one with the sun's rays is at f4).
 | | | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: February, 2014 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 2,710
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 5, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $175.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, contrast, reasonable distortion | | Cons: | Color palette doesn’t match Pentax lenses | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3, KP, K-70
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: Used
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I am an underwhelmed owner of the Pentax HD 16-85 f 4.5-5.6 WR. My copy of the lens has autofocus jumping issues, decentering and just isn’t as sharp as it should be. I scored a nearly new copy of the well reviewed Sigma 17-50/2.8 DC EX HSM at a great price off eBay. The Sigma has become my go to wide-normal lens, relegating the Pentax 16-85 to bad weather duty.
Build and finish quality of the Sigma lens is excellent, only the super flimsy, always broken, lens hood and cheap front cap seem out of place. I replaced them with a better alternative found on Amazon for $20.
Images produced by the Sigma are sharp, especially from f5.6 to 11, have good contrast and punchy but cool toned color rendition. Autofocus has been very good, though I often prefocus, then turn off the AF in good light. Exposures can be a bit varied at times, something which also happens with my Sigma 10-20 F4-5.6 DC. Nothing which isn’t easily fixed in post.
Handling is good, except for the anti-Pentax zoom and focus ring rotation. The whole world caters to Canon’s rotational directions. I do miss the quick-shift focus override available on Pentax lenses.
I’ve already made a great many excellent images with this Sigma and truly wish I’d have purchased this lens instead of the Pentax 16-85 !
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2018 Location: Poland Posts: 1,800
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 23, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | build quality, IQ | | Cons: | big filter thread, inconsistent AF | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-50
Autofocus: 8
New Or Used: Used
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It's a good walk-around zoom and wide aperture is a big advantage. Seemingly there are disparate opinions on IQ wide open but my copy is decently sharp wide open on all focal lengths. It's a bit heavy but I wouldn't consider it as a flaw since it is fast (2.8) - so it's kind of natural. Now, the AF: my copy needed minor in-body correction, so that's not a problem. But it happens that AF, although pretty fast, hunts a lot even in a good light. In similar conditions, my kit zoom works perfectly (when it comes to AF) so something is wrong here with the sigma. On the other hand, the overall usefulness is very high and like this lens a lot despite AF being inconsistent at times.
F/2.8
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2016 Location: Euless Texas Posts: 268
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 6, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $230.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, quiet, Good AF, F2.8 | | Cons: | Heavy | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: Used
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This is my go to lens for wide shots and portraits where I have limited space.
Sharpness - This lens is a bit soft wide open but sharpens up very nicely by F3.5. I gave the lens a 10 but in reality it is more of a 9.5
Colors - I find the colors natural and balanced. I rarely have to mess with the saturation.
AF- The HSM motor is quiet and quick. It is not my fastest focusing lens but since most of my shots are stationary it is fine.
Handling - As others have indicated the lens is a bit heavy but I do not mind trading a bit of weight for the lower aperture. I shoot mine on a tripod half the time which negates the weight.
All in all I am very happy with the investment. It goes wide to 17mm and shooting around 24-35mm it is absolutely splendid.
Example pic
 | | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2017 Posts: 756
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 10, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $529.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Clarity, Color-Reproduction, Quiet and Good Focus | | Cons: | Slightly Weighty, Off-Center Focus | |
I just got this lens, and decided to do some tests outside with it. All in all, an excellent lens. The attached photos from imgur, with the exception of cropping on the last, are entirely unedited. The last I cropped to show the excellent clarity of the lens. I find the bokeh slightly distracting, but that could be just in the particular photos. Otherwise, I recommend this lens highly.
https://imgur.com/a/c7zkEjj | | | | | Forum Member Registered: April, 2018 Location: Tartu Posts: 82
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 18, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, build quality, quiet AF | | Cons: | no weather sealing; manual focus might be tricky | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3
Autofocus: 10
New Or Used: Used
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It's well built, feels like a premium lens.
The AF is fast, accurate and almost soundless.
IQ is great and it's sharp.
Manual focus might be tricky due to short focus ring rotation distance.
I like this lens more than the Tamron 17-50.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2018 Posts: 290 | | Review Date: August 25, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $405.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | build quality, overall performance | | Cons: | problems with compatibility in some case, huge filter size, weight | |
I bought them as kit replacement. I shot with them about 1000 photos. I don't have luck. With K200D I had back focus and with K3 II I was problem with correct sharpening. It was not what I expected. Sometimes my camera place sharpeness further or nearer than I was expected. With 77 limited and 100 WR from Pentax I don't have this issue. After sold my buyer was happy and he don't have any problem. I see tested images from him and it was all rights.
Weight is the most noticable cons of the lens. It is a huge. In compatition with 77 limited or my macro 100WR lens it is make difference. After longer use you can feel weight. Big plus is excellent AF. It was working fast and it is the most silence. When screw driver in 77 make noticable noise you can take photos without making attention to yourselfs.
I use them for wide angle "macro". With Live View it was pleasure. Longer end it was quite nice for portrait. 2.8 stop is fully usefull. Only 77 limited is more sharpness. In comparision to standard kit II version is only better, but I want quick shift on this zoom to make them more operatable.
Switches small, not enought useful for me. I don't use it often. If you can buy in shop this model working well with you camera is good offer for this price. You should be aware, because some models has front or backfocus problem. Sometimes is not easy to correct via service. It is why I get them 7/10.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2017 Posts: 61
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 31, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $220.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great sharpness, focus, super in low light, versatility | | Cons: | A bit heavy, not WR | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-S2
Autofocus: 10
New Or Used: Used
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I have had this lens for over a year, purchased used, and feel comfortable posting a recommendation here after hundreds of shots. It is my "go-to" lens, paired with a K-S2 for general travel and street-photography, including low-light sunrise and sunset landscapes up to the 50mm range, but particularly when I need a bit of width . The more I have used it, the more I have appreciated its sharpness, versatility, and handling.
Photo's are sharp, end-to-end; colors are excellent. As a non-pro enthusiast, for the money I get so close to what I would consider near-pro output that I could not be more pleased. This seems fairly consistent with the feedback from other posts here. Wish it were WR but can't have it all--with a rain hood have used on many hikes, wet and dusty conditions--no problems.
A great upgrade and highly recommended!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2010 Location: California Posts: 1,602
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 26, 2018 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, colors, fast, overall value | | Cons: | Heavy, a bit bulky | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3ii
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: New
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This is a great lens to replace the kit. Almost the same focal lengths but with a constant f2.8, much better build quality and much better photo quality.
Sharpness: 10 - This lens is extremely sharp across the entire focal range.
Aberrations: 9 - I cannot notice any aberrations with my naked eye. When zooming in during post-processing I can notice a tiny bit so it's not prefect but close.
Bokeh; 9 - Beautiful and smooth bokeh. Since this is a fast lens it is easy to achieve the effect and looks very good.
Autofocus: 9 - Smooth and fast focusing. Pentax is known for being a bit behind on the AF curve so the 9 rating is relative to the camera. Could the focusing be faster
and a bit more smooth, sure, but this lens AF is just as good as most any other lens on my K3ii.
Handling: 10 - The build quality is very sturdy and feels very well build when holding it. It is a bit on the bulky side which is most noticeable when changing out this lens.
Value: 10 - Overall this is a great lens that can easily be found for under $400 which I think makes it an amazing value.
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2015 Location: Istanbul Posts: 2
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 15, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Excellent sharpness | | Cons: | bit heavy, 77mm | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-5
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: New
| |
Trees by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Fisherman by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Back to Home by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Kackar Mountains by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
HillSide by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Sunset Malaga by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Cyclops by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Street Views by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr
Jesus by Yemen Ozan Gündoğan, on Flickr | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,897
8 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 2, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $225.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Well built, quiet auto focus, sharp in the centre from f/2.8, great colours and contrast | | Cons: | Zooms the wrong way, corners never really sharp, occasional flare, heavy, large 77mm filter size, erratic exposure | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K3
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: Used
| |
I've owned the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens for quite a few years and it's my only other experience with a fast standard zoom on digital. I've always been pretty happy with the Tamron but longed for something better built and with quiet AF, so when I saw a copy of this Sigma for sale locally at a reasonable price I had to try it out and decided to buy. I prefer primes to zooms but a fast standard zoom is just so useful a lens to have that it's something I'd never want to be without.
I haven't owned the lens for long but used it a bit around christmas and on a recent trip to Italy it was my main lens, used 90% of the time, which always helps to get to know a new lens.
The lens is very well built. Compared to the Tamron, it's more solid (significantly bigger & heavier too) but the difference in build quality is clear, and that's something I appreciate. Unless you really need to minimise size and weight in such a lens, I'd say it's worth it to go for the Sigma.
Sharpness is excellent in the centre at all apertures, even wide open. At the corners you need to stop down to f/8 (or maybe even f/11) to get best results, though they never reach the sharpness levels of the centre, at least at the widest focal lengths. I may be being picky here - I've pixel-peeped the corners to check how they are but at normal display sizes they are absolutely nothing to worry about.
What has really impressed me with this lens' optical capabilities are the rich colours and contrast that photos have - they're probably as good as those from the DA limited (or other high quality modern primes). Blues especially seem to come out very well.
I've seen occasional flare even when using the hood but I had read about that before buying and it's not as bad as I had been expecting from the comments I've read. I've seen much, much worse on other lenses and overall I'd say it does pretty well in this regard.
The almost silent auto focus really is nice to have. In terms of accuracy I'd say it's slightly better than the Tamron, but only very slightly. It has the occasional slight mis-focus but that happens with all my lenses and I attribute it to the camera. The quiet AF is a luxury - nice to have but with no effect on the photos. This is my only K-mount lens with an inbuilt lens motor.
Overall, I'd say I'm very happy with the lens. It could be sharper in the corners, it could be a bit more resistant to flare and if it zoomed in the same direction as all my other lenses then that would be great, but these are relatively minor complaints. Compared to the Tamron I'd say it's optically on the same level. The Tamron might even have a slight edge with better sharpness in the corners and better flare resistance. In other aspects the Sigma is better - the AF motor, slightly more accurate AF, a slight advantage in colour and contrast, much better build quality. However, the size and weight differences are considerable and for those who like their equipment to be light, the Sigma may not be for you.
Update: I should mention that I have had a lot of problems with erratic exposure using this lens - either over or under exposure. On my trip to Italy I ended up using five-shot bracketing and deleting the four excess photos after choosing the best exposed one. I need to play around with some other exposure modes to see if the lens works better with them, but I'd recommend bracketing or using manual exposure and always shooting RAW when using this lens.
This really is a superb all-round lens which is very nearly as close to perfect for general use as it's possible to get.
I'll finish off with some sample images which I hope convey the results that this lens can achieve. The first three images were taken wide open.
Venice by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Venice by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Florence by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
IMGP3212a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Rome by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Tuscany by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Florence by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
ITLY3455b by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
ITLY3593a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Posts: 854 | | Review Date: January 1, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very Good Optics, constant f2.8, nice colors | | Cons: | Cheap lens cap | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-S2
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: New
| |
Really like this lens. Good walk around, quiet focus, Great colors.
It went back to Sigma for repair to AF, came back good as new. They were vague on repair but I suspect part came loose inside. Erratic focus with no adjustment.
Only complaint......Cheapest lens cap I've ever seen.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: Michigan Posts: 29 | | Review Date: October 23, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp images, speed (f/2.8), good ergonomics | | Cons: | About the only is mounting the lens hood on to the lens for storage | |
This is my "go-to" lens for my K-5. Worth every penny paid. One of my very best lenses. For most travel ventures I take this lens along with the DA*50-135mm f/2.8 along with my Tamron 1.4x TC and I am covered for most anything I photograph.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Queens, New York Posts: 608
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 18, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $399.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, silent and accurate autofocus | | Cons: | Heavy | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01, K-50
Autofocus: 10
New Or Used: New
| |
I was very satisfied with my Pentax DA16-45, but started thinking that having a similar range zoom with an f2.8 aperture would help with some indoor shots, so I began looking around, and noticed this Sigma.
This lens is noticeably sharper than the Pentax to the point that you have to soften almost every shot in Lightroom or other post processing software. The contrast is also higher than the Pentax, and the colors are not Pentax colors.
Not really something to complain about, but you should be aware of this before buying this lens.
On the pro side, the auto focus is accurate and silent, this lens' best virtue.
On the con side, it is heavy.
I think it is an excellent all-around, walk-around lens, because of its range and the silent auto focus.
I recommend this lens highly.
Mike Bokeh  | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Nagoya Posts: 577
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 6, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image quality, silent focusing, fast, good enough wide open | | Cons: | None for the price | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-S2
Autofocus: 9
New Or Used: New
| |
Great lens. Replaced my 15mm Limited (17 has been wide enough for my needs in the end) and my 18-50 in one go. Sharp, silent and accurate focusing (needed -4 adjustment on K-S2 but spot on since then), nice rendering including at f2.8, plastic but solidly built - sometimes a little heavy - and feels like a quality product. Standard petal hood does its job. A little coma and some fringing at the wide end but that is easy to remove.
The f2.8 on this lens is for convenience and basic background separation - the bokeh on this lens is actually fairly unsatisfying and probably this lens' weakest point.
17mm f5.6
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