Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Perth Australia Posts: 1,514 | | Review Date: April 3, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | range, iq, build, speed, focus ring | | Cons: | weighty | |
A really fantastic lens. Comes highly recommended by http://www.photozone.de/ (see for full detailed review)
No real flaws to this lens, its great for macros to landscapes!
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Inactive Account Registered: October, 2007 Location: Niagara, Wisconsin U.S. of Ay. Posts: 394 | | Review Date: December 16, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $390.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Low / poor lighting capabilities. | | Cons: | Heavy, Flairing, focus searching occasionally. | |
Let me start by saying I am no expert, and my terminology probably isn't correct.
The lens is plenty fast enough and takes fairly sharp photo's throughout its range.
For a lens that has an 82mm filter size, you would think it would have a large glass. It doesn't. The curvature of the front glass is very large and any light that hits it from an angle results in a flairing effect. The hood does very little to help. Care must be taken to avoid bright light sources at the lenses outer edge, such as arena lighting, etc...
I recommend this lens because it is reasonably priced for a 2.8 and its range makes it an everyday lens.
I hope this helps.
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Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Posts: 5,697 | | Review Date: March 18, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, dual focus system | | Cons: | size, weight | |
This lens is a pleasure to use in most shooting environments.
I'm actually finding myself grabbing it over my favorite prime lenses more often than I'd like to admit.
I'm finding it sharper than I would have dreamed possible, the colours are rich. And the dual focus system allows you to manually focus when required with autofocus engaged. Without causing any internal damage, like you would with some auto lenses.
The only things that I'm not overly fond of are the size and weight.
It'll give you a workout if your not already used to bigger lenses.
I managed to get this pic with it while on a short walk during a windy spring day.
and here's the 100% crop of the fly.
I think that it would have been even better on a calm day, since it was tough focusing on the moving object.
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Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: North West UK Posts: 390
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 16, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Weight, Size, DOF control | | Cons: | Size Weight (I will explain) Low light focusing | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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I have had this lens for about 12 months now, as a replacment for my 18-55 Kit lens
The sharpness is excellent (a rare thing for Sigma), this is probably due to being an EX model, so has superior optics.
Although at only 24mm, it is not the widest on a DSLR (okay on film), but don't let that put you off. If you need wider get a Sigma 10-20mm as well (I have). The lens is flexible as it goes to 70mm at the long (where it is sharper). The optimum f stop is F11, although wider is still good.
Now the Size and Weight. For me it is perfect as it balances well with the K10D+Grip. However, on anything smaller or lighter (K100D *istD series, or the MZ series film cameras) you might find it a little overwhelming.
The other niggle is the low light focusing. Pentax are notorious for low light, and Sigma makes it worse, it is constantly hunting, only eventually it picks up a point.
I use mine as my walk around lens, only taking it off if I want wider or longer (not often)
Finally as it is F2.8 thoughout the range, it makes a cracking Portrait lens to use.
Recommend.
Edit (Sept 2012)
Having had this lens for many years (roughly 8 as I write) I thought it would be time to re-review this lens again, especially in view of upgrades of bodies.
It is still a big brute of a lens, and really you need a battery grip to balance it out.
Sharpness is still excellent, but not in Pentax prime league.
Contrast, well, good, but the Pentax primes are better.
Now the interesting bit.
On the K-5, there is now CA. This is more than likely due to the demands of the K-5 sensor. However, on an overall image it is okay. But you really need to put the image through PS and the like to clean it up. Call it pixel peeping really. Portraits though are fine (unless you really really zoom in and you can see some PF)
Mind you this is not restricted to this Sigma lens, my Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro AND my SMC-DA 16-45mm F4 suffer the same problem on the K-5. Less demanding bodies - anything up to and including the K20D, are fine.
So, as a result, I have dropped it to an 8.
BUT. If you have anything other than the K-5 (and K30, K-01 for that matter, which use the same sensor), you can consider this lens a 9.
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