| Pro: | Very reasonable price for a 400mm f5.6 lens
Solid build - Better that most consumer tele-zooms
Very sharp upto 350mm
Great contrast
Very nice bokeh
Fast AF
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| Con: | This lens really extends when zoomed
Lens creep when pointed down
slightly soft at 400mm wide open (most 400mm seem to be)
Big and heavy, same as a 70-200 f2.8
Very stiff zoom ring
Noisy AF and the focus ring turns as the AF motor actuates.
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| Review: | Ok...it's no "L" lens and it's not in Sigma's EX range so lets not pretend that it is. This lens has a nice feel when picked up due to it's high metal content in it's casings.
The tripod ring is a welcome addition as is the sweet lens case and lens hood. The front element of this lens is a very impressive piece of glass and sports a 77mm filter thread.
Optically this lens is fairly decent, putting in some usefull sharpness (ok, not L quality...but we've covered that) but certainly a lot better than the usual 75-300mm consumer trash that seems so common these days. Where this lens really excels is in it's micro contrast, it makes very nice looking images. The kind of "something" that can't be reproduced with a photoshop slider. The zoom ring is stiff and clunky to use and it's a bit of a downer. The AF ring turns as the focus motor kicks in and that's a shame too...HSM would be really nice, but alas Sigma hasn't yet bestowed it upon this lens. The AF is actually quite fast and accurate, more so than some HSM lenses but it is really noisy. It seems to track ok and always locks on well, even in low light. Switched to MF and the rocus ring is quite smooth and tactile.
So where does this leave us? Well, it's a lens with a lot of faults. Optically, it could be better...but hey! It's cheap as chips. It IS THE cheapest 400mm f5.6 that can be bought and put in that context, it actually a very good lens for the money. It's image quality and build blows most of the consumer super zooms away
except maybe for the new canon 70-300mm IS lens, but that's about it's only contender. The Canon lens is sharper but it looses 100mm at the same F stop.
I'd love to see a revised version of this lens, maybe a slightly sharper EX HSM. Now that would rock! |
