jjlad
Senior Member
Nice lens. Haven't shot portraits with it yet other than zooming in on people engaged in sporting or concert activity.
The lens seems sharp and focuses very fast. On my D7000 it feels 'right', handles well and has enough heft to it to instill confidence while helping stabilize.
Between chukkas shooting Polo, I practice focusing by targeting flying insects and the lens nails a lot of them. It''s a bit short for Polo given the size of the field so my 70-300 gets a lot of use on that but as the light falls off this new Sigma is the go to.
Shooting an outdoor concert at night I used 2.8 for most shots and found them crisp, with great color transmission, and no unwelcome light tricks like some lenses I've tried produce.
Overall, for the price I think its a great lens.
Problems:
Serious back focusing. I had to plant a golf tee in the grass and adjust the focus using the D7000's adjustment process. At 10 meters I had to pull the focus in by 40 or 50 centimeters ..almost the limit of what I could adjust in my camera.
Lack of weather proofing is a little annoying as I don't like to baby my gear. Having to cover the lens in light rain to keep moisture out detracts from the job at hand so it sure would have been nice if they'd weather sealed it like the Nikon 70-300. What would that cost ...another 5 bucks? They could collect another $50 for that feature. I looked a little funny in the rain using it with plastic condom-like sleeve over it. C'mon Sigma ..think like a user!
The lens seems sharp and focuses very fast. On my D7000 it feels 'right', handles well and has enough heft to it to instill confidence while helping stabilize.
Between chukkas shooting Polo, I practice focusing by targeting flying insects and the lens nails a lot of them. It''s a bit short for Polo given the size of the field so my 70-300 gets a lot of use on that but as the light falls off this new Sigma is the go to.
Shooting an outdoor concert at night I used 2.8 for most shots and found them crisp, with great color transmission, and no unwelcome light tricks like some lenses I've tried produce.
Overall, for the price I think its a great lens.
Problems:
Serious back focusing. I had to plant a golf tee in the grass and adjust the focus using the D7000's adjustment process. At 10 meters I had to pull the focus in by 40 or 50 centimeters ..almost the limit of what I could adjust in my camera.
Lack of weather proofing is a little annoying as I don't like to baby my gear. Having to cover the lens in light rain to keep moisture out detracts from the job at hand so it sure would have been nice if they'd weather sealed it like the Nikon 70-300. What would that cost ...another 5 bucks? They could collect another $50 for that feature. I looked a little funny in the rain using it with plastic condom-like sleeve over it. C'mon Sigma ..think like a user!