Sharpness throughout zoom range, Very fast autofocus (about the same as my Canon 28-135IS), Great range, Good sports lens in good light.

Occasional lens creep, no Image Stabilization

I was looking for an alternative to the Canon 100-400L, becasue I could not justify the price for the amount of use a long zoom typically gets. I have gotten some great results with this lens with a monopod. It's a great zoo lens if you use a monopod, and even without one in good enough light to use fast shutter speeds. The only thing I miss is the image stabilization. While this lens is heavy (2.67 lbs), it's quite a bit lighter than the Canon 100-400L, and Sigma's 50-500 weighs almost twice as much. It's a great value, and a lot of lens for the price.

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Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135IS

Supurb range, speed and sharpness for the price. The location of the manual focusing ring was a bit alkward at first. AF works well in medium to bright lighting.

Lense Creep AF does not work well in low "woodlands" light.

I purchased this lense while on vacation. I have a Tamron 400 f4 which I always use with a 1.4 teleconverter. I was looking for a handholdable lense in the 400mm range which I would use for those quick shots while the larger lense was on another subject. The Tamron 28-300 which I own was not long enough. I have taken this lense through all of its paces and am pleased to report that I am very satisfied with it. The images are amazingly sharp at the 400mm range when handheld despite the "1 over the reciprical of the focal length rule"; I have found that handholding the lense at the tripod mount and having the proper stance with elbows touching the chest stedies this lense adaquately for sharp photos. That may very well change as I get older.

Customer Service

Not yet

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-300 f3.5-5.6; great zoom lense Tamron 400mm f4 Sigma 600mm f8 catadiotric lense Canon 55-200 f4.5-5.6 w 2x converter

Sharp images from 135 to 400mm Tripod Collar Comes with lense hood Price Build quality

Weight

Got this lens due to reviews here & the price of it. Have used it for shooting animals, people & motorbike races. Auto focus was fast enough to track the bikes & got sharp images. Very happy with this lense. Just buy it.

Customer Service

Never had to use it.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-135mm Canon 28-90mm USM II

Sharp images over entire range. Nice heaft. Doesn't feel cheap to me. Manual focus ring just where "I" want it to be. Easy to mount lens hood. Mine came with a very nice lens bag.

Heavy enough to recommend a tripod whenever possible. Don't know how practical this lens would be for a "zoo" lens. I'll be trying it out soon. Maybe should buy a monopod for that. Requires rather expensive 77mm filters

I just bought this lens based, in part, on the comments read here. I was especially drawn to those who felt that it functioned so well at it's long end. Well, after spending the weekend putting it through it's paces, I am very pleased with my new purchase. Having used several third party 400mm f5.6 prime lenses(including a Nikon 300mm f4.5 EDIF), this zoom showed me it can not only match their quality, but surpass it as well. My tests at 300mm and 400mm were outstanding when blown up well past 8X10 sized enlargements. Now I did use a tripod on most of my nature shots(ducks, geese, and other birds), but hand held many shots of buildings and such where straight lines might be a problem. The lens produced tack sharp images from 135mm all the way out to 400mm. It is a bit on the heafty side however. And for that reason, I would recommend a tripod. But I'd likely use one for anything shot at 300 to 400mm anyway. I'm sold on it.

Customer Service

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Similar Products Used:

Tokina 400mm f5.6 At-X AF Sigma 400mm f5.6 APO AF Nikon 70-210 f4 AF Nikon 70-300 f4.5-5.6 AF Nikon 300 f4.5

Quick to focus if used correctly with camera. 400mm zone is great. Quality of the lens is excellent. Price is right.

Wieght.

I have used this lens exclusively for sports and would recommend it to anyone looking for a solid lens that gets you in tight and creates sharp sharp image. I shoot with a Nikon D100 and this lens is perfect for what I do. I shoot at high shutter speeds any usually stay in the rang of 300mm-400mm and get excellent results. I do not recommend shooting without out at least a monopod. I haven't tried it but the lens is just to heavy to hold stead at 400mm without getting a blur. This is a great quality lens.

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Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-200, Tamron 70-300, Sigma 80-300, and Vivitar 28-300(Vivitar sucks, don't bother)

Great build quality, built in pod mount, ships with hood, durable finish, clean clear optics very nice at f/8

Sigma hasn't found a fix for the lens creep problem with their zooms, flimsy MF ring

If you need a less expensive alternative to Canon's 100-400mm L lens, the Sigma 135-400mm is a great substitute. I use it for sports photography and it works great. Not quite as hand holdable as some had mentioned. I would suggest a good mono or tripod for image clarity. Shots are very nice at f/8. This is not an HSM lens but I've not had any problems with AF. It's mounted to a Canon Elan 7e and even when using the eye control option, the AF doesn't skip a beat. Also works great on the EOS 3…

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not needed

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 170-500mm Canon 100-400mm L Sigma 400mm

Build quality, price, clarity

MF ring is a bit flimsy

Purchased the lens for sports photography. You'll definitely want to mount it on a monopod/tripod because of the weight. Build construction is quite solid. Sigma still hasn’t quite found a way to fix the telescoping problems with their zooms. Shot numerous rolls of 800iso film @ f/8 on my Canon Elan 7e and received very good results. Even though it's not HSM, the autofocus didn't miss a shot. MF ring is a bit loose and could use a new design type. Overall I'm quite pleased. I couldn't quite swing the cost for the Canon 100-400mm L so this one will do for now...

Customer Service

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Optical quality. This baby has been used at 400mm, hand held at 1/60 and produced an amazingly sharp shot, enough to win the praise of a retired photo editor of an Israeli newspaper. The price (hood included) is very low for this quality and focal length. The lens is fast enough to track birds with my A2E. Another advantage is the weight and hand-holdability. When one is resting one's elbow on ribs and hold the tripod handle, the lens is very stable, as I have mentioned before, I shot at 1/60, 400mm, and the picture came stunnigly sharp.

Noisy and slow AF when compared to USM/HSM. It's a real shame that Sigma has no HSM version of this baby. It is fast enough for animals and humans. Can't say I took it shooting car races, but I'm preety confident that it won't do.

Very good lense. very sharp and surprisngly hand hodable. Price isn't high, but be wary of on-camera AF assist light. Would sell it when the HSM version hits the market. This is why it didn't get a 4 star. Mind you, that Canon's only lense with comparable focal length costs for than three times as much as this sigma!!!

Customer Service

Don't know. But in Israel it is always advisable to contact the golden camera at Alenby 2, TA first. He's usually better than the official rep.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Zoom range Price for the zoom range and quality Great optics - sharp and contrasty Tripod collar

Lens creep Aperture ring difficult to turn

This is a followup to my previous review. The initial positive impression has not changed. With a sturdy tripod, it is capable of producing high quality, sharp images throughout the zoom range. Flare is well controlled. I shot sun rise and sun set pictures and I could not detect any flare related problems. The contrast remained excellent, even around the sun! The only thing I feel differently now is build quality. It is not as good as the Pentax SMC-M 50 f/1.7 or the SMC-A 70-210 f/4.0. But build quality is still much better than entry level zooms. In fact it is better than my FA 28-70 f/4.0 and FA 100 f/3.5. It does have lens creep. Overall, it is an excellent lens.

Customer Service

None needed so far

Similar Products Used:

SMC-A 70-210 f/4.0

Great zoom range Sharp across the zoom range Tripod connection Good built quality Comes with lens hood

Heavy. Focusing ring difficult to get to. Focusing ring not as smooth as I like. Aperture ring difficult to set at desired value. Lens hood difficult to attach or detach.

Comment only reflects my initial (positive) impression of the lens since I only use it for less than one month. This is my first lens that reaches 400mm. My previous longest lens max at 200mm. It is definitely sharp enough for me under reasonably vibration free condition across the whole zoom range. Stopped down to f/8~11, it is very good edge-to-edge at 400mm. I think my technique and artistic skills are the limiting factors rather than this lens! In terms of built quality, it is comparable to my Pentax SMC-M 50mm f/1.7 and SMC-A 70-210 f/4. The tripod connection on the lens is a big help in stabilizing the setup. In fact it is one of the reasons for choosing it over cheaper 70 - 300 zooms. However, I don't think this lens or this zoom range is for everyone. 400mm is quite long for people mainly interested in portrait or even landscape. It is quite heavy for hand holding. I was looking at a way to get a decent 300mm at a reasonable price.

Customer Service

None need so far

Similar Products Used:

Pentax SMC-A 70-210 f/4.0