Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 APO RF 35mm Zoom
Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 APO RF 35mm Zoom
[Apr 07, 2009]
yc
Intermediate
Strength:
Great optics - sharp even wide open, great color and contrast. Flair and AC are not bad to be noticed. Good tripod collar.
Weakness:
Lens cap is a joke. Lens creeks terribly. AF not good for moving tracking, MF not accurate. Heavy (not the lens fault for sure, but still, it's heavy) To me a 1.5lb lens is not heavy, but 3 pounder is. A great tele with crystal sharp image and beautiful color, if the subject is not moving. Basically this is a poor man's tele that happens to have great optics, yes, the optics is fantastic, but not much else.
Customer Service None Similar Products Used: None. This lens is perhaps the cheapest 500mm tele out there today. With the Mark II out with HSM, this lens is even cheaper today, which makes this a great buy if you are not shooting flying birds. I tried the birds a couple times and give up - AF is just impossible - with 350D and 40D and 5D. AF Canon 70-200 USM is instant, on the other hand. But at 200mm, it's way too short. |
[Oct 24, 2008]
Hoang
Casual
Strength:
Good value of money (of course can not compared with the L lens but alot better than the Cosina 400mm that I used before)
Weakness:
Heavy, blur photo in bad weather I just bought the lens well used from a private seller at £230 (around $378 at current exchange) and tried tens shot with my Canon 20D. The photos at 170mm is quite good while 500mm is well acceptable. I picked a pine branch around 15m away at F76.3 and F7.2 and still see the spider web very clearly in hand-keep mode.
Customer Service None Similar Products Used: Cosina 400mm, Canon 300mm L USM |
[Jun 14, 2008]
John
Expert
Strength:
Sharp images, reasonable price
Weakness:
Very unforgiving of less-than-perfect technique, zoom creep if the lens is pointed downward, CA in certain situations with overexposed or very bright background with darker foreground objects. My experience has been a bit different than most others here, as I find this lens to produce very sharp images. I use it on a Nikon D70, and shoot RAW files. I've shot mostly in the focal length range of 400mm to 500mm, still good and sharp.
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[Jun 02, 2008]
Bob King
Intermediate
Strength:
Zoom range, quite reasonable image quality, price - it includes a tripod ring, a hood and a carry case.
Weakness:
No zoom lock, filter size, though mine (used) came with a uv filter, noisy focus. This is a good lens for what it is - a "consumer zoom". You would have to spend a lot more money to get significantly better image quality such as provided by a Canon L zoom such as the 100-400 L. It can be hand held with an appropriately high shutter speed but I find its best used with some sort of support, even if its a monopod. I find I get the best images with the lens mounted on a sturdy tripod, stopped down a bit and using a remote shutter release. I use it on my Canon DSLRs but haven't used it on my film bodies. Customer Service Not needed Similar Products Used: Canon 70-200 f/2.8L with 1.4x teleconverter, Canon 70-300 IS |
[May 03, 2008]
Bob Howen
Professional
Strength:
None
Weakness:
not capable of producing a sharp image Useless lens. This is my second attempt to "save" money on a non-nikon lens and it has been a complete waste. I have shot with this lens on a tripod, mirror lock-up and remote trigger and still can not get an image I would even consider offering for sale.
Customer Service N/A Similar Products Used: Nikon 2.8 70-200mm VR |
[Jan 17, 2008]
BobMcBob
Expert
Strength:
Price (for a new lens). Its a budget means of getting closer to sporting events, but not a professionals lens.
Weakness:
Price: You may get a better match with a new 100-300 lens and a second hand 500mm prime with an adapter. But you will need dedicated research and reading up on blogs to find lenses that meets your requirements.
I've been dissapointed with this lens from the time I've spent going from amateur beginner photographer to semi-pro/expert. I bought it a few months after my first SLR: a film Canon Rebel 2000 (EOS 300)
Customer Service Have never sent it in. - No comment. Similar Products Used: Recently I bought the Canon 100-400L IS USM lens. This lens is fabulous on the 20D reduced sensor size. Every bit as sharp as a L series lens claims to be. Understated genius in design. Sure, the L lens broke the bank at $1800 (I had to ship it in :s, but no more fuzzy details in images. For me, it is quite important to be able to creatively crop a poorly framed image at (say) 400mm and not have to really worry about softness ruining the resulting crop. I've managed to take some pretty amazing hand-held images in next to no light thanks to the image stabiliser. Is this lens three times better than the Sigma? Yes. If you can find one second hand for $800, then go for this rather! The L lens has made the Sigma obsolete overnight and Iit is now being sold.
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[Apr 28, 2007]
RoadieRob
Intermediate
Strength:
Reliability
Weakness:
Image Quality
This lens has been a big disappointment. I have owned this lens for 5 years and have yet to take a photo that I would consider sharp. Even stopped down, tripod mounted, mirror locked up with cable release still will not produce a sharp image. I would not consider this lens usable at 500 mm. Acceptable soft images can be achieved around 450 mm.
Customer Service None Similar Products Used: Canon 100-400 IS L
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[Apr 30, 2006]
beefcurry
Intermediate
Strength:
Cheap
Weakness:
Slow aperture, Heavy (all refracters are heavy so its not really a weakness), slow and noisy focus. If you are expecting Sharp Clear crisp images then this is not the lens for you. It is somewhat soft throughout the zoom range but is still sharp enough to not be classified junk. Its clearly what you get for what you paided, a okay Super Telephoto for some crazy price. Its heavy, but you cant expect much from a defracter that goes up to such a focal length. Unless your going for a Reflecter (which is worse in terms of sharpness and functionality) then this is your best choice. The softness could be fixed using an USM in photoshop but then it still cant replace the sharpness from a Proffessional lens. I brought this because i needed a cheap lens with okay sharpness with a long reach since i wanted to take a few pictures of the moon. You can see the craters large and clear with this so it did its job well. There wasnt much flare (tested on a 350D) while using a MC UV0 Filter but then my version is the DG version with better coating. The focus is slow and noisy which is inoying when you want to keep quite but it is quite stupid bringing quite a big heavy consumer lens to a formal place where you can just crop from a image taken with a better quality lens. Personally if you want a cheap lens that could reach up to 500mm i would recommend the Sigma 50-500 f4-6.3 EX, that has a MUCH faster and a WAY more quite focus as well as being alot sharper. The removable tripod colour is well placed and well designed and it comes with a really good soft padded case for it. Kudos Sigma for including that. Similar Products Used: EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM
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[Mar 26, 2006]
Tonys
Expert
Strength:
Price. 500mm zoom lens. It does take great pictures. It works well on my S3. It made me buy a better tripod which has wroked great with other equipment I have. It is a good budget lens that doesn't feel budget and performs better than you might think. It is one of the non Nikon Lens that I really like.
Weakness:
Zoom crrep, not that big of an issue, but put a lock on the thing (Sigma). I hate taking the thing of my tripod and hearing the lens slam down towards the ground as it slides out. I forget sometimes it likes to creep. This has never hurt the lens but the sound sure can unerve you. The filter size makes finding filters a job and when you do the price is a little stunning. I got a good uv filter just for protection and paid over 120 for it. I looked at the polarizer but figured I would sve the money for another lens, it was that expensive. You probably want find anotther 500mm that works was well for the price, it works well for all the limitations you have read in other reviews. I have found a tripod is mandatory for use with this lens, a good tripod, heavy. It has lens creep which really is not that to much of an issue. I use it mainly on my S3. I have had no problems witht the images using this combanation. This is only when i have it on the tripod. The lens is big but not big, It can get heavy lugging it around on the tripod. It is not the fastes focusing lens but using a 400vr also I can say that lens is not a speed demon either. I think getting into these zoom ranges and what they are used for by most the AF speed is something we live with. I just look at it as a trade off for being able to reach out and this lens will reach out.
Similar Products Used: 80-400vr, love it. |
[Mar 13, 2006]
tomthephotographer
Expert
Strength:
Crisp Sharp images. Auto Focus is not as slow as some seem to think. It might be a System thing more than a lens issue.
Weakness:
Heavy, Zoom Creap. No Filters. Lens hood is soft plastic. Good Price and product. It is my third Sigma lens. Have used this lens on a Canon EOS ELANIIe and now mostly on a Digital Rebal xt. I Wish I could Find a 19 to 200 that was this good. Customer Service Great, They are retunning it to work better with my Digital systems. Similar Products Used: Canon 70-200 and a couple of nikor lens. |