Good colors,
nice sharpness,
F2.8 in all area,
nice figure of product and hood

soft feeling in F2.8 step sometimes

I feel it is heavy....??

I got this lens from a hobby photographer via forum board on the net few month ago. If I spend money as much as its market price to get it, then dont't know I can say "this is good" now, but I'm sure that I don't regret buying of it.

This lens provide more flexible condition to get a lighter photos or out-of-focusing, with F2.8 stop in all zoom aera.
If you have to pay 400$ for get this lens as new product in shop or market, maybe you will consider of its price to performance ratio, but I think you won't disappoint much.

I took over 2000 pictures with this lens mounted on my Pentax K10D, and they bring me a good results in colors and contrast.

This product is not a kind of Star or Limite lens from Pentax. But still bring you good fotos depending on its price. And it's much better than ordiary (popular, cheap) lenses from Pentax or 3rd parties.

-PS-I don't recommend f2.8 setting in normal situation, F2.8 sometimes brings you softer image what you want (same as most of lenses in market)

-PS- I tested this lens and Pentax smc A50mm F2 in my room with my clothe :)
Pictures taken with A50mm F4.5 was more soft than pictures with Sigma F3.2.
And some blur on clothe's texures of patterns.

It disappears in common use... Gives nice images

rear cap is annoying to fit. It needs to be aligned just right before it fits to the lens. This can be bothersome when changing lenses a lot. On the other hand is does not fall of as easily than the front cap.

At it's price level it is a very fine lens. The great thing about it is that there is nothing remarkable about it. It's easy to use, well built and it produces nice pictures without anything left to desire. It really gets out of the way. The design of the rear lens cap however is quite bothersome. It has a bayonet fitting but it has to be aligned just right. Only one position allows it to be fit. When changing lenses in dark situations this can be annoying. But the cap will not fall off accidentally.

Fit and finish is very fine. I really like the soft finish of the lens The included sunshade has a very good tight fit to the lens as not to fall off. And it has the same soft finish as the lens. Also included is a lens bag which will protect the lens very well.

focus is fast and accurate enough for most situations.

in short: a fine lens at a right price.

Customer Service

No customer service required so far :-)))

- Relatively sharp.
- Cosntant fixed f2.8 aperture
- Sturdy construction
- Not too heavy
- Supplied with lenshood & case
- Good value for money

- Sharpness good for its class, but still not approaching that of a Canon L series lens or any well manufactured prime lens.
- Noisy autofocus which has a tendency to hunt a bit.
- Resistance on zoom ring isn't consistent throughout the zoom range - tightens up considerably towards the 70mm mark.
- High contrast means the lens is particularly unforgiving of even slight underexposure.

This is a useful general purpose and portrait lens when coupled with a digital camera with a 1.6* focal length conversion. I use it with a Canon 350-D. It is pleasant to handle and fast to focus although somewhat noisy. The pictures are in genaral more than acceptably sharp although performance noticeably deteriorates below f5.6. It is also slightly over warm and contrasty - a well known Sigma trait. Sometimes this enhances the pictures, sometimes it doesn't.

Overall I am pleased with this lens and in no way regret buying it given the cost. But if you are expecting it to be a Canon-L series in another package, you will be disappointed

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Canon EF 75-300 II
Canon EF 28-105mm
Canon 50mm f1.4

build quality

none so far

So far after using it for a few days, this lens is SHARP. I bought this to replace the 24-120 lens I had that wasn't very sharp. It focuses quickly, and the motor is quiet. I use it on both my D70 & D1

Customer Service

haven't had to use them with any of my Sigma lenses

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-70 2.8-4f, Nikkor 24-120

sharpness, color rendition, weight and build

autofocus may be characterized as a bit slow but certainly within acceptable range

After researching several sites for zooms in the 'walk around' category, I became interested in the Sigma 24-70 and 28-70. Both lenses were favorably reviewed and the price was within my budget. I use the 20D and had some reservations about the 24-70's compatibilty so decided to give the 28-70 a try. So far I am impressed with the lens build and image quality. It is heavy enough to give the impression of sturdiness but not too heavy use as an everyday lens. The focal length fits nicely into to mid category and the color and sharpness very acceptable. Contrary to some other reviews of Sigma autofocus lenses, I found the mechanism to be smooth and not at all noisy. All in all, it seems to be a good value lens for someone like myself who shoots for fun but wants quality. Surely a better value than the Canon 28-135. Highly recommended.

Customer Service

haven't needed yet

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135is

Magic constant f2.8 Price price price!! good build quality. fast focusing good looking (of you care for it)

smooth image at f2.8 (very) very loud focusing (hoping it comes with hsm) rotating zoom ring is heavy.

I bought this lens for 600 australian dollar which is around US$ 476. The actual price of the lens is only AU$430. The rest is tax and shipping. I have run quite tourough test with this lens. I made a head to head comparison with my Canon EFs18-55mm and Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II. First of all i have to mention that the motor of the lens is trully loud! It can wake your neighbour hehe..(joking). It is very loud compared to my other canon lenses. But it is indeed very fast ( i have note the time taken to focus). I like that it is fast. Now the quality of the image. I must say that in the constant f2.8 which is the main value of this lens the picture is soft. Very soft. I compared it with my prime 50mm both in f2.8 focal length 50mm as a benchmark. And the result of the sigma is quite dissapointing. (i know zoom lens cant really be compared to primes) But the prime showed a wonderful result while the sigma didn't. But after it reached f4.0 the image is improving rapidly. f5.6 is where the best images can be taken i guess. But sometimes for me, image sharpness is not the main concern. I wanted to have a constant aperture zoom lens in a good bargain. This lens really serves its purpose. But then if you have the budget for the L series. Go for them. Now about the build quality. It is good. No cheap feeling. But to turn the zoom ring,we need a bit of effort since it is not smooth.

Customer Service

never used

Similar Products Used:

some canon L series. Sigma 17-35 EX aspherical f2.8-4 Canon EF 28-90mm f4-5.6 non USM