Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM Optical Stabilised Telephoto Lens Nikon Fit

Product Information

As of this writing in late November, 2006, we've tested only two other lenses having the same focal length range as this one, only one of which shared its f/2.8 maximum aperture. We can thus make only limited comparisons between this model and others on the market, but hope to flesh out our test data in this focal length range more in the future. Autofocus speed is a little on the slow side, compared to Canon USM lenses. This lens could also benefit from a focus limiter (which many 70-200 zooms have). But this is a reasonable issue, given the price of the lens.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG OS Lens - Photo Review Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG OS Lens - Photo Review

Diving right in, this lens turns in superb full frame corner-to-corner performance wide open at 70mm. I have also not hesitated to say that I am a fan of what Sigma is doing with the Global Vision lineup. At 200mm, the wide open center-of-the-frame performance is not quite as good, but this lens is still performing at least nearly as good as the best from an overall perspective. Differentiating between the zoom and focus rings is easy (even with gloves on) thanks to the large space between them and the tapered slope found in the center of the substantially-sized zoom ring.There is also no reason why artistic images cannot be captured with this lens, and considering it was recently released, it certainly could be considered "contemporary" for a while.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM Optical Stabilised Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM Optical Stabilised

One interesting thing to note is that when the Sigma and Tamron lenses framed our test chart identically at the 200mm mark, the Sigma lens was actually 2.36" (.72m) further away from the chart, indicating that it provides a slightly more telephoto view at 200mm. There's a slight vignette (-2.8EV) at the corners of the frame at f/2.8. It's consistent through the zoom range, and is all but gone at f/4. If you use a Nikon camera, the automatic Peripheral Illumination Correction feature compensates for the vignette when shooting JPGs; I wasn't able to test a Canon-mount version of the lens to see if automatic corrections were available. The points on this sample star are a bit soft and grading that result is of course subjective, but it appears decent looking.

Manuals / Brochures

With this lens, people can be photographed in the home, in the yard, at the beach, at the park, in the studio or at a wide variety of events and venues. The f/2.8 aperture represents the widest aperture available in a 70-200mm zoom lens and, even with the improvements we've seen in contemporary interchangeable lens cameras' high ISO performance, f/2.8 remains the minimum aperture I want to have when photographing indoor activities. Dynamic View Mode, my preference for general purpose photography, provides a beautifully-stabilized viewfinder image and the default Standard mode shows a moderately-stabilized view.