Living in Japan certainly has its pros and cons. If you love cameras there are many pros. Japan is a land of technology and when it comes to cameras, there are limitless options and opportunities. I wanted to get a more versatile lens than the Nikon D5100 kit lens AF-S 18-55 f3.5-5.6 VR but without spending too much money. All it took was about 15 minutes of browsing second hand camera sites online to find a used Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM Lens which was going for just barely over 200.00. Buying any used lens can sometimes be the luck of the draw. You never know what you are getting as quality control is never guaranteed especially with second hand lenses. However at just over 200.00 I thought the Sigma would be worth a try. I’ve called this a review, but it really is more of an introduction to this lens and what I like about it as well as a few sample pictures.
Things that really drew me to the Sigma were its range, 17mm on the wide end which translates into about 25.5mm with the D5100’s 1.5x crop factor and 70mm on the long end (or 105mm with the crop factor). Secondly its speed, f2.8 at the wide end and f4.0 at 70mm. While I would love to have a constant f2.8 though the entire range, that equals a lot more money and if at 70mm, f4.0 can be sharp, I’d be pretty happy. It’s been pouring the last few days outside due to the typhoon so I shot various pictures indoors all wide open at different focal lengths to check out the performance of the D5100 and Sigma combo. At 17mm and wide open at f2.8 as you see in the image above, it is a bit soft but quite acceptable. There is a bit of vignetting but its really not that noticeable. Even at 17mm which typically is not a strong focal length to show of bokeh, the out of focus areas look pretty darn smooth. This is probably thanks to the fact that the lens is also a Macro lens, allowing much closer minimal shooting distance. By minimizing the distance between the camera and the subject you can maximize bokeh. (you can also maximize the distance between the subject and its background)
The Sigma features HSM or their Hyper Sonic Motor for auto focusing. This means the lens has its own built in motor allowing it to work on cameras that don’t have in body focus mechanisms. HSM is a ring type ultrasonic motor which is practically silent and pretty fast. I’ve been very happy with its focus speeds even in low light indoors. Moving through the zoom range at 33mm above and still wide open (f3.2 is the fastest it gets at 33mm) the image seems to sharpen up a touch (which it should hopefully) and the vignetting is all but gone. This lens is really looking promising.
The above picture was taken at 70mm and wide open at f4.0. Typically most lenses will suffer at their longest length and at 70mm and f4.0, it actually looks a teeny bit softer than the image at 33mm above it. But its still pretty sharp and I think stopping down the lens will definitely increase its sharpness. The final standout feature which drew me to this lens is that it is equipped with Sigma’s OS or Optical Stabilization. OS compensates for camera shake and can really come in handy at longer focal lengths and slower shutter speeds. This allows sharper pictures in lower light hand held. Sigma claims this allows the photographer to shoot 4 stops slower than usual and still get a sharp picture.
I love the lens so far even though I’ve really only shot indoors since I’ve gotten it. I can’t wait to get outside with this Sigma and really tap is range by shooting both landscapes and people with it as well as more Macro. I hope to try it out this weekend at Mobara’s Tanabata Matsuri (festival). Here are a few more macro shots from indoors plus one slightly higher iso1400 pic at f8 (pretty sharp! and clean!) as well as the obligatory dog shot.
I’ve also picked up a Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8 and I’m eyeing a 70-200 f2.8 as my longer range zoom. Stay tuned!
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UPDATE: I thought I would try shooting with Optical Stabilization OFF as I’ve read in many forums that different stabilization technologies can in fact reduce sharpness. I also stopped down the lens a bit and yes its a lot sharper. It looks like I should go with no OS unless I’m forced to use slow shutter speeds as it appears sharper without it.
It’s so soft to the point of being out of focus-bokeh. Which is a shame, because I have several Sigma lenses that are quite good. But I’ll pass on this one.
Its not uncommon for any brand lens to be soft wide open… The ones above are straight from the camera, no sharpening or editing of any kind. I’d be more worried if it was a 800.00 lens.
Feel free to email me full res files of your sigma images shot wide open.
They don’t look so bad to me. The softness is to be expected wide open. Do 100% crops on pretty much any lens wide open and you’re likely to get some softness. Otherwise the color rendition and bokeh is actually looks pretty good from this lens.
GT, since I always respect your comments (no matter how extreme (^_^). I thought I would shoot the lens again, this time I stopped down and tried turning off the Optical Stabilization… low and behold it is indeed sharper and sure makes those wide open shots looks oft as you said. Updated the post with a shot with no OS.
@gocchin:
Hmmmmmm…….. hmmmmmm……… i dunno. Wide open, you should be still be able to get a decent amount of focus point even with extremely shallow depth of field. What concerns me is that this one is very soft at the very point on which you’re focusing. I don’t think it’s my eyes ;-p but seriously, I think it’s on the softer side than I expected – especially seeing that it is geared as a Macro lens too, that’s what concerns me. I think it should be a tad crisper. Yeah I know it’s a short zoom lens, I know it’s not a prime, but you’re getting enough light, the bokeh on the DOF is OK, but at the focus point, I just can’t believe it to be this soft. Seriously.
The shot with OS off does make the wide open ones look a lot softer when you compare. I took a few shots outdoors as well of people in brighter sunlight and they were much sharper so inconsistent for sure.
I’ll just ask my buddies at sigma to fine tune the lens a bit. As I said you never know what you get when you buy used.
@gocchin:
I’m only saying it because your shots with the Sony NEX that you did were much sharper in very similar conditions, obviously – it’s the same object too – that’s why when I look at these shots here, I feel like it’s not even focused.