Sigma Reviews

I purchased this sigma 170-500mm lens about 2 mos ago, and was very impressed with it from the start! The lens has a good feel to it! not very heavy, but well built! The only thing I would change is the manual focus ring! it is a bit loose and hard to micro adjust! after about a week of practice, I think I have mastered it. Now the important part! picture quality! I have used this lens to photograph birds, deer, seals, and zoo animals, every time the pics came out clear and sharp even at the edges. I sometimes use a Kenko 2X converter to bring my zoom to 1000mm and still get sharp pics! I've owned Canon lenses in the past and was very happy with them also, but Sigmas photo quality is very close if not eaqual to any comprable canon lens! why pay 2-3-4 times more??? I curently own 4 sigma lenses "20-70mm, 28-105mm, 70-300mm, and 170-500mm" and am very happy with all 4 lenses! the true test will be when you strap it onto you canon,nikon, or any oter camera you own and see for yourself.

I'm photographing wildlife as a hobby for about 6 years now and before this lens I used the regular 70-300 zoom lens and due to budget I could'nt buy any of the brand's telephotos until I found this lens ,at first I was suspicious because it seems too cheap for a 500mm lens but this was before I received my first photos and transparencies from the lab because it turned out to be way better than I could ever imagine, the photos were great, very nice color and contrast, not to mention the depth of field of a telephoto which is very shallow and makes the main object very strong ,the image comes with a very nice blurred background and a very shrp main objects ,image wise this lens is very good (not only for the price range )and the only drawback is the slow auto focus . Anyway, this lens forces the use of a sturdy tripod so you should take it in account. after about a year with this lens I can say that I'm more than satisfied ,there is no match for it in the price range