Sigma 24-70 Lens Test

cyKey

cyKey

cyKey

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Seeing some samples of the lens I decided to buy it and take it for a spin. I wanted a new lens with a better depth of field than my 28-105 f/3.5-4.x.

The following pictures are what made me buy the lens. They might have been sharpened so they're not 100% accurate. This is more of a "What can be achieved with the lens" sorta thing.

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The following shots are straight out of the camera using my 10D and the 24-70 @ f/2.8.

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I notice that the lens might not be soft but the depth of field is so shallow that the model is getting blurred. I'm going to attempt to fix this. I'll also post some shots with the 50mm for comparison.

Update: It seems to be quite sharp as I'm having trouble remembering which shot is the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 when I do the tests. So I've set the Sigma to 48mm, by accident. That's helping me keep tabs on the lenses.
 
Some more tests.

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Its so tricky trying to get the perfect focus so you can get the perfect sharp shot. It does seem like the Sigma is softer than the 50mm however that could just be me breathing :shrug: Either way, applying a smart sharpen after seems to level things out.

Sharpness aside the lens is a lot quicker than I had previously thought. Its at least as fast as the 50mm. I'm not sure how well it will perform at gigs. HSM/USM is such a helping hand there. Its got a weight to it and its not a small lens. I'll have to nip out and do some street photography with it tomorrow.
 
That first one could do with a bit of HDR ;)

The Sigma is supposed to be a very good lens indeed, I'm sure we'll be seeing some good results from you with it.
 
So glad you've posted this sir - I'm rather torn between the Sigma 24-70 and the Tokina 28-70[or 80]!

The Tamron 28-75 isn't an option for me - build quality is important to me, and the Tamron just don't cut it there.
I may get the Nikkor 35-70 if I can get a good deal on one.

Regardless, I recently had a Tokina 28-70 and it was a lovely lens - unfortunately there were focusing issues at the wider end, so it had to go back. Am now kind of torn between another copy of that or the Sigma 24-70!
 
hoodmeister said:
The Tamron 28-75 isn't an option for me - build quality is important to me, and the Tamron just don't cut it there.
Click to expand...

I would say the Tamron 28-75 build quality is very similar to most nikkor lenses ranging from £150-400.

The zoom ring is tad bit stiffer, which I like it more.
 
cyKey, I was having problems with this lens shooting stuff on f2.8 as the DOF seems to be quite small as well. I'm not experienced enough yet to master it, but I get variable sharpness when I'm taking shots at 2.8, probably just me breathing and moving. It does wonders with a tripod though :)

Be good to see how you get on with it...
 
nolimit said:
I would say the Tamron 28-75 build quality is very similar to most nikkor lenses ranging from £150-400.

The zoom ring is tad bit stiffer, which I like it more.
Click to expand...

I've tried the Tamron, it's really great as far as IQ goes, but it just wasn't built for me.
 
Yea, it will prove to be a far superior lens to your old 28-105, good choice.

You will notice that the sharpness difference between wide open and stopped down (say f/5.6 onwards) is actually quite large on the Sigma 24-70mm. At f/2.8 it is quite soft really. But perfectly usable, and quite comparable to the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. (edit, such as the shot of the Asian ladies at f/2.8 ...even though its resized it looks nice n sharp).

What boggles my mind is why Sigma still haven't put a HSM motor in the auto focus mechanism. The focus is quick, but very noisy, and there's no manual focus override (just a cumbersome two step process to engage MF...)

:confused:

- oh, and the other thing I wanted to mention is that quite a few people on forums seem to get 'bad' copies with front/back focus issues. I received a unit that was out of calibration also, so if anyone has problems with this lens it might be worth giving it a focus test.
 
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Samiad said:
What boggles my mind is why Sigma still haven't put a HSM motor in the auto focus mechanism. The focus is quick, but very noisy, and there's no manual focus override (just a cumbersome two step process to engage MF...)
Click to expand...

Probably because it would be hard to engineer and also costly to buy.
 
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Cool ta. I'll do that tomorrow.

Some random flower shots to test the "Macro" facility. These have been sharpened and auto levelled in Photoshop.

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