I got my Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens today, and now I'm feeling sad. The image performance really wasn't up to my expectations. My 18-55 kit lens is sharper. The new lens feels nice and operates fast, and seems really good until you take a photo with it. The images are super soft, to the extent that at it's worst, it's quite noticeable in a 640 pixel wide image.
Well, it's not all bad. At f8, it actually produces pretty sharp images, but f5.6 and below get progressively worse, at all focal lengths. Interestingly, 200mm is the best of the lot, which is contrary to what all the reviews say. I'm fairly picky, but I'd say 2.8 is pretty unusable at any focal length. f4.0 is maybe just usable for small prints - no cropping. It has the new macro focus function down to 1m, but it all seems worse close up, and that's just useless at anything less than f8.
At times, the focus looks on, but it also has the problem where light areas bleed into the dark area, giving total mush. This is worst wide open, for sure.
It's an ebay purchase, from a private seller, so I don't know yet if they'll take it back.
Anyone got experience with Sigma servicing? Were your problems resolved? Will my new expensive lens ever match up to the IQ of my kit lens?
Message edited by author 2007-05-04 10:02:27. |
