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Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM - To Buy or Not?

Well it finally arrived! I say finally because B&H will sometimes delay a larger invoice by what seems to be a day or two and of course they're in New York and I'm in Washington so it takes a while. Another great transaction with B&H though. Good company.

To the lens...Thought I'd take some time to describe this one as there's not a lot of reviews here for the Macro version yet.

This Sigma doesn't disappoint in build quality. It's heavy, solid, tank like. Much like all the other EX's I own it's very well built. The hood attaches smoothly and easily. The lens cap goes on a touch harder than a Canon lens cap but it's not really even worth complaining about. The tripod ring is a nice feature to have included with your 70-200 and the carrying case is nice with a longer strap included for over-the-shoulder carrying. The 70-200 + 30D + battery grip is nicely balanced. Anyone who has concerns with the 24-70 in regards to weight will have issues. I think it's fine to handhold, no issues. But keep in mind, it's heavy and there's a lot of glass.

The zoom ring is silky smooth, as is the focus ring. Probably the smoothest of all the EX's I own with the exception of my 10-20. The 70-200 and the 10-20 both have buttery smooth action on the focus and zoom.

AF speed is quick. It feels equally as quick as my 85mm 1.8 when focusing from infinity to 1 meter at a distance of 1 meter.

The unfortunate part is I started communicating a bit before 6am yesterday, and left the shop at 5:30 and had a working lunch. No ducks! So I was only able to snap a couple pics in my office and a couple while waiting for my truck to warm up. Being the rainy season in Washington it was dark as heck by the time I left. I'll try to get out during lunch today to find some wildlife. That being said though, my initial thoughts of IQ are very very good. I see very very good results wide open, at 70mm and at 200. I couldn't test a macro shot because I couldn't hand hold at 200 and zoom in to the 39.4" MFD very well. Macro is a bit of a reach, better to call this one "close up" with it's 1:3.5 ratio. Still, it's nice to use a 7x-xxx lens that is fast, sharp at 2.8, and internally focuses. I would say the 70-200 is sharper at 2.8 than my 70-300 APO is at 5.6, which really shouldn't be a surprise. Very happy with the quality of background blur also.

Very happy with the purchase!

All pics except for the first are 100% crops for ya'll pixel peepers oops, forgot to add...No post processing other than crop and re size via DPP. No sharpening what so ever. All shots are wide open.

Attached Image:

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Tinku
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:19:12 +0000

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