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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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2
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27388
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12/20/2006
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Recommended By
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Average Purchase
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100% of reviewers
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$975.00
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| Reader Review Rating Averages |
Readers' rating for
Construction Quality
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Readers' rating for
Image Quality
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Readers'
Overall Rating
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9.50
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9.50
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9.50
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xavier
Registered: November 2006
Posts: 12
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Sigma 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 EX OS APO review by xavier
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Review Date: 12/20/2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $950.00| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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sharp and contrasty, optical stabilization, cheap for what you get, great build quality.
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Cons:
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no HSM so slower focus than competition, weight.
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I used this lens for some time while trying to decide which wildlife lens to get for my Canon 10D. I was deciding between this and the 100-400 L IS.
This lens is very attractive for the budget limited wildlife photographer, who wants a flexible lens, that is long range and image stabilization. This kind of lens is perfect w
hen you want not to be static (so tripod may not be very usable and the ability to zoom may help being more reactive).
In use, I found the lens almost perfect. Compared to the 100-400, I liked the twist zoom design much better. The build quality is great so the lens could survive some harsh con
ditions (the downside of this point is the rather important weight, even compared to lenses like the 100-400, which do have a much lower weight, for roughly the same build quality).
The optical quality is great. It is not as good as the 100-400, but not that far. The main difference I found has to do with colors: the colors out of the Sigma are a little le
ss saturated than out of the Canon. But this can be fixed easily in post-processing. Regarding to sharpness and contrast, I was very happy with the results I got with this lens
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The main disadvantage I found it to have (and the reason why I returned it and kept the Canon) is the Autofocus. This lens has no internal HSM motor and focuses slower than the 100-400 and than my Sigma 70-200 EX... It is not extremely slow but for flying birds, it will be difficult to get it to track. For static subjects, it would definetely be fine, but for fast action, you may probably want for more... But at the price, it is difficult to complain!
Highly recommended despite the lack of HSM! This is another great lens by Sigma!
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Larry Ingram
Registered: April 2006
Posts: 3
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Sigma 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 EX OS APO review by Larry Ingram
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Review Date: 4/2/2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $1,000.00| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Very sharp images, good auto focus and built to last
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Cons:
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None I know of yet, it's heavy, but I expected that.
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I bought the new DG version of this lens just over a week ago, hoping that the image stabilizer would help me get relatively sharp shots while hand holding. Due to age I am not as steady as I once was, plus because we now all can see our images in great detail on computer screens I am now much more aware of camera shake than I used to be. Well it's fair to say this lens blew me away, the images from my first batch of test shots were way beyond my highest expectations. I am using it on a Canon 20D which makes the lens become a 128-640 in relative terms due to the sensor size. Rather than go into details here I will list the link to the message on the sister forum of this where I have uploaded several as shot full resolution images, which you can download & evaluate yourself, plus another regular there has posted some similar shots using his Canon 100-400 L lens for an accurate comparison. I am still trying to learn how to hold it correctly, this is one of the bigest & heaviest lenses I have ever owned by a big factor. (recently also bought the Sigma 50-500 which is similar in size & weight).
http://www.photo-forums.com/WebX?50@40.g2utb7vNRNj.0@.eea24b8/0
Hope this is helpful to anyone considering this lens.
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