Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: Jeremy Roussak on August 16, 2013, 02:05:52 pm
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Anyone tried this (the newish one, with IS)? Any thoughts? It's a lot cheaper, and with a little more range than the Canon 100-400. I'd be using it with a 5d2, at least initially, mostly for wildlife.
Jeremy
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Everything is of course relative, but a friend of mine has one and he seems quite happy with it. I'll ask him for his thoughts, but he's away at the moment.
Mike.
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I have had the newer OS version for a couple of years and have found it to be a very good lens. I shoot Nikon, so it's been paired with a D300, D700, D7000 and most recently with my primary body, the D800.
It's not a fast lens, nor, from a Nikon user standpoint, optically on par with their new 80-400 but with greater range and $1,000 less, one really has to want the Nikkor. As I already have the Sigma, I've so far passed on the 80-400, at least until the price comes down. If discounted enough, I imagine NAS would kick in!
I suspect that better optics is true with Canon's 100-400 as well but I cannot say that from personal experience and again, the Sigma has more range and a better price point.
Given decent light though, I've found the auto focus to be very responsive and the OS is worth 3 stops (+/- 1/2 stop).
At approx. 4 pounds, it's not light or small but its versatility and generally good optics are unmatched by any other lens that I'm aware of, especially at that price point.
I hope this helps,
Phil
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when I look at B&H prices the "new" Bigma and 100-400 are virtually the same price. I have a lot of experience with the 100-400 on crop and FF Canon's and am pretty satisfied with the FF results (5D2 &3) up to 17x27 prints but generally don't expect to print larger than 13x19 from crop frame.
i'm pretty skeptical of anything with a 10:1 zoom ratio, but Roger at lensrentals.com gives the Sigma a thumbs up. i'd also be concerned with lens - lens variation (which was an issue with earlier 100-400s but seems to be resolved) with the 10:1 zoom.
it looks like the 100-400 is finally going to be replaced within the next year or so, but i'd expect the successor to carry a higher price along with improved IQ