Sigma AF 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG macro reviews

Greetings


This seemed like the best place for this discussion. Apologies if it's not.


I was looking around for a decent quality, fast mid range zoom to replace the kit lens I got with my 60d (the 18-55mm), which is fairly rubbish. I happened upon reviews for the Sigma which made it sound pretty good. Like here for example. Pretty darn good actually. So I checked with TDP's account and Oh, not so great. The sharpness test images are quite damning at wide open. This was perplexing. Both sites I consider very thorough and reliable and seem to generally agree on a lot of lenses. I know it's too much to expect the second coming of lenses for 500 bucks. But I looked around a bit more and found that reviews of this particular Sigma are pretty variable (although sometimes I wonder if they're talking about the same lens and not the similarly named ones in Sigma's range).


Maybe this lens has had a bit of a quality assurance problem. I was wondering if anyone has tried it themselves and had an opinion.


cheers

I started out with the Sigma AF 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG. I was very disapointed in how soft my images were. I replaced it with the Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD IF.


The Tamron is a much better lens IMO.


Mark

Hi Muz,


I don

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Originally Posted by jks_photo

his complains were with lens flare and images being soft.....
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I forgot to mention this. The lens flare is really bad with the Sigma. The Tamron resist lens flare better than any lens I have used.


Mark

The 17-40mm is not a very good lens for 1.6 crop cameras, it was designed for full-frame and does not behave itself on a smaller sensor. The Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is a sharper lens than the 17-40mm and has f/2.8 and cheaper. Bryan has a good review on it.


John

I have the Sigma 24-70 (well at least for a few more days, selling it right now on Ebay). My main complaint with it is that it is too long for my APS-C camera. I didn

Thanks a lot folks.


I should really broaden my brand shopping horizons a little more. The Tamron does sound good and is going pretty cheap at the moment.


Do I -need- 2.8? Well I shoot a fair bit of low budget video and experience has shown that you need to get the most out of a limited lighting rig any way you can. Plus since I got the 60D I noticed opportunity and habit have meant that I

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Originally Posted by Muz

Do I -need- 2.8?
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2.8 or faster is always a plus though your 60D has pretty good high ISO performance. I really like my 50 1.4 for low light. I also have the Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD. It is a little longer than the 17-55 and is not quite wide enough for your 60D but also excelant.


Mark

Muz


Welcome to the forum. I just looked at your profile and see you are in Perth. I live in Texas but had the privilege of visiting Perth a little over a year ago. My wife and I stayed in Mandurah for two weeks. Loved your country and hope to come again someday.


Cheers


Mark

Mark did you go to the Little Creatures Brewery at Fremantle? Best Sunday session in the country as far as I

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Originally Posted by btaylor

Mark did you go to the Little Creatures Brewery at Fremantle? Best Sunday session in the country as far as I'm concerned. Perth's a nice place - much more appealing than this dust bowl.... Big Smile

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No, had not heard of it. I did visit the prison at Fremantle. Our favorite place we visited was Cape Naturaliste. That is where I saw my first kangaroo in the wild and we also saw migrating whales.

My wife got to hold a koala @ Marapona if I am remembering how it was spelled.


Cheers


Mark

Ah very nice. The West Coast is a very nice part of the country.

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Originally Posted by clemmb

That is where I saw my first kangaroo in the wild

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You probably don't want to know what I do with roos on my days off... when I'm not shooting the camera, I'm shooting something else [A]

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Originally Posted by btaylor

. when I'm not shooting the camera, I'm shooting something else [img]/emoticons/emotion-13.gif[/img]
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Me [:D] [B]


My wife [:(]

Hey folks.


Yeah Mandurah is pretty fancy these days. I remember when it was a sleepy fishing village (when I was like 9, which wasn

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Originally Posted by Muz

Good to hear we're well regarded elsewhere. It's not a bad place, all told (even though its a bit too hot for me at the moment. Seems to happen every year around this time. You'd think I'd learn)


Anyway, the Tamron is on order
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Yes, it was pretty worm when I was there. Loved everything but the bloody flies. When I was there you had more flies than a barn[:|]. Heres a couple of shots of the beach at Mandurah.


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[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/800x600/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/0081.IMG_5F00_0036.JPG[/img]


Let us know how you like the Tamron


Cheers


Mark

btaylor


Hope you are far enough in the outback to miss the flooding[:D]. They said the flooding cover an area the size of Texas. Thats hard to believe.


Mark

Yeah Mark we're too far West at the moment for the flooding, It's mostly toward the coast around 1000km East of here. It's been really tough for a lot of people. The 2008-2009 wet season (Dec - Feb) was nearly as bad. A lot of homes were lost and a number of the big mining operations were inundated with flood water. The company I work for has just given $1 million to the flood appeal and I'm sure others will follow suit - it's going to cost a lot more than that though to get people back on track.


The pic below is of a dragline that was flooded in during this time as they were trying to walk it out of the pit. To put things in perspective, the boom at the front of the machine is around 80-100m long, the cab (which is under water) sits around 20m off the ground, and they cost $150 million.


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/0410.RMB_5F00_11_2D00_02_2D00_2010_5F00_ROP_5F00_0 9_5F00_ensham_5F00_dragline_5F00_fct489x301_5F00_t 325.jpg[/img]


We should be ok where we are but it hasn't hit us yet. The Gulf of Carpentaria to the North of us generally gets a huge wet season every year. It's really tough for the graziers up there because they lose a lot of cattle and infrastructure if the floodwaters get too high.


My girlfriend works as a teacher for School of the Air. It's a distant education school for the kids on the cattle stations that are too far from a town to attend a normal school. She's a field officer, which means she is constantly travelling to the various stations to spend time with the kids. She was at a station last year in the Northern Territory around 800 kms North - West of here and they had to a keep the gate into the back yard (which was pretty much under water) closed because they woke up one morning, looked out the kitchen window and there was a 4.5m saltwater crocodile sitting at the back door [:O] Crazy stuff!!!


I think I'll be ok anyway, right now I'm 1500m underground. If the water starts coming I'll just get in a big tyre inner tube or something and float to the surface. Surely that'll work [:D]


Cheers, Ben.

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Originally Posted by btaylor

I think I'll be ok anyway, right now I'm 1500m underground. If the water starts coming I'll just get in a big tyre inner tube or something and float to the surface. Surely that'll work [img]/emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img]

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Hehe make sure you make nice footage. A time-lapse would be nice [;)]


Thanks for the picture Ben, It's hard to imagine that amount of water and that amount of flooded area. That machine is huge! And so are the crocs [:|]


Mark, if you think it's hard to imagine Texas being entirely under water....My entire country would probable beX many times flooded bythen [A]





Muz, I happen to be a very satisfied former-owner of the Tamron 17-50 and it's a great performer. And when you look at the price it turns a smile on your face for sure. Enjoy it [:D]

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Originally Posted by Jan Paalman

if you think it's hard to imagine Texas being entirely under water....My entire country would probable beX many times flooded bythen [img]/emoticons/emotion-13.gif[/img]



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We still think of Texas as a country in itself.[:D]


I have never been to the Netherlands. Sure hope to someday.[:)]. I am sure it is a beutiful country.


Mark

Hey folks


Still here, just off playing with my toys most of the time.


Apologies for the flies, btw. They do get pretty bad in certain spots in the summer (mostly inland, fortunately). I think on the beach they really enjoy the washed up kelp and so on that accumulates.


Anyway, I haven't really put it through its paces but the new Tamron is mighty fine. Mostly I've just been around the garden or videoing musos in unremarkable ways, but the first few snaps I looked at I blinked thinking there was an outline drawn around certain features. So new was this level of sharpness to me, compared to the kit jobbie at least (which is a little sad when you think about it, both regarding me and what stuff Canon will ship with their otherwise fine equipment).


Anyhow, a quick garden grab for laughs


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_S...0/IMG_1153.JPG





It's not a macro exactly, but focuses at a reported 27cm (as I'm sure you know) which works out to about 19cm from the front of the lens. Great for this sort of thing.


Thanks for the advice all.

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Originally Posted by Muz

Apologies for the flies, btw. They do get pretty bad in certain spots in the summer (mostly inland, fortunately). I think on the beach they really enjoy the washed up kelp and so on that accumulates.



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I have never seen so many flies as I did in Mandurah. My wife and I were covered up with them just walking on the beach. Other than the flies we loved WA. Hopefully next time we'll come in the flies off season.


Mark

Glad you like your Tamron Muz! I know I enjoyed mine when I had it[H]