Versatile "swiss-army" lens. Sharper than its Tamron counterpart
Written: Aug 27 '04 (Updated Jan 21 '06)
Product Rating:
Pros: Surprisingly good optics, considering low price and high versatility. Small. Metal mount.
Cons: Like most consumer zooms, sharpness declines above 200mm. Autofocus sometimes temperamental. Not wide on DSLR.
The Bottom Line: Small, cheap, LOTS of zoom, but crop factor takes away wide angle. Sharp up to 200mm, still decent at 300mm. Tamron XR version is a coke bottle by comparison.
tcchou71's Full Review: Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG Macro For Canon
This lens is Sigma's "macro" version, a newer and improved version of their older "compact hyperzoom" 28-300 lens. This lens has half the minimum focus distance, and twice as many low dispersion (2 vs. 1) and aspherical (4 vs. 2) elements than the hyperzoom.
Almost everyone told me to avoid big-range zooms like this. I myself had been disappointed with the Tamron 28-300/3.5-6.3 XR LD lens, which was soft at most focal lengths, and very soft at 300mm. I expected the Sigma to be the same or worse, given that it was also $100 cheaper.
To my huge surprise, the Sigma is optically much better than the Tamron and a really nice lens given its humongous zoom range, decent optics, and $250 price. You might not believe me, but at 200mm or below, sharpness was very close to the Canon 70-200f4L. (I compared them side by side, and both were very good, although of course the Canon is a full stop faster).
I should note that the results you'll get from a Sigma lens are heavily dependent on whether it focuses accurately. Front-focus and back-focus problems, particularly with Canon cameras, are the achilles heel of Sigma lenses. My copy of this lens focuses accurately, but I have had other Sigma lenses that did not, most recently the Sigma 18-200. (You can see my review of the 18-200 here http://www.epinions.com/content_185158569604). And even though my copy of the 28-300 focuses accurately, it hunts more than my Canon lenses, even in bright contrasty situations.
Another important point about the 28-300 lens is that I'm talking about its performance on a camera with a 1.6x crop factor. Hence, the weakest part of the lens (edge performance at 28mm) is cropped away, leaving the relatively good center region.
Optical performance
This lens is surprisingly sharp at all focal lengths, including 300mm, although it does decline noticeably there. There is also some mild red-green chromatic aberration in the edges, which is worst at 28mm and 300mm, and better at intermediate lengths. But overall, these aberrations are no worse than other consumer zooms with much less range. For example, the red-green CA is actually better than Canon's 17-85 IS lens, and purple fringing is better than every Canon budget zoom I've tried (18-55, 17-85 IS, and 75-300).
At 300mm, even though sharpness declines a bit, I've still gotten good 8.5"x11" prints after a little sharpening in Photoshop. This was a pleasant surprise after the Tamron, which was painfully fuzzy and dreamy at 300mm wide open. The Sigma lens wide open at 300mm is actually sharper than the Tamron XR at 300mm stopped down to f10!! The Sigma lens also boasts a metal mount, whereas the Tamron's is plastic.
Even at its weakest spot, 300mm, I'm surprised how well this lens compares to other consumer zooms with far less zoom range. I've compared it to the Canon 75-300 series, and surprisingly the Sigma is optically better - sharpness is similar, while purple fringing around bright objects is much less. And the purple fringing that does occur can be removed with this free Photoshop plugin:
http://www.sd3.info/pf828/
Macro
This lens' closest focusing distance is about 20". Although not the shortest in the business, it's shorter than every other lens I've found that reaches 300mm, excepting the Tamron 28-300 which is equivalent. Very handy for closeups, and adds to this lens' "swiss-army knife" versatility.
Focus is accurate, but occasionally hunts like crazy
My copy of the lens focused very accurately on my Canon rebel 300D, although your mileage may vary, as I noted above. However, focus speed was merely OK - good enough for most things, but not for fast moving things like flying birds. I have gotten decent photos of flying birds with this lens, but I generally have to use manual focus.
And there is one more autofocus problem: about 5-10% of the time the autofocus would hunt back and forth like crazy, even with high-contrast objects in bright daylight. When it happens I have to switch to manual focus for one shot, then switch back, and things are usually OK again. But this is one thing that bugs me about this lens - I never known when the autofocus is going to go nuts. It is especially likely in bright sunny conditions, and at the widest end (28mm) which is very odd because most lenses focus best in those situations.
The crop factor
My other major complaint is that 28mm is not very wide given the DSLR's crop factor (28mm x 1.6 = 45mm). This is a big problem if you use the lens in city streets or indoors - you will find yourself unable to back up far enough to get the shot you want. It is less of a problem outdoors where subjects are often farther away, but still I would like to have a real wide angle for landscapes.
To get the wide angle, the Sigma 18-200 is an obvious alternative, but I have not been able to get one that focuses accurately at 200mm for distant objects (and I've tried 3 copies). This is quite disappointing, as the 18-200 is otherwise very similar to the 28-300 lens, and also sharper than its Tamron 18-200 counterpart.
Fooling the camera
Although this lens is f6.3 at 300mm, it reports f5.6 to the camera in order to retain autofocus. This makes photos a tiny bit darker than expected, but it's not a big deal, and can be corrected later if needed. Interestingly, the Sigma 18-200 somehow manages to report f6.3, while retaining autofocus on my Canon DSLRs (300D and 350D). (Now if only it would focus accurately).
Despite its shortcomings, this lens has been very handy for me. I originally gave it 5 stars for its value, but have downgraded it to 4 only because other zoom lenses have become available that also give you wide-angle ability with the crop-factor (Canon 17-85, and Sigma/Tamron 18-200 lenses). Still, for $250 you get surprisingly decent optics given its enormous range and small size.
Other lens and camera reviews
In my quest for the ideal set of walk-around and long-zoom lenses, I have used and reviewed the following lenses and cameras:
Canon 100-400 - fast autofocus, good optics make very good wildlife lens. But loses some sharpness at 400mm, and becomes very difficult to use with 1.4x teleconverter.
http://www.epinions.com/content_171720740484
Sigma 18-200 - good optics, versatile range, but my copies misfocus near 200mm (though I can coax it into working with parfocal technique).
http://www.epinions.com/content_185158569604
Sigma 18-125. My first attempt to use a Sigma DC lens. Had front-focus problem at all focal lengths. Did not try a second copy as I switched to 18-200.
http://www.epinions.com/content_152606051972
Sigma 28-300. My first lens for my Canon 300D, purchased before Sigma released any DC lenses. It was pretty good considering its wide range, and focused quite accurately. But 28mm isn't very wide on a DSLR.
http://www.epinions.com/content_153463459460
Digital Camera reviews
I have also used a handful of small digicams, in my quest to find the perfect travel pocket camera. Here are my reviews:
Ricoh Caplio R3 - my favorite small camera, with its 7x optical zoom, 28mm wide angle, astonishingly small size, very good image color and detail, image stabilization, and voice recorder mode. But the camera doesn't do much in-camera noise-reduction, so you should get NeatImage or Noise Ninja along with this camera.
http://www.epinions.com/content_217558847108
Compact, high-performance zoom lens Aspherical lens element corrects distortion Minimum focusing distance of 50 centimeters Focal length from 28 to 30...More at Amazon
Compact high performance zoom lens with a 10.7x high zoom ratio, 28 to 300-millimeter focal length Special low dispersion glass and aspherical lenses ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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