Sigma Picture Machine
Most likely question you'll be asking yourself is what is this lens like wide-open at 300mm? Will the centre give me crisp prints at commercial standard 300dp, up to A3? Will I get sharp, big screen-filling images at screen resolution? I've been pointing this lens at anything and everything for a couple of weeks, and my conclusion is a big 'yes it can' on both counts. I'm not shy of using it at f2.8, at any focal length. AF is quick. Think loads quicker than the older Nikon 300mm f2.8 AF-D (which was really too slow to be of much use for action stuff a dozen years ago!). Think, more like the vastly better AF-S Nikkor. Only the Nikkors don't zoom. AF is accurate. If you choose camera AF-Patterns and dynamics to suit your target. If you don't , yes you'll get no-shot allowed, or 'shoot anyway' blurs, but it's no good blaming the lens! Just like all shallow DOF (Big F, little f) photography. Bokeh is smooth, no sharp edges, and the O.O.F colours are nicely desaturated/low contast. Unavoidable highlights are nice soft 'splodges' rahter than recognisable polygons. Big point, bokeh might be 80% of the shot some times, so you want it subdued, nothing distracting going on in there! Mine is the earlier non-Optically Stabilised version. If you are shooting fast moving subjetcs at high shutter speeds then OS isn't going to help you anyway. On, off or no switch inclded! If you want to be able to hand-hold the lens at slow shutter-speeds, and largely static subjets, then look for the later lenses with OS in the name. I don't fancy my chances at hand-holding this lens for long at all actually. It's spectacularly heavy. Monopod job, once you've lugged it to the location, for me. My personal view/opinion is that this is a lens that will go on churning out real-world pictures simply all day long. Build quality is excellent. Blows the idea that third-party lenses feel 'junky'. This feels industrial grade. It's changed what I previously thought a zoom can do compared to a prime. If we go peering at every inch of a shot at pixel-level, then the prime will have an advantage in sheer resolution, at f2.8 true. But the gap isn't that much at all anymore. And most signifcantly, that's not how we shoot or view pictures. By f5.6 it's hard to imagine sharper, by the way. Tight head-shots at f4.0 to 5.6 are truly superb, if you can get enough camera-model-background distance. That was a nice bonus for me. Nice one Sigma. I like this lens a lot. Must addd a quick thanks to previous owner, my copy was obviously used (and I can see why!), but optically and mechanically kept in A1 condition.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned