Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 Sport Review - 02/02/14
Some time ago there was some discussion about this lens and I thought since I've had mine for a little more than 6 weeks I'd offer some comments;
1) It is a heavy SOB -- with the tripod mount it's 9+ pounds.
2) The finish is super and appears to be very durable.
3) The lens hood is big, sturdy (heavy) and mates up with the body easily.
4) I shoot a Nikon D3s and after shooting 3 or 4 soccer games I wasn't really happy - the size and weight of the lens thru off my timing and I was missing shots -- and shooting wide-open at f2.8 -- resulted in a lot of out-of-focus shots.
I'm not a rocket scientist but after thinking about it for awhile I got out the directions on the SB Port that allows you to adjust how the lens goes about focusing and that helped solve the problem, As shipped, the lens was set for the lowest speed of focusing - in my defense I thought they would ship a lens designed for sports at the fastest focusing speed possible but I should have checked.
This helped quite a bit but still more out-of-focus shots that I like - so I bit the bullet and changed to using a single-point for focusing and I dropped the frame-rate down to 7 frames-per-second - and I'm back in the saddle again, It's still a heavy SOB.
Almost forgot! The depth-of-field at f2,8 is so shallow if I had 3 girls in a shot there was a good chance, no matter how close they stood the one in the middle would be in focus and the one's in front and behind would be slightly out of focus do I now shoot a f4 and I'm happy.
5) Image Quality - Couldn't be happier! My medium lens is a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR II and the new Sigma is a worthy companion in my camera bag --- if the Nikon has an unworldly IQ, the Sigma, while not quite there, is really -- yes, really much closer than I expected. If the Nikon scores a 100 -- the Sigma is in the very high 90's.
6) I also bought the Sigma 1.4 TC (mounted it onto the lens and used the SB Port to adjust it) and went shooting -- the only thing I think I've noticed - need more experience to be sure - the only real difference I see is the initial focus appears to be a little slower than without the TC -- but I want more time with it.
This isn't a lens you're going to want to carry around and try to hand-hold - a good monopod is almost essential.
I don't have any problem strongly recommending it to anyone who can afford to spend more than $3500 (the lens, plus the USB modifier and a 1.4 TC).
The images are just super.
1) It is a heavy SOB -- with the tripod mount it's 9+ pounds.
2) The finish is super and appears to be very durable.
3) The lens hood is big, sturdy (heavy) and mates up with the body easily.
4) I shoot a Nikon D3s and after shooting 3 or 4 soccer games I wasn't really happy - the size and weight of the lens thru off my timing and I was missing shots -- and shooting wide-open at f2.8 -- resulted in a lot of out-of-focus shots.
I'm not a rocket scientist but after thinking about it for awhile I got out the directions on the SB Port that allows you to adjust how the lens goes about focusing and that helped solve the problem, As shipped, the lens was set for the lowest speed of focusing - in my defense I thought they would ship a lens designed for sports at the fastest focusing speed possible but I should have checked.
This helped quite a bit but still more out-of-focus shots that I like - so I bit the bullet and changed to using a single-point for focusing and I dropped the frame-rate down to 7 frames-per-second - and I'm back in the saddle again, It's still a heavy SOB.
Almost forgot! The depth-of-field at f2,8 is so shallow if I had 3 girls in a shot there was a good chance, no matter how close they stood the one in the middle would be in focus and the one's in front and behind would be slightly out of focus do I now shoot a f4 and I'm happy.
5) Image Quality - Couldn't be happier! My medium lens is a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR II and the new Sigma is a worthy companion in my camera bag --- if the Nikon has an unworldly IQ, the Sigma, while not quite there, is really -- yes, really much closer than I expected. If the Nikon scores a 100 -- the Sigma is in the very high 90's.
6) I also bought the Sigma 1.4 TC (mounted it onto the lens and used the SB Port to adjust it) and went shooting -- the only thing I think I've noticed - need more experience to be sure - the only real difference I see is the initial focus appears to be a little slower than without the TC -- but I want more time with it.
This isn't a lens you're going to want to carry around and try to hand-hold - a good monopod is almost essential.
I don't have any problem strongly recommending it to anyone who can afford to spend more than $3500 (the lens, plus the USB modifier and a 1.4 TC).
The images are just super.