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Sigma,
Nikkor and Other Lenses - Short Reviews
Sigma
manufactures some interesting lenses: some of these don't have
equivalents in the Canon lineup, other ones are particularly
interesting for their excellent performance and low price. Other
than that, I've included the previews of some Nikkor
lenses - even though I use Canon, Nikon and other brand manufacture
some lenses that I'm curiosu to try. The lens that I have personally tried are
linked to a short review.
| Angle |
The
angle of view (degrees) on a fullframe sensor camera. |
| AF |
The
type of autofocus: USM is the real ring-type
ultrasonic motor with
FTM, while LM is the classic lens motor (for more
informations about AF, read the article The
Autofocus). |
| IS |
Image
stabilization (for
more informations about IS, read the article The
Image Stabilization). |
| MFD |
Minimum
focussing distance |
| RR |
Reproduction
ratio |
| WS |
Weather
Sealing |
| Year |
The
year when the lens was introduced. Older lenses are
more likely to be updated. |
| Price |
The
price in US dollars. |
| IMHO |
My opinion about lenses that I have personally
tried; 1/5 is the worst and 5/5 the best. |
Sigma
lenses
Nikkor
lenses
Lens
Previews
I often ask to friends and other photographers to try
their lenses. These are my impressions on some
lenses that I have personally tried: consider them as
previews; they are not
verdicts, because to give the final judgment on a lens it is
necessary to use it for months or years.
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| Chiloe Wigeon -
Canon EOS 20D, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX HSM, 1/750
f/2.8, iso 400, tripod. Captive specimen. |
|
Sigma
50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM
The Sigma 50-500, also know as "Bigma", is a very versatile lens - it has an impressive range (and I can assure that looking into viewfinder when zooming from 50 to 500mm is quite cool!). It has a very good built quality, even tough it lacks of weather sealing. The main physical difference - in comparison with the Canon 100-400 - is the zoom ring instead of the push-pull desing. Usually I prefer the zoom ring, but the 50-500 is one of the few lenses where I'd be happy to see the push-pull design. With the classic zoom ring, it is difficult to zoom rapidly, since it has such wide range of focals. The image quality is relatively good, better than what you might expect from a 10x lens, but it is not on par with the 100-400. The lack of image stabilization makes almost impossible to handhold this lens, in particular at 400 and 500mm; if you buy the 50-500 you should consider a sturdy tripod and a good head. It has the ultrasonic HSM autofocus with full time manual focus, but it is not super fast: it is much slower than the 100-400, even though it is faster than Sigma 130-400 and 170-500. It might be a good choice if you really want the 10x zoom range and you plan to use a tripod all the times, but overall I'd recommend to spend a little more to get the much better Canon 100-400.
Sigma
120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM
The Sigma 120-300 is
one of the few supertele zooms. As usual for Sigma professional
lenses, it is very well built, even though it is not weather proof
as the Canon superteles. The image quality is surprisingly good - it
is almost as good as the Canon 300 f/2.8 IS, even with
teleconverters (by the way, this is one of the few non-Canon lenses
that can be used with the Canon TCs). It is razor sharp even wide
open, and it is still good even with the 2x TC. The zoom makes it
much more versatile than Canon 300 2.8, in particular when you
photograph from an hide and there is not the possibily to change
your position to frame the subject.
The autofocus is pretty
good, but it is not as fast as the AF of Canon 300 2.8, and it
hasn't the focus limiter, so it is more prone to hunt for focus.
Another disadvantage of this lens is the lack of image
stabilization; the Canon 300 2.8 is easily handholdable for wildlife
photography, while the 120-300 requires faster shutter speeds to
handhold and to avoid blur.
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Overall, I think that it is an
excellent lens; it is not perfect as the Canon 300 2.8, but it comes
close, it is more versatile and it is much cheaper. If you want
something more than the 100-400, 400 f/5.6 or 300 f4, but you can't
afford the Canon 300 2.8, I highly recommend the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8
HSM. |
AF
Zoom Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX
The
18-200 is a superzoom designed exclusively for Nikon cameras with
APS-C sensors. Considering the extreme range of focal lenghts and
the relatively low price, I didn't expected much from this lens: I
have been (very) surprised. Physically, it is really small: it is
not much bigger than the Nikkor 18-70 DX, and it is much, much
smaller and lighter than the Canon 28-300 L IS USM. The built
quality is quite good; the AF is very silent, thanks to the
ultrasonic motor, even though it is not super fast. It has the
latest generation of VR - Nikon's image stabilization - that proved
to be extremly effective, I managed to get razor sharp photos
handholding the lens at 200mm with shutter speed of even 1/25 and
1/15!
The image quality is surprisingly good at every
focal lenght. Wide open the sharpness is very good in the center,
while it is a bit softer in the corners, but still good; at f/8 it
is sharp from corner to corner. There is a little of chromatic
aberration, but it is much less than what you can expect from a zoom
with this range, and it can be easily corrected with software.
Overall, my impression is very positive - this is very versatile
lens, that offers a good image quality in spite of the extreme range
and the affordable price. If you want to travel light with an
all-in-one lens, the 18-200 VR is a great choise - it does not give
the image quality of the best prime or zoom lenses, but it is still
pretty good, even for large prints.
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 |
 |
| Nikkor 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR at 18mm f/3.5 |
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 |
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| Nikkor 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR at 200mm f/5.6 |
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The crops above show the image quality
of the lens at the two extremes, 18 and 200mm. Both the photos had
been taken wide open (on Nikon D70s at ISO 400) and are completely
unprocessed, so you see the lens at its weakest - if you stop down a
little there is a noticeable sharpness improvement. Nevertheless,
with a little of post processing you get very good detail even at
f/3.5 and f/5.6 - an impressive performance for such extreme zoom. AF
Zoom Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF-S VR
When I
used Nikon, I had the 70-300 ED zoom lens. It has been one of the
worst lenses that I've ever had - very soft, almost unusable at
300mm, average built quality and slow autofocus. The new 70-300 VR
AFS is an huge improvement: in my opinion, it is the best 70-300 5.6
on the market, even better than the Canon equivalent. The built
quality is far from professional, but still quite good, and
noticeably better than the previous version. The autofocus is much
faster: it has a real ring-type ultrasonic motor, that gives a fast,
silent autofocus, plus full time manual focus. In comparison, the
Canon has a much worse AF; it uses the crappy micro-USM motor, much
slower and without FTM. The latest generation of VR is another big
plus of the Nikkor lens, that makes it much easier to handhold;
according to Nikon, it gives the equivalent of a shutter speed 4
stops faster. You can even choose between a "Normal" VR
mode, for stationary subjects, and "Active", for panning.
|
 |
 |
 |
| 70-300
VR at 300mm f/5.6, unprocessed photo |
100%
crop, unprocessed |
100%
crop, processed |
The image quality is another aspect
that has improved a lot. The 70-300 VR has a quite good sharpness -
it is not as sharp as professional lenses, but still very good -
even wide open at 300mm, it is sharp enough even for large prints,
in particular with a little of post processing to improve contrast
and detail. Last but not least, this lens has a minimum focussing
distance of just 1.5 meters, and 1:4 macro capability, that is
enough for flowers and large butterflies. If you want a good
quality, versatile and not-too-expensive tele zoom lens for your
Nikon camera, the 70-300 VR is a great choice.
Micro-Nikkor
105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR
The Nikkor 105
VR is currently the only macro lens with image stabilization:
accoding to Nikon, the VR II offers up to 4 stop of
stabilization. Other than that, this lens has the ultrasonic
motor - this is the same AF motor used in the professional
superteles as the 300 2.8 AFS VR, even though it is not as
fast. This is not a problem of the Nikkor lens,
all macro lenses have a slow autofocus, due to the wide range
of focussing distances (even the Canon 100 USM and 180 USM
have slow AF).
| The built quality is very
good - it is well built as you expect from a
professional lens, and it is weather sealed.
The image quality is pretty good, in particular if
you stop down a little. The sharpness is fantastic even
wide open at f/2.8 - this is truly a razor sharp lens,
that captures an amazing level of detail. The VR works
vert well and it helps a lot when you handhold the lens;
it is possible to get perfectly sharp photos at
relatively slow shutter speeds. My only complaint about
image quality is chromatic aberration; at wide apertures
there is some CA, in particular in the out of focus
areas with high-contrast subjects.
The main downside of this lens, in my opinion, is the
focal lenght; with a 105mm you have to stray pretty
close to your subject, and you don't have the background
blur of a longer lens (a 200mm AFS VR would be pretty
awesome). You can use this lens with
the Nikkor AF-S teleconverters TC-14E II, 17E II, 20E II
to get a longer focal, but of course you can use TCs
even with a 180 or a 200 to get a 360 or 400mm macro
lens. (even tough the 105 VR is the only macro lens
compatible with Nikkor TCs, other lenses can |
 |
| 100%
crop from a photo taken with Nikkon 105 VR and
D70s. |
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| be used with
Sigma or Kenko teleconverters).
Overall, I'd prefer a Sigma 180 Macro to the Nikkor
105 VR, because I almost always use the tripod and I
want the maximum working distance, but if you don't like
the tripod and you want a relatively handholdable lens,
the Nikkor 105 VR is by far the best choice currently
available on the market. |
Recommended
links
Do you have
comments or questions?
If you have comments or questions about this
article, feel free to ask in the Juza
Nature Photography Discussion Forum!
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