Part of a continuing series, (of people, usually young, more interested
in their hand held devices, than the events at hand).
First the PESO
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20LifeoftheParty.html
Equipment: Pentax K5II w/Sigma Zoom 70-210mm f4.0~5.6 UC-II
Now a the beginning of a possible multi part review of the afor
mentioned lens. A series that could be subtitled as "Photography on no
budget".
A little back story. I've been gifted with this nice, but, pedestrian
Sigma 70-210mm Zoom. Nothing special, really. I haven't been able to
find out a lot about it. It's not current in the Sigma line, but I was
able to find a PDF of an old Sigma Catalog and it was one of their
offerings from 1995. Which caused a bit trepidation on my part as that
was the tale end of the Sig[nificant] Ma[lfunctions] period of Sigmas
history.
It as near as I can tell it was intended to be an alternative to the OEM
offering in a two lens kit. I'll compare it to the Pentax F 70-210mmm
though in reality it was more likely competition for the FA 70-200mm. I
haven't done a lot of shooting with it as yet, the weather's been
miserable, cold and overcast when it's not actually rainy, and like the
F 70-210 it's, kinda slow, so I've been using it mostly indoors bumping
up the ISO quite a bit. I had to shoot an event this weekend, so I
dropped it into my bag, (it doesn't take up much room and doesn't weigh
much), and shot a few available light of pictures with it. The PESO
above is one of the results.
So how does this lens stack up?
The build quality pretty good, but, it is mostly plastic. The aperture
ring has full marked f stops from 4-32 and half click stops for the
whole range. Where the Pentax F has both a metal inner and outer barrel
the Sigma is all Plastic. It does have a nice metal, looks like
stainless steel, lens mount. Aside from the materials the zoom ring is
nicely damped, at least as pleasant as that on the Pentax F.
The focus ring is also nicely damped for an auto focus lens, with a
considerably shorter throw from it's closest focus to infinity than the
F 70-210 which is not damped at all. I'd say the focus feel is about
that of the Pentax FA 20-35mm maybe even a little better.
There is provision for a bayonet mount lens hood, but it's at least 10
years old so it would be good luck finding one, Sigma certainly doesn't
seem to offer them.
Auto focus using the K-5II is very quick, in all but the dimmest light
it just snaps into focus.
My preliminary judgement on it's optical characteristics is that it's
not quite as good as the Pentax F 70-210mm though I'm not sure how much
image softness is attributable to the the higher ISO's I've been using.
The sigma seems to be softer wide open throughout it's range, and seems
to have lower inherent contrast than the Pentax F, I'll be able to tell
better when I get a chance to shoot in bright sunlight. It does seem to
sharpen up when stopped down even 1 stop.
I haven't noticed any Chromatic Aberration to speak of and there doesn't
seem to be much in the way distortion either. Straight lines seem to be
in fact straight.
So what are the drawbacks? Let's just say for the record that based on
what I paid for it, there are none. I got it for free. However there
are a couple of piddly annoyances that I've noticed so far. Pentax
Digital Camera Utility want's to identify this lens as an F 35-105
f4-5.6 which is certainly interesting when it tells me the photo was
taken at 110mm, DXO Optics Pro 8 thinks that it's a Sigma 70-300 and
wants to apply those lens corrections. At least they got the
manufacture correct. My ancient copy of Photoshop won't even attempt to
identify the lens, even though they are contemporaneous. Using an
electronic flash the exposures can be way off, haven't done much of that
yet, so time will tell.
So what is there to say say. The Sigma is very compact, a good 7/16
inches shorter than the F 70-210mm at infinity and probably 30% or more
lighter as well. It takes a 55mm screw in filter, and with a decent
lens hood, to cut down on flare the contrast might even improve wide open.
Would I recommend this lens to others? At this point I'm not sure. It
seems to be pretty decent. I've never used a Pentax FA 70-200mm
f4.0~5.6 which is supposed to be not as good as the F 70-210, and I
expect this Sigma can be had for a lot less money when you can find it,
so maybe. I actually kind of like it.
I'll probably get a bit of use out if it, as my F 70-210 is jammed and
I'm not at all sure if it's worth even attempting to get it repaired.
As usual comments are welcome but may be totally ignored.
--
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve
immortality through not dying.
-- Woody Allen
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