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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