Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsUncertain how to review
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2021
Ultimately I returned the lens. Here are my thoughts about the lens. Image quality was very good and auto focus speed and accuracy was very good with the auto focus distance switch on the lens barrel properly set properly . I did not have an opportunity to evaluate images stabilization.
The reason I returned the lens is twofold with the primary reason being too important to ignore and that made the decision much clearer. The secondary reason is the lens is large and heavy. Hand holding the lens is only an option in very good light. Mid-day with sun is about it for exposure considerations. Along with this, the physical girth of the lens makes manual focus while hand held just about impossible. I could only use my index finger to adjust focus and just the one finger to focus while holding the lens does not work. This takes out the DMF option for focus.
The primary reason I returned is that on the first day I had it I was inspecting the lens to be sure there were no defects or other visible problems I found a blemish in the lens coating. It was located in the front element about 1.5 cm from the lens barrel. I can only guess the size as some fraction of a millimeter and it was easily visible when light reflected off the front of the lens and this imperfection was much more silver-white than the purple-magenta of the lens. The imperfection would cause a small flare in the image when shooting into the sun. I attempted at length to get a photo of this spot itself and got a plausible one but it was only with post processing. If the lens was much less expensive I would have kept it, but for this price it is not acceptable. I received the lens on Saturday and returned it Monday.
I can understand how this could occur in manufacturing and get through Sigma’s QA program. However, it never should have been missed in QC. If I found it easily doing an inspection at home, Sigma should have found it at their site. Added to this is the question if this got through QC what else got through?
Amazon Marketplace - Circuit City did a great job with my return and I give them an extremely high rating return and refund went through very quickly. I will do business with them again without hesitation.
I have since bought the Sony 70-350mm lens and I am very happy with that.