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 p.4 #15 · 'monkey tests Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS | |
Figure I'll comment, I don't have experience with the Nikon 70-200 though. Image quality will definitely remain top notch. Sharpness will match the Nikkor 70-200 or 200-400mm imho, no prob. There is more to IQ than just sharpness though, too. And that's the nice thing about this 120-300 OS... It really is very, very, close to a true APO design. There is some lateral CA (the kind that is easily fixable) at the 120mm end toward the corners (minor, though, mind you). Throughout the rest of the range, the Nikkor will have way more...Course this gets fixed automatically by LR4/CS6/Capture NX/the camera's jpeg engine/whateve, so it's not like that matters much.
However, the Sigma also has almost no longitudinal CA (i've never seen any, except with the 2x where it becomes slight and the bokeh becomes worse). I believe this really has a good bit to do with the exceptionally pleasing images this lens creates. The bokeh is nice, on things that are behind the subject, generally. It can produce some swirly-looking bokeh in some cases (good or bad depending on if you like that). ^_^ Sorry, I don't have any examples to post of that, maybe someone else does. OS also works incredibly well, maybe takes a little longer to settle than the brand name 70-200's? But works as well, for sure.
Auto focus on the other hand isn't quite up to the speed of Nikon/Canon pro lenses. I had the 70-200 f4l IS for Canon. The Canon was DEFINITELY faster. Like "instant" vs "pretty fast". Accuracy is fine, though. I've had no problems catching some birds in flight with the 2x on it, mind you (as shown above)...that said, with the 2x, AF accuracy does sometimes suffer a little. Without it, meh. It's fine. But if I absolutely needed super super fast AF, I'd rent one first to make sure it is quick enough. It might be quicker on a D4 if it gets more juice, not sure.
As a matter of fact, I have an AF speed video posted on youtube, sorry, crappy cell phone video. ...disregard the comment below, he was replying to my other video which accidentally had comments disabled (i'm a youtube noob).
Keep in mind that in the video i'm manually setting the AF to way past infinity, in real world use the AF will be about the speed of the near-instant AF movement you see at the end of the video. This thing definitely has a lot more glass to move around, though.
Friend brought the 200mm VR1 over a few weeks back. Was remarking at how instant the AF on it was. We were also kinda laughing about how awful the stabilization was and how very blah the sharpness with the 2x was compared to the Sigma, so you win some you lose some.
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They say it doesn't work, Gerard...not willing to try mine. 
blame Amazon 
growin' a beard...waitin' on this one. 
Ring spins great, I leave it a little
"...took them into work...co-worker couldn't believe how good it was. So, they put the nikon 2x III tc on the Nikon 300mm 2.8 prime. And couldn't come close to matching the results from the Sigma. There's no way that's right, but whatever, it goes really, really, well, with the Sigma 2x TC. They were made for each other. You'll be delighted with surprisingly low CA, too. Useable wide open (but not, imho, at 100%), okay at 6.3, pretty darn good at f/8. No, it's no 600mm prime. But I'd not be able to afford one of those, not even close--maybe in 10 years!