I had pretty good luck w/Sigma.
First lens was a 17-70 on a 20D. Very sharp, macro mode.
Had a 100-300 f4, razor sharp stop to stop & at f4.
The only Sigma I was less than enthusiastic about was the 80-400 w/OS.
Could be sharp, the the stutter-shutter was annoying.
I also have a Tamron 17-35 that is pretty good.
If you are selective, check the reviews, there are plenty of 3rd party lenses that will serve you well.
I am a fan of the third party lenses. Currently I am using a Tamron 17-50 2.8, and the 28-75 2.8 both are sharp, have great color and contrast and focus quickly. I also recently got the Sigma 50-150 2.8 and wow is it nice. Sharp fast and great color. I have also owned the Sigma 15-30 and a Tankina 19-35. All were great and I personally have no problems buying and using the nonCanon brands.
I have that watch too! Mine has a black face though.
If I had to say the best of all the third party lenses, it's got to be the Sigma 200-500 f2.8!!! However, as that costs the same as an upmarket family hatchback, the Tamron macros are very good - the 180mm really shines.
prh5551 wrote:
do your diligence and investigate. check out the reviews on this site, on 'the-digital-picture.com', photozone.com, and photodo.com to name a few.
prh
I was hoping to narrow my research down by posting this thread.
Sigma 10-20 mm is my preferred super wide lens for a 1.6x crop DSLR camera.
The Sigma 105 mm f2.8 macro lens is optically superb, but for the built quality (especially the AF) I would now prefer the similar Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens.
Esquire08 wrote:
Got it for graduating college, I've somewhat babied it but it is definitely my daily. I added a Breitling but quickly sold it, and now should be adding a Rolex GMT-II ceramic for graduating law school.
I love watches
Consider a pre-owned Patek - you can get a nice gold dress watch for about the price of a new Rolex; and well, it's a Patek - most people won't recognize it but watch fans will.
pawlowski6132 wrote:
I'ver never bought anything but canon lenses and am now curious about Sigma, etc.
Which particular lenses are regarded as some of the best and how would they compare to their canon conterparts?
thanx
I have the 28-70 F2.6-2.8 TOKINA ATX PRO; and love it. Excellent IQ,fast, built like a tank and relatively cheap - $250 to $300 depending on condition and version.
The Sigma 150 macro is a wonderful lens; it was discussed in a couple of threads posted a while back that it could work extremely well as a general medium telephoto lens.
Sigma 12-24mm for crop cam or FF... In case of upgrade down the road. Although 12mm on a FF camera is ridiculous!
I also like my Sigma 15mm fisheye, very close focusing and very sharp.
Helimat
I have the Siggy 24-70 as a backup to a 24-70L. The build's nowhere near as good and the AF a bit slower and quite poor in challenging light. BUT picture quality in terms of sharpness, colour and contrast are 90-95% as good as the L. So for the money that makes it a good product.
I also have the Macro 105mm as it seemed to be very bit as good as the 100m Canon for less dough.
I am currently using number 2 and I love it. I have considered adding the Sigma 100-400 f4 for the extra reach for kids sports, but I do not need it yet. I sold the original set up because I needed money, and slowly built back up to the current set up. If I ever get the $$$ for a 5D I will get the Tamrons in set up #1. There have been excellent reviews of those lenses on the 5D. I guess it is good that I am camera broke right now
I have also owned the Tokina 50-135 f2.8. It is an excellent lens, but I need the reach of the Sigma 70-200. Good luck on your decision
I really must be the only person on the planet who doesn't completely love the Tammy 17-50 and 28-75 lenses. I've owned both, and whilst they both exhibited excellent sharpness, their colours were nothing like as vivid as the Canon L lenses that I also own.
The Tamron 17-50 and 28-75 are supposedly the best walkaround lenses you can get for under $500. They both compare in image quality to their Canon high-end counterparts, but Tamron's micromotor AF is slow and noisy.
I'm currently lusting after a Sigma 100-300 f/4...it's sharper wide-open than the Canon 100-400 at shared focal lengths, takes a TC extremely well, and has internal focus/zoom...and there's no Canon zoom that goes out to 300mm at f/4...
At this rate, I'm going to end up using a Canon body with no Canon lenses...except maybe a 100mm macro...
