It\'s very well built (hard to believe it\'s a Sigma) AF and zoom are well dampened and smooth. It feels as heavy (because it is) as the 300 VR2 but better balanced because the weight is more evenly distributed. Hood is OK but I question how well it will hold up to abuse but it should be cheaper to replace then the 300\'s hood. I\'m impressed because I don\'t feel like I\'m giving up any quality to the Nikon from outward appearances. Tripod foot is good, I like the rubberey/plastic coating but I did put a plate on it so as not to scarf up the foot in case I want to return it. The lens rotates smoothly in the ring and the clamping knob allows for fine tuning the resistance nicely.
The OS seems to be good, it spools down later the the 300 VR2 but seems as fast or maybe even faster to lock down the image. I didn\'t try the panning feature yet so we\'ll see how effective that is.
AF: this sucker could use a limiter. AF speed is good when the object isn\'t too far from focus but a bit slow when going from close to infinity or vice versa. The 1.4 didn\'t seem to change the AF speed but I\'ve only tried it in full daylight so we\'ll see. It does lock down nicely and didn\'t hunt or jitter when it get\'s close to attaining focus. This was in both AF-S and AF-C.
IQ: so far I think it\'s great, amazingly good for the price (excellent with the 1.4 as well)
Vignetting: Yep, quite a bit.
Bokeh: I haven\'t shot enough to tell, seems alright.
Anyway some random shots. Looking forward to Will\'s conclusion since he will work it over a lot harder then I will. I like it so far. I think this could be a nice alternative to the 200-400 if it performs in low light with the 1.4X on board.
It\'s very well built (hard to believe it\'s a Sigma) AF and zoom are well dampened and smooth. It feels as heavy (because it is) as the 300 VR2 but better balanced because the weight is more evenly distributed. Hood is OK but I question how well it will hold up to abuse but it should be cheaper to replace then the 300\'s hood. I\'m impressed because I don\'t feel like I\'m giving up any quality to the Nikon from outward appearances. Tripod foot is good, I like the rubberey/plastic coating but I did put a plate on it so as not to scarf up the foot in case I want to return it. The lens rotates smoothly in the ring and the clamping knob allow for fine tuning the resistance nicely.
The OS seems to be good, it spools down later the the 300 VR2 but seems as fast or maybe even faster to lock down the image. I didn\'t try the panning feature yet so we\'ll see how effective that is.
AF: this sucker could use a limiter. AF speed is good when the object isn\'t too far from focus but a bit slow when going from close to infinity or vice versa. The 1.4 didn\'t seem to change the AF speed but I\'ve only tried it in full daylight so we\'ll see. It does lock down nicely and didn\'t hunt or jitter when it get\'s close to attaining focus. This was in both AF-S and AF-C.
IQ: so far I think it\'s great, amazingly good for the price (excellent with the 1.4 as well)
Vignetting: Yep, quite a bit.
Bokeh: I haven\'t shot enough to tell, seems alright.
Anyway some random shots. Looking forward to Will\'s conclusion since he will work it over a lot harder then I will. I like it so far. I think this could be a nice alternative to the 200-400 if it performs in low light with the 1.4X on board.
Jul 18, 2012 at 05:04 PM
Previous versions of rd4tile's message #10815197 « 'monkey tests Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS »
