lens disappointment
Pro:
Covers a wide focal length in one lens. Nice case.
Contra:
Heavy, sluggish barrel movement, barrel turns opposite of Canon lenses.
Fazit:
I would not buy this lens again and would not recommend it. The barrel movement issues make it too much of a challenge in a rapid shooting setting.
|
|
Allgemeine Bewertung:
|
 |
|
Bewertung des Verfassers
With the airlines charging by the ounce, it seemed, I wanted to minimize my checked baggage and carry on weight for a Photo Safari to Kenya so I decided to try to use one main lens with a wide angle back up. I had considered several lenses, but chose the Sigma 50-500mm lens for my Canon 20D because it had the widest range of focal lengths, and had received some favorable reviews. I ended up hating this lens, and found it difficult to use.
The first issue was that the barrel turns opposite of the Canon zoom lenses which I usually use. (The Canon lenses turn left to zoom out while the Sigma turns right to zoom out.) I found myself zooming in when I intended to zoom out and vice versa. That was quite frustrating, and even when I realized what the problem was, my habitual motor movements interfered when I was not actively thinking about what I was doing.
The barrel movement was sluggish and it sometimes seemed not to want to move at all. Part of the problem with that was likely due to using a beanbag instead of a tripod, but even off the beanbag, the lens does not move as smoothly and quickly as it should. With all the zooming challenges this presented, there was another that could have proven fatal to the lens: when a teleconverter is attached, there is a "lock" setting which prevents the lens from going shorter than 100mm. This prevents the back glass from crashing into the teleconverter and damaging the glass. Fortunately, I never used a teleconverter on this trip, because I routinely found myself unintentionally moving the lock setting to "unlock" while changing focal length.
This is a fairly heavy lens and requires an 86mm filter, if you use filters, which is relatively expensive. It did come with a very nice, heavy-duty, padded carrying case and has a tripod collar and 2 carrying straps to make maneuvering the lens easier. Unfortunately, this lens that had promise for being a good all-in-one for travel ended up leaving me wishing I had just gone ahead and spent the extra money for the Canon 100-400.
