Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM Lens for Canon Mount Digital SLR Cameras

well tis lens amazed me... not just because i came from the kit from the t2i, is everything! the build quality, great shape and weight in your hand, the quality of your bokeh.. ok in order... first the good things first is a truly walkaround lens. great weight (not too heavy, but not too "kit" neither). the zoom and the focus ring is as smooth as you can get but very accurate. for the ones who have the Canon Zoom Pack 1000, the lens does fit. i guess it wont fit any longer one. the quality of the pictures really amazed me, and you know that the ones you get from the kit lens are great ones! the bokeh is really beautiful (7 rounded blades aperture), the zoom range is the right one for walking with it.. no chromatic aberration at all ( at least compared with the kit lens) but when is in 17, at 2.8 you can see some at 100 % crop so.. HSM is REALLY quiet.. I mean, the only way to listen this baby running is in your room at night with the door closed! and is fast.. not as fast as an L series, but is fast. the price is great too.. i guess that the equivalent from canon is the 15-85 and is almost 300 bucks more :s the macro function is a plus very welcomed for me :) now, the bad ones no full time autofocus... this is annoying... you still have to be careful to not turn the focus ring when you're in autofocus and that's crap.. :s the OS stoles some battery power.. so just don't expect the same amount of pictures that you had with the kit lens.. 72 mm filters are kind of expensive.. but after all, this is an expensive hobby (this lens is not an expensive one, but is still 100$ more than a s90) so.. guess is not a problem.. when you have the OS on and turn off the camera, there a weird noise in the lens.. nothing to worry about but is there so... this is something weird and unexpected, and i'm going to try to explain it (sorry my english by the way) I think this lens is "darker" than the kit... how is that?? well, if you take a picture with the kit lens, and put this one on the camera, and you don't move anything (aperture, exposition, etc) the picture will be darker... you have to move up a little bit the exposure compensation.. so I don't know why is this, and i'll be glad if someone could explain it.. overall a 7 stars lens (not 8 because the lack of full time autofocus) but amazon only allow me 5 stars so.. you know what? BUY IT! P.S.: i know is not important, but the looks of this lens in the camera is also veeery good! :)

I just got this lens yesterday and tested it a number of different ways. I bought this lens primarily for the faster 2.8 aperture and the close focus of 8 inches plus OS. The close focus delivered as promised with no need to refocus after zooming in ou out (it held focus and sharpness). Color rendition was natural and pleasing and the OS seems to be doing the job promised. Images are sharp at all focal lengths (I have not noticed any serious image degradaton based on focal length. I uploade a photo showing two shots at close focus changing the zoom and maintianing the close distance. The shots were hand held. using daylight/ambient through a window and no flash. The shutter speeds were 1/60 and 1/30 sec, single point focus and center weighted exposure using auto focus. My camera is a Nikon D300s. * Close focus is great. * The lens holds focus through the zoom range without having to refocus. * color rendition including saturation is natural with and without flash. * having a max aperture is a definate plus. another review mentioned that you loose that quickly after leaving the shortest focal length (well of course) but that one stop gain is progresive through the zoom range. * the OS is a little noisy but you know that it's working. * focus is as fast as my Nikon 18 to 105 but you can get a lot closer to the subject. I have purchased a lot of glass for my camera and was really wondering if i needed to take this step. I'm glad I did. I have lensed that claim close focus and or macro.... this one is better. AFTER THOUGHT.... One review menioned that it was to easy to accidently grab the focus ring and accidently turn it while zooming. This has been a problem for me in the past. Note that I do this more with my Nikon lenses that with my Sigma's. Nikon has there focus ring closer to the camera body (your face). Sigma has there's in front of the zoom ring. I prefer this (it's not as easy to accidently grab). It also has a stiffer action so you notice it sooner. I like this design better. THANX for listening.

I had a Canon T2i and a Canon 17-85mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM lens and decided that I wanted to upgrade to a better lens. I looked around and this seemed to be the perfect fit. It was not extremely expensive but was relatively fast at the wide end. I read some reviews and decided that it fit my requirements and went ahead and ordered it. This lens is fantastic on the wide end, even wide open. Add that with the OS and you get a very good low light lens. The images I've gotten at 17mm and f/2.8 are amazing. Very crisp and with great color. Stopping it down a bit makes the images even sharper - past f/4.0 it doesn't really seem to help much though cause it's already so good at that point. However, the trade off of this lens is it's performance zoomed in. The aperture falls off to f/4.0 which isn't especially slow but isn't fast either, and the image quality also falls off a bit. This is not to say that it's terrible, but it's nothing like the wide end of the lens. Stopping it down helps quite a bit, but still doesn't make it as sharp as it is when zoomed out. So far I've only spoken of the two extreme ends of this lens, and the easy summation is that the middle focal lengths are kind of in the middle. So if you want an all around lens that you primarily use wide open but want the option of having a little reach, then this is the lens for you. If you are one of those people that usually is zoomed in a bit, then you may want to look at the Canon 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens.

I bought this lens as an upgrade from my kit lens (18-55mm) and am very happy with the decision. The build is nice and heavy duty and I am not afraid of breaking it like some lenses. I bought mine used which I highly recommend since you can get it for 50% off when it has barely been touched. The macro part of the lens is amazing! I can get centimeters away from an object and still focus and it gets great detail. I have seen my photos greatly improve with this lens and highly recommend it especially when compared to similar lenses and their price. The dot on the focus ring for infinity is a life saver when taking star photos when auto focus doesn't work. It's so easy to just adjust the ring to the dot and have perfect focus. The zoom is smooth and quiet as well as the auto focus (unlike the canon 50mm f/1.8 wow is that auto focus loud!). One great thing about this lens is that it will work on some Canon full frame cameras so there is no need to buy a new lens. The only downfall of this lens is how heavy it is though it's quickly forgotten. This is the perfect lens to upgrade to after a kit lens.

I have no brand loyalty so after spending many hours debating and comparing the sigma 17-70, nikon 16-85, and the tamron 18-50 2.8 I settled on this one due to the features and my past experience with some great sigma lenses. After selling my 18-55 kit lens from my old d5000, I wanted a good all around lens for my d7000. I am comparing it to my $200 35mm prime, a 10-20mm sigma HSM, and the 18-55 kit vr lens. The first thing I noticed after a day of shooting in overcast skies is how bad the purple fringing/chromatic aberration is. While I did expect some as per the reviews, particularly at wide open at 17mm, this was quite significant. Even after lightroom adjustments it was still noticeable. Then there is the sharpness. The center is good, but the corner sharpness is not. I'm not talking about just the distant corners, but about 40% of the actual image. Basically anything not on center. The sigma 10-20mm is far better. The 35mm nikon f1.8 trumps both. I could not find it acceptable to have this degradation of quality on a $1200 camera. The fit and finish are a bit of a let down as well. The Sigma 10-20 EX HSM that I use feels much better. So does the Sigma EX 150mm APO f 2.8 macro (EXCELLENT). This non-ex 17-70 feels flimsier and more plastic. The fact that the focus ring does not override would not be such a big deal, except that it is so big that there's not much else solid to grab onto on this lens. For this price range I would think it ought to be more inline with the EX line of lenses. I suppose if you must have the big aperture at 17mm its a good buy, but if it was my only lens I would spend more or buy used (which I did). I really tried to like it because it seemed just so perfect with the zoom range, OS, semi-macro capability...but if its not sharp what's the point? Maybe I just have a bad copy who knows...I regret taking the chance though, now I'm out $25 for shipping. Nikon 16-85 it is...I'll just stick to my 35mm f/1.8 when I need low light. UPDATE: My Nikon 16-85 came in and I had a chance to compare the test shots. The 16-85 is significantly sharper then the sigma copy I tested. The nikon is 98% as sharp as my 35mm prime, and the sigma would rate maybe 80% as sharp. (Tested at 35mm f/5 for all in same indoor light) I'm not sure if you would notice this on a less megapixel camera such as the d40 or maybe even the d90/d5000/d300. But on the d7000 at 16mgpx you can clearly see the difference. The chromatic aberration is also better with the 16-85, though still not perfect. While wide open it does have it, lightroom was able to eliminated nearly entirely whereas on the sigma wide open it could not be eliminated due to the higher amount of purple fringing. UPDATE 2: I went ahead and gave the sigma 17-50 f/2.8 OS HSM a shot. WOW what a nice lens. Give that one a shot if you want the f/2.8. Even sharper than the nikon!

I bought this lens to take on vacations, and as a general walk around for my Canon T1i. I wanted to be able to take landscape shots, have a little reach on the tele end, and the macro was a bonus. I've never purchased a non Canon lens before, but heard good things about the previous version of this lens. First thing I noticed, the lens does not fit onto the camera with the ease that a Canon lens does. It goes on, but required significant more torque, and this worried me. What would this do to my camera body over the long haul. The HSM focus worked, but was not nearly as silky as I experience with the kit lens. I didn't really appreciate this until I put the kit lens back on, after shooting with the Sigma all day, and noticed how much quieter and smoother the USM was on the Canon. And finally, the real reason I sent this lens back, is the really significant front focus issue. I noticed the images I took seemed OOF, so I did a test on a tripod with batteries lines up at an angle to the camera. Checked the shots out in DPP, and voila--the battery in front of the hot focus point was sharp and on the money. But the focus point was definitely blurry. Now granted, this was wide open, but that is where this problem is most easily detected. Even stopped down to f8, it didn't seem sharp to me. So back it went, and after much research, I ordered the Canon 15-85. Yep, it's more money than the Sigma, but the 15-85 gets really good reviews, and its a Canon. And I couldn't justify the over 1000 dollar price tag of the much touted 17-55. It's drool worthy for sure, but my husband would not be amused! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I love the 15-85. From now on, it's Canon for me.

As a portrait photographer, I need a lens that is versatile and gives the sharpness I desire. With this great range, I'm able to get full-body captures without having to stand too far away while I'm also free to stand back and get a huge spread of the background with my subject. The macro is by far my favorite and has given me the ability to capture details I haven't been able to before. PROS Versatile Great range Sharp Relatively quiet CONS Heavy Almost too-tight fit to my Canon body Obvious distortion when zoomed completely out and standing very close to my subject Does NOT work with full-frame bodies I very much thing the pros outweigh the cons, which is why I give this lens 5 stars.

I bought this lens for shooting DSLR video, not pictures, and so far I've been impressed. For the price, you get quite a lot in this hefty piece of glass: good image stabilization, a decent zoom range and outstanding close-up shots. The "OS," or optical stabilizer, works effectively and quietly. It was one of the primary reasons I bought the lens. At 17mm, it almost looks like you're using a tripod. At full zoom of 70mm, there's motion but it's smooth, not jerky. More expensive lenses, such as the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM FLD Large Aperture Standard Zoom Lens for Canon Digital DSLR Camera and the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras , offer a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the entire zoom range. You have to decide if this awesome feature is worth hundreds of dollars more. The aperture on the more affordable Sigma 17-70mm goes down to f/2.8 -- but only when you zoom out to the widest angle of 17mm. The aperture increases to f/4 when you zoom in to 70mm. In low-light situations, this might limit your range and prevent you from zooming in as much as you want. The Sigma 17-70mm does offer a couple features the more expensive lenses don't: A better zoom of 70mm, and a "macro" feature that lets you get really close to your subject and stay in focus. Other reviews have pointed out that this isn't quite a true "macro" lens. But you can still get within inches of a flower, or your kid drawing a picture, or whatever it is you're interested in, and get sharp images of the subject with beautiful blown-out backgrounds. I was pleasantly surprised. If you're in autofocus mode, you can't manually focus like you can with some Canon lenses. Not a big deal -- unless you like the quick focus option on Canon cameras to set up shots. To use that, you have to be in autofocus mode. So with the Sigma I pretty much just stay in manual-focus mode all the time. Overall, this is a versatile lens for the DSLR videographer on a budget.