Great lens! This one is a wonderful walk-around (Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 Zoom Lens)

Member Name: Dirty_Harry

Product:	Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 Zoom Lens
Date:	19/05/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: value for money, good sharpness, great macro, build quality

Disadvantages: none for me

Hello!

I bought this lens half a year ago(new). I had problem with it at the beginning. It had back focus (It focused after the "target"). I sent it back with my digital camera to Sigma and they adjusted it for free(I paid postage one way). After two weeks waiting I started shooting. Now, after few thousand pictures taken I can say few things about yhis lens.

Pros:

- optical quality - it`s sharp(very sharp above f4.5-5.6). Much sharper than my Konica-Minolta 18-70 mm f/3.5-5.6 DT(It was my KIT lens),
- build quality - very good material used by Sigma. Zoom ring works very good and focus is fairly quiet and accurate to cope with most uses. There`s on/off switch and zoom lock wchich I didn`t use(doesn`t extends when camera points down).
- macro mode - it focuses from about 10cm - great!
- value for money - not cheap but worth price,
- starts from 17mm - it`s only one mm wider than my old minolta 18-70 kit but I can see the difference.

cons:

- vignetting ("dark corners") can be noticeable at 17mm @F2.8,
- barrel distortion at 17mm especially if shooting straight lines.

I think it`s a very good lens. Much more better than my old minolta 18-70 kit lens. I would recommmend it instead kit lens. It`s a very good walk-around glass. I would buy it one more time but without problems with back focus :)

If you want to read more reviews about this lens:
http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/detail.asp?IDLens=241

Summary: Great performance for the price.

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