Saturday, January 05, 2013

2013 #02 - After the rain


Gear diary

The Pentax SMC DA* 16-50/2.8 has been sold. Instead a Sigma DC 17-70/2.8-4.5 was acquired. I am thinking that the faster, bigger, heavier and more expensive lens was a bit of an overkill, given my recent tendency towards Ricoh GXR and mirrorless style of shooting.

As for this Sigma lens, there is nothing special about it - it is just good - it does what it is supposed to do. Notably the build quality is very tight, although if it is zoomed out just a bit less than to the full maximum, there is a zoom creep. In terms of image quality it seems perfectly fine. The only nitpick is that it is prone to fringing aberrations. It is easily solved in LightRoom 4.3, so that I already have a development preset that takes care of the fringing.

Presently I plan to make it my standard zoom lens. Oh, and the above shot was made with it...

2 comments:

pa dinneen said...

I've thought about replacing my Tamron 17-50 f2.8 with the same lens as you, to get the extra reach.

But i think i'd miss the constant f2.8.
if you could get a 17-70 with good 'close to macro' capability that could be a clincher.

Boris Liberman said...

Well, this Sigma lens can do 1:2.3 close up on the long end of the zoom range which is good enough for me.

Also, I've observed that it is f/4 almost all the way through approximately 60 mm which is more than good enough for me. It turns to be f/4.5 just before the 70 mm zoom setting, so I don't really miss the constant f/2.8.

Again, it certainly depends on your photographic needs, and this lens seems to fit mine just perfectly.