Allan's reviews

Sigma 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical IF Macro

I'm new to dSLR so you have to take my review with a grain of salt. I wanted a cheap lens to play with, and for under $100 on ebay (new) I don't think I could have done better than this lens. Outside, with plenty of light, this lens performs well; it focuses fast and takes fine pictures. Inside, however, the lens can hunt a bit when focusing.

The zoom ring is actually pretty stiff, which just doesn't feel great. The 18-70 kit lens (Konica Minolta 5D) is much smoother. This is not to say the zoom isn't usable; it's just stiff.

Finally, it seems that at the long end of the focal range the lens doesn't seem to feel like it's getting closer. This is to say that it feels like the zoom zooms more at the short end than the long end. I think this is common with these compact zooms. At least it's image stabilized (oh, that's only on the Maxxum 5D/7D :-)

The 28MM at the wide end is OK, but with the crop factor 18MM would be better. Since the 18-200mm is more than twice the cost of the 28-200 (street costs, that is), you have to decide for yourself if it's worth it.

For the $80 I paid, I cannot complain at all about this lens. A good first walk around lens for a newbie dSLR owner.

[note: the lens I have doesn't seem to have the manual aperture ring shown at the bottom of the picture]

Always hard to tell if this is the same exact lens, but I think it is:
<a href="http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=368" target="_blank">http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=368</a>