JMitchell
Feet under the table
Registered: January 2007
Location: London, England
Posts: 3839
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Review Date: Sun July 15, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £199.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very sharp, great detail retention, the shots out of camera seem to self saturate, meaning practically no enhancement or pp is needed
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Cons:
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Some noticeable aberration or something (undetermined), serial number sticker keeps falling off :D
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First off, the build quality is very sturdy IMO, especially compared to the 70-300, which feels positively flimsy in comparison, but it's still light, which is nice.
The focusing noise....well, it makes noise, put it that way, almost as much as the Sigma but not quite as much. Also, the limiter helps to put a big stop to that by limiting the ranges so the noise only lasts for a split second. Once you're near the correct focus area, then it's fast and there's (obivously) not much noise, but in really low light, when it hunts, it does whine a little.
Another thing I would mention is that the focal length of 90mm (135 equiv) is, I think, ideal. It provides the working distance to get in close from a little further away, but also can be used for portraits and the like, due to it's non-excessive length; although if you don't have space to move back, say indoors, you may find it a little restricting.
I think for the price (apart from ol' Barney we got lurking in the corners there), it's great! Also comes with a really nice bag (leather-u-like, v padded), which makes you feel better about yourself  .
One other thing to mention is that the front element is extremely deeply recessed into the casing, allowing for much closer focusing than it looks like you'll get. By this I mean that because it's focusing distance is 29cm or so from the front element, you think that from the front of the lens will be about where you measure from, whereas you get about an extra 5 or 6cm to work with, really letting you get stuck in. Also comes with a reverseable lens hood if you need it, but with a recess like that I would doubt it.
Overall a great lens that takes very sharp crisp pictures, with an incredibly short focussing distance, and a good place to start for macro, or anything else! Recommended.
There is a link to a thread I made here with some example shots for sharpness etc.
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