Customer Reviews

Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 AF APO DG OS HSM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a professional photographer[...] and until now, have never owned anything but Canon or Nikon lenses. For years I specialized in sports photography and the lenses I most often used were a 400 f:2.8 and a 600 f:4. I moved on to other fields of specialty and decided I didn't want to lug around that kind of weight and got rid of the big glass. Now, several years later, I decided I needed a long lens again, but in a decidedly smaller package. After trying an unnamed top manufacturer's 80~400 lens and being unhappy with the quality of the image, I dared to try Sigma's new 120~400. I ran the lens through the ringer and tested it under every situation I could think of and through it all, it has performed flawlessly! In fact, I was ready to accept a little less sharpness, so when I evaluated my results, I was thrilled. I highly recommend this lens and I have the utmost confidence in this beautiful package of glass.

I bought this lens after returning a 150-500 for back and front focusing issues on a Nikon D700. Well, the 120-400 suffered from the same problems. My copy had bad back focus at 400mm. Using the D700's AF Tune function I could compensate to get it to focus correctly at 400mm, but that introduced severe front focus issues from 120-250mm. Overall, I could get the 150-300mm range to focus well if I gave up on the 120mm and 400mm ends.

As with the 150-500 order, Amazon's shipping department did a totally inadequate job of padding the shipping box. There wasn't enough airbags in the box to prevent the Sigma box from sliding around let alone protect it on all sides. In all, my two Sigma lens orders received the same level of packaging attention as the book and DVD orders I've received over the years. This is a very bad situation for anyone interested in purchase precision optics from Amazon.

I am a recovering pro shooter (semi-retired) and bought this lens to shoot my grandchildren in sports activities. I have fallen in love w/it. It is the largest of 4 Sigma lenses for my Nikons (2-300's, 1-200) and I bought it on a whim. WOW! Nice and crisp, can be handneld even by 66 year-old shooter! OS is not overly noisy, certainly not distracting and has given me the freedom from tri/mono-pods for daylight sports, F2.8 isn't necessary in sunlight for me. I saved a bundle,built a rep as the greatest G-Pop and compromised nothing in the process. BTW, I have some wonderful wildlife shots as well, since I live within a mile of the Delaware River.I recommend this lens w/o equivocation under the uses I have put it to. Is it the best? No, but w/o it I couldn't have gotten the images I have. That's the best.

I am very happy with the purchase of this Sigma. Before, I also purchased the Macro 105 mm (also from Sigma) and the great quality of pictures that my wife are getting (mostly of insects) convince me to repeat the business with AMAZON. This 400 mm, a bit heavy to use without tripod at the beginning, became rapidly a wonderful tool once you get use to it. We are mostly fascinated with the fast AF it has, and could easily occurred that, instead of getting a nice sparrow hawk flying, you get a very sharp tree suddenly interposed between your camera and the bird at the time you was shooting. In any case it gave us lots of fun. We, as ornithologists, recommend this product to anybody without any negative observation.

This is one big hunk o' lens (5 lbs) that benefits greatly from the use of a sturdy tripod and a remote shuter release. The photos I took were acceptably sharp on a tripod, but it takes a steady hand, even with the OS, to get similar results hand-held. I'm not yet convinced that the OS, especially at the 400mm setting, actually gives you a 3-4 shutter speed advantage. Maybe this will improve as my technique improves. I was also suprised to read in the isntruction sheet that you must wait approximately 1 second after pressing the shutter release half-way to get a stable image. Is this common to all image-stabilization lenses? I was also somewhat confused by the OS instructions which call for OS 1 for camera shake, and OS 2 for subject travel accross the horizontal plane. Since the instructions also warn against using OS while the camera is on a tripod, this seems inconsistent with the stated use of OS 2. The HSM autofocus is very quiet, but sometimes has difficulty locking in on the subject. This is probably not much different from similar lenses of this type (I've read identical complaints about the Nikon lens). However; the all-the-time manual focus over-ride comes in very handy in those cases where the auto focus system is having a hard time. Having had the lens for just a few days I think that, for the money, it will fill my occasional need for a long telephoto lens.

I just received my Sigma 120-400mm Lens and I am very satisfied with this product. I had read a lot of reviews on the lens and most were very favorable reviews. But you never know till you see it for yourself. I am happy to report that it is plenty sharp enough for my needs and I like the colors and contrast I am getting with this lens. I did adjust focus using the AF fine tune feature on the D700 to -15 and I am ready to go. If you want to see some photos taken with the Sigma 120-400 lens type bc1963 photos in your search engine and select my flickr photostream.

Rather than repeat what's already been said in the other reviews, I'll just emphasize a few key points -

- As has been pointed out, this lens is heavy (near four pounds), but that's totally to be expected given its range and speed. I don't consider this a negative; it's just what it is.

- Hand-holding is quite feasible. The optical stabilization works very well; combined with a little boost in ISO and a reasonable shutter speed you can get amazing results.

- That said, if at all possible, put it on a tripod and stop it down a bit. You'll be rewarded with gorgeous, sharp images.

- Build quality and materials are first-rate.

I never thought I'd see the day I'd spend a grand for a non-Nikon lens, but I'm glad I didn't let my prejudice keep me from trying it. It's a superb lens at a fair price.

I went to tne Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and took pictures using this lens for nine hours. Fantastic pictures. My left arm and wrist got tired after about six hours becasue the lens is heavy. Also heavy to carry around when traveling. However the pictures are ecellent. Higly recommend this lens.

I was excited to get this new Lens I have to say overall even with the issues I had with it I like the pictures it took and the Feel of it but right out of the box
it was not working I was gettting Error "F" meaning the Lens was not connecting with the camera and it got worse as I used it more. I sent to back to Beach Camera I do miss the lens. beach went to send me a new one but it was out of stock even thought they stated they had it so they upgraded me to the 150-500mm at no cost I am very happy with beach for that. Sigma needs to get its act together on this one it is a great lens for the money and takes great pictures

Looking for the best buy for the buck to replace my old Sigma 400mm APO lens, I bought the Sigma 120-400 AF DG HSM lens. This is a large, fairly heavy lens but I use it on a homemade gunstock mount and it's not too heavy to lug around. The lens seems to be sturdy and very well built. I use it to photograph birds, mostly and the images are clear and sharp, certainly sharper than my old lens. Focusing is very quiet and fast. Since my Sony DSLR has built in image stabilization this lens does not have, or need it. That is a bonus for Sony users, because the company that sells the lens (47th St. Photo) charges about $110 less than the same lens with image stabilization for other camera mounts. Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase and I would recommend it without much reservation. Best sharpness seems to be at f8, so be sure to use a tripod or a gunstock mount because of the slower shutter speed.