Customer Reviews

Sigma 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 Aspherical-Macro Lens for Pentax-AF Camera

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2 star:		(1)
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First, let me say this lens is one of my favorites. I own this lens for my Pentax PZ-1 and have read MANY reviews about it. The price is cheap. In fact, it's arguably the cheapest lenses in it's class. But don't mistake a cheap price as the sign of a bad lens. I use this lens for many occassions and at it almost always delivers GREAT pictures. Yes, it's not the single best lens in the world, but it is as good as many of the lenses I've used that are two or three times the price. Plus, if you break this one you can buy another without breaking your piggy bank ... or your credit card limit.

The two complaints most people make about this lens are, "It's a slow lens" and "It's almost impossible to focus manually." Let me put both those complaints to rest right now. First, when photographers refer to how "slow" a lens is, they don't mean how fast it can focus, they mean the F-stop setting. This lens is a F3.5-5.6. Granted, some expensive lenses at this focal length can go as low as F1.x, but most can't. And most experienced (and novice) photographers can use any lens that can go below F8. So, when people call this lens "slow," they should be talking about F-stops, not autofocus. I for one have found this lens to be more than fast enough for hand-held use. It's only been too slow once in about 1,000 shots.

Second, the focusing ring on this puppy is short. That means it's hard to focus manually. Still, that's to be expected on a smaller, cheaper lens such as this. Although it's tough to focus manually, it's not impossible. I've used manual focus on this lens several times and got great results ... just move the ring SLOWLY and you will get great manual focus. Nevertheless, keep in mind this IS an autofocus lens ... most people won't focus the lens manually. And on that note, the autofocus is spectacular.

Add in the macro ability of this lens and you've got one heck of a package! Oh, and don't forget ... It's CHEAP! If you can only afford one lens for your next vacation, make it this lens ... and use the $100+ you saved to buy more goodies.

I have owned this lens for about two years, and found that it was a fine lens at first, when I was just starting to learn with a good camera, but that it quickly outwore it's usefulness and now mainly gathers dust.

Sigma gave up a lot on this lens to add the Macro element, which lets you focus in very close. The focus is pretty soft at longer lengths, producing pictures that are noticably unsharp. There are manual focusing difficulties resulting from saving much of the focal rings for the macro, so that you have a lot of room to turn for focusing from 2 to 3 feet but very little precision in focusing from twenty to thirty feet (and that is a range I use much more).

Also, the lens has difficulties in low light, zooming in and out trying to focus on something, anything. I got this in a kit with the 70-300 lens, which I still use all the time and I think is a good lens for the money. On this lens, I would recommend investing instead on a good 50mm lens and just taking a few steps forward or backward to get your shots -- they will be much better shots than with this zoom.

If you are the SLR photographer who enjoys taking quality shots, this lens is for you! What's more, the zoom ring is well-positioned, and as far as i can tell, this is a very reliable lens. I have only had mine for a couple of months, but have already taken some brilliant shots with it! I would recommend it to anyone.