Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Sigma 137101 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Lens is an Amazing compliment to our existing Canon telephoto L class lenses
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015
Before sharing my thoughts on the Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Lens for Canon, please let me share a little about my photography background and existing equipment... I first got into photography in 1968 when I was with Army Aviation in Vietnam. At that time I was using a minolta 35mm camera... I first started using Canon equipment When the first Rebel came out and then upgraded to the 20D when it first came out and now my wife and I use Canon's 1DX, 5D-III, 7D-II and 7D. We have several of Canon's L series long lenses including the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II USM, the 100-400 f/4.5/5.6 IS II USM, 400mm f/4 DO and the 600mm f/4L IS II USM. We have very nice full sensor and crop sensor cameras with very nice glass but we clearly had a gap in the 300mm range.
Canon's 300mm f/2.8l IS II USM goes for $6,599 and only fills part of the gap. Besides needing the 300mm f/2.8 for stills and videos of wildlife we often need to be able to have zoom available but still need to be able to retain the f/2.8. Canon does have a 200-400 but it is f/4 and costs $11,799. Canon also has a 28-300 and a 70-300 at $2,549 and $1,499 respectively but they are f/3.5-5.6L and f/4-5.5.6L $3,599 respectively... So this is how we came to look at Sigma's 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM lens for Canon.
If you are not familiar with Sigma's lettering system, as I was not, The DG is Sigma's designation for Full Frame Lenses although this lens also works well with APS-C sized sensors. With the Canon 7D-II 1.6 crop factor this gives us a zoom ratio of 192-480mm. The OS stands for Optical Stabilizer which you would only turn on when not using a tripod. This is a rather heavy lens and hand holding when combined with the weight of your camera makes it very difficult when filming moving targets... I know I have tried, but any good glass lens above 200mm that I am using, is always on a tripod or at least a monopod. The HSM stands for Hyper Sonic Motor.
Since I am basically a Canon snob when coming to DSLR cameras or associated lenses, I was very very hesitant in trying this particular Sigma lens, even at the great price of $3,599 when compared to Canon's 300mm f/2.8 at $6,599. However Amazon has never given us any problems with returns as long as the equipment we tried was treated with care and I always treat all of my Camera equipment with great care. So that helped with my incentive to go ahead and try the Sigma lens but not until I read every review I could find...
If you go through Amazon's reviews on this particular lens, the lowest review I could find was a 3 star from September 2013 and it's complaint was connection problems resulting in focus issues however I have not experienced either issue with the Lens that I purchased so I can't speak to that one... There were two 4 star reviews, one from September 2013 from a sports shooter... His main complaint dealt with initial focus issues which he was able to correct with the optional Sigma USB Dock for Canon. I could not find any of the Sigma USB Docks for Canon in stock anywhere in the US and had to order one from Japan which still has not arrived, therefore I can not speak to this yet until I receive the Dock next week.
I will provide an update after I have been able test the settings after using the Dock, but so far I have not had any focus issues, on the contrary I have been very impressed with the focus that I have been able to receive from this lens so far and I am very picky about the sharpness of my photos... We have shot wildlife and landscape in East Africa, (Kenya), as well as South Africa, (Botswana), all over the US and Canada and several locations in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands. Our travel is expensive and returning with out of focus shots are not an option.
The other Amazon 4 Star review was more recent, October 2014 from a Nikon shooter who was also a sports shooter. He also purchased the USB dock primarily to be able to see all of the lens' features, especially those dealing with the differences in the focus speed. However for him the lens was spot on focus out of the box. His main complaint was regarding focus speed and function. he was shooting primarily AFC spot focus and the lens did not meet his expectations... Then he switched to D9 focus and it worked very well for him. He did also mention the weight... The other 16 Amazon reviews were all 5 star and all praised the lens... Some did reference the weight but none felt the need to ding the review any stars... Again, so far, I have not experienced any focus issues and because sharpness is critical to me, I am always using a tripod with a wimberley head for my heavy glass so the weight is just not a factor to me... Amazon lists the weight at 6.5 lbs. but mine is closer to 7.5 lbs. maybe their reference does not include the collar/tripod mount, hood or caps, not really sure.
B&H Photo had 15 reviews on this particular lens. One of those was a brief 1 Star review from June 2013 complaining of severe back focusing problems even after using the USB dock. They had one brief 3 Star review. He was also using it with a Canon 7D-II & 5D-III and complained it wasn't as sharp for him with either camera even after using the USB dock and updating the firmware. He was comparing to Canon's 300 f/4 and 300 f/28. I have not tried it with our 5D-III yet because I love the crop factor of our Canon 7D-II but I am certain that my wife will be trying it with both the 1DX and the 5D-III. Again, I will provide an update to the review after testing our other cameras but so far I am just not able to reproduce the focus issues that these gentlemen reported.
Of the remaining 13 B&H reviews, 6 of them were 4 Star reviews... Their main complaints dealt with the weight(3), tripod collar smoothness(1), claim of 280mm vs 300mm(1), best sharpness at one stop down from wide open(1), not as fast focusing as Canon's 300mm f/2.8(2), the need to purchase the USB dock to fine tune the lens(2). So for me, again, the weight is not a factor and not worth a star ding because I feel one should be using a tripod or at least a monopod when using any f/2.8 300mm+ L lens... I have not been able to reproduce the tripod collar smoothness issue, on the contrary my tests proved the collar to be very smooth... I actually feel that being able to purchase a USB collar to fine tune the lens is a huge bonus. I want to be able to fine tune my lens using the 2 custom buttons to match my specific needs and I am not aware of being able to do anything like this with any of our Canon L lenses... I am not smart enough to know how to test whether or not I am getting the full 300mm vs. 280mm other than metadata and my metadata reports the full 300mm, so I can't really speak to that complaint... So far I have not been able to reproduce any of the reported focus issues or focus speed issues reported and I have shot several different fast moving wildlife events and long distance scenery shots with no issues to report in those areas.
So to wrap it up, from my perspective and my limited experience with this lens, Sigma's 137101 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Lens for Canon is amazing, especially for the price being $3,000 less than Canon's f/2.8 300mm, plus having the flexibility of being able to shoot with the range of 120mm to 300m vs Canon's 300mm prime, or in the case of our 7D-II, 192mm - 480mm. I would not hesitate to recommend this lens to anyone...
