First Impression: Sigma 70-200 f2.8 OS

Those who know me know I spend more time researching my purchases than actually using my purchases.  This was no different with the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 OS.  The lenses main competitor is the Canon 70-200 f2.8 L.  After countless hours of reading blogs, reviews, and watching you tube videos on the these power houses I selected the Sigma.  The main reason was price for quality.  if I wanted weather proofing badly enough I would had to spend the $1000 more for the Canon.  The interesting thing about the battle of these lenses is that many bloggers and reviewers can not make up their mind which they think is better.  The icing for me was trip to CES 2012 where I actually got to demo the Sigma lens on my camera.  Impressed was an under statement given the lighting in the hall.  Once my mind was made I up it was time to shop.

OK camera buffs I learned a very valuable lesson here.  Do not always go for the cheapest price.  The Sigma was $1399 at B&H and Amazon, but I was able to score it, or at least I thought, for $1179 at SimplyElectronics.  This place is horrible.  2 weeks after my order they still had not shipped the lens even though they guaranteed it would ship in 1 - 2 days.  I decided it was time to cancel the order and spend the extra cash to get from Amazon.  I chose Amazon because the price was the same as B&H and I can get next day shipping for $3.99 because of my prime membership.  I ordered the lens on a Thursday and it arrived my office the next day.  So was it worth the extra money. YES.  

The lens arrived and I almost immediately removed it from the box, attached the lens hood and APS adapter since my current camera body is a T1i.  With in seconds I was shooting.  The most interesting thing about the lens is how attractive it is.  Since have it now for 3 days, the people that come up to talk me about are amazing.  Everyone wants to know what is and look at picture.  As a freelance photographer this great because it provides a great introduction to new clients.   Well enough about the background and my story what the lens.

The lens is extremely well constructed and heavy but not too heavy that you can't carry it around with.  In fact on day three of owning it I went to flower show to capture some orchids prints. See the samples below.  most of the images where shot at 800 ISO, f2.8, and shutter speed of 1/40 to 1/60 with OS feature enabled to option 1 (non-panning).  the images are crisp as you can see but there is much vignetting in the corners at f 2.8 but given the backgrounds I did not mind.  These shots were all made indoors with no flash.  the lens focused fast and accurate on the little flower and did a good job on low contrast areas as well.  The one thing I absolutely love about the lens is how quite it is.  You can not even hear it focus.  Sometimes I wondered if it actually did, but it did.  Fast and Quite.  A perfect indoors lens.  

Outdoors the lens really shines.  I found the sweet spot to be around f8 where the images maintained the most crispness through out the whole image.  This quality continued through f11 and the edges started to gets lightly soft.  Below are few more samples at the higher apertures.

Time to wrap up.  First unless you are looking for weather proofing then the Sigma lens is the one for you.  The Canon equivalent is nice but unless you have an extra $1000 sitting around and really plan on heading in torrential rains and snow the Sigma is the lens for you.  This is my first Sigma lens and I can honest say I will be looking at the brand much more future lenses.  The quality, speed, and construction  are all top notch.  If you have lens feel free to add comments on your experiences with it.  Happy Shooting.