Sigma 120-400 OS is the Canon 100-400 killer??

[ricktas]

Seems the Sigma APO 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM Lens is comparing very well against the Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM

A well known Japanese company that does lens comparisons has summarised their comparison with "The difference is 'order of magnitude'.Sigma gives the more successful images in terms of the image stabilisation and sharpness."

The full report is available here if you can read Japanese

EDIT: The Sigma can be had for under $1K, where the Canon is usually just over $2K.

[Scotty72]

hmm.. tempting - once my funds are replenished

[twofruitz]

Here is a big discussion on the issue

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=445834




Pricewise, $1150 looks to be the cheapest I've seen so far.

[David]

Well that settles it for me.


The Sigma APO 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM is definitely going to be my wildlife/birding lens at 100MM + end when I can convince myself how badly I need if after I get my hands on the Siggy 10-20MM for the other end.

Thanks for the information Rick

[NGP]

I always love reviews/tests comparisons with badly exposed and light images/subject.. it makes me so much want to believe that they know what they're doing.. looking at their 100-400L images (at 100%) I can tell you I will get better images out of a 75-300 kit lens .. sorry that is actually not funny at all

that said I'm not saying the new Sigma might not do a good job.. I haven't done a benchmark on that lens so I'm not gonna make something up here..

[David]

Thanks NGP, now to challenge to you now youve stuck your foot in the door is to get your hands on the lens and do a benchmark for us all and tell us what you think.

Im not interested so much in cf to the Canon L series lens because 2000.00 + is too much for a lens in my amateur world.. for that money Id go buy a better body.

What I would be interested in knowing is that this lens IS going to give me better longer focal length images than said kit 75-300MM lens and that it compares favourably with its predecessors around the same focal length range in the Sigma stable particularly.

That kind of information would be very helpful. and I know you will have an infomed opinion on that.

[ricktas]

I always love reviews/tests comparisons with badly exposed and light images/subject.. it makes me so much want to believe that they know what they're doing.. looking at their 100-400L images (at 100%) I can tell you I will get better images out of a 75-300 kit lens .. sorry that is actually not funny at all

that said I'm not saying the new Sigma might not do a good job.. I haven't done a benchmark on that lens so I'm not gonna make something up here..

Agree, but will be interesting if this review makes some other more respected folk do their great work and give these two lenses a comparison

[larrywen]

I just bought a second hand Sigma 120-400. I think the IQ is ok. Anyway, if the photo is not sharp enough, it could be caused by my skills rather than the problem of the lens.


Rodney by Simple Monkey, on Flickr