Sigma 70-200MM f 2.8 EX II HSM First Impressions

It’s early on Saturday morning I know, but I wanted to get one more most up for you this week. I’ve been swamped and I haven’t gotten a chance to post anything else this week so I thought I would share my first impressions of my new Sigma 70-200mm f 2.8 lens.

• This lens is tack sharp! There is no two ways about it. I shot the image above of my Nikon 16-85mm VR lens with the Sigma and I was very impressed with sharpness.
• At 3 pounds this lens is a little heavy, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be based on a few reviews I have read. I’m sure it would wear me out after a full day of lugging it around on my D90, but it’s still not too bad.
• Colors are accurate and this lens provides great contrast. I love the image quality.
• I love the fact that the tripod collar is removable! If you don’t have a quick release plate on your tripod head, you will love this feature too! You can open up the tripod collar and remove the lens. Cool feature. Bonus points to Sigma!
• Auto Focus is quick. I haven’t compared it to the Nikon 70-200mm f 2.8 lens, but I think it would be fairly close based on my experience with other Nikon AF-S lenses.

I’ve got a total of 3 shoots today. Two this morning and and one this afternoon and you can bet that I’ll be putting this lens (and my Sigma 24-70 f 2.8 HSM lens) through their paces. I’ll have full reviews up before too long so you can see exactly what I think and how these lenses perform.

I hope you guys have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here next week. I’ve got to head out here soon!