Sigma 24-70 mm f2.8

[ALittleDisneyFan]

Opinions?

Will I be able to use this lens for my upcoming trip (fireworks, parades, etc)?


EDIT:

I was talking to a friend who is into photography and she suggested that I get a 70-200 with the vibration reduction AND a higher aperature. (I guess f4 or f5.6). She says with the VR, it would be like having the lower aperature. Now I don't know much about the VR.... My lenses are used for portraiture.

Thanks

 

[Anewman]

It should do great for your trip, did you already purchase?

 

[Furgus]

I have the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 based on a lot of recommendations from this board. You may want to look at this as well. I read a lot of reviews for the Tamron that stated it was better then the Sigma.
In the 6 months since I have had the Tamron, I can not say one neagative thing about it. It is a great lens.
My Blog has tons of pictures taken with it. The link is in my sig.

 

[ALittleDisneyFan]

I have the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 based on a lot of recommendations from this board. You may want to look at this as well. I read a lot of reviews for the Tamron that stated it was better then the Sigma.
In the 6 months since I have had the Tamron, I can not say one neagative thing about it. It is a great lens.
My Blog has tons of pictures taken with it. The link is in my sig.

Can I ask how you got your flickr slideshow onto your blog? I could only find the link for it.

I will look into the Tamron. Is it heavy (the reviews of the sigma are great- just that it is heavy).

 

[Anewman]

Can I ask how you got your flickr slideshow onto your blog? I could only find the link for it.

I will look into the Tamron. Is it heavy (the reviews of the sigma are great- just that it is heavy).

I also have the TAMRON, it is the lightest in that focal/aperture range. But some see it as it being the one with the poorest build quality.

When it comes to lenses, I dont use them as a hammer so build quality is not always my top concern. When I compared the Sigma, Tokina and Tamron, I just found that the Tamron was sharpest wide open. Others were more than acceptable, it just looked sharper at F/2.8

But when it comes to Sigma there is always the good copy/bad copy possibility. So had I tested a "good" copy I might have gone with sigma.

 

[DizzyV6P]

I can also vouch for the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. It was my bread and butter lens for about a year until I got the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. I have the Canon version and its sitting in my extra bag right now. Poor lens needs a new home now since being replaced by the 17-50.

The Tamron is a sturdy and dependable lens. Don't let its lighter weight fool you into thinking the build quality is not good. VR might help for 1 stop..but nothing beats having the widest aperture at f/2.8 if you are shooting in natural light.

For shooting parades, you may not need all that zoom unless you only want face shots of the characters. From my last Disney outing last week, I found the 17-50 f/2.8 perfectly fine for shooting parades if I'm in the front row. If you're further back...then that's obviously a different situation. That's where my 70-200 f/4L would come in handy. Since everyone is moving during the parades and its daytime, I usually set my shutter at 1/250 when using my 70-200. There's no need for any IS or VR at that shutter speed.

Night parade shots ARE a whole different animal. There's already a post on here on how to shoot night parades so I won't repeat the tips here.

Good luck w/ your lens search

 

[Shutterbug]

I have the 28-135 that came with my Canon 40D kit. On a digital slr 28mm is not even close to being a wide enough angle for what I wanted to shoot. I kept finding myself running out room from stepping back constantly to get all that I wanted in the shot.

I now have the 17-50 2.8 Tamron and am 99% happy with it. Reason I am not completely happy with it is that the zoom ring turns opposite of the way most canons zoom in and out.

I also looked at the Sigma 18-50 and was my original choice but both lens I tried out at camera shop both had terribley front focused. The owner ended up pulling them off the shelf once he also saw how bad they front focused.
So I ended up with the Tamron. It not only focused dead on, the photos are very sharp and barely need any post sharpening.