» Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Medium Telephoto Macro Lens for Olympus and Panasonic SLR Cameras

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Medium Telephoto Macro Lens for Olympus and Panasonic SLR Cameras Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: What a great little lens!
Comment: I've owned this for over a month and have shot close to a thousand pics with it. It is fast - f2.8 - accurate and produces closeup shots with great detail.

It's also a great ''walk-about'' lens since it focuses from 12 inches to infinity. And the 105mm length (200 mm equivalent on a 35mm slr) is a great medium-telephoto length.

The unit is well built, solid and light enough to handhold. I own it in a 4/3 configuration (Olympus E-500 camera) and love the ability to switch from auto to manual in about 2 seconds, and to limit the auto focus to a limited range at the touch of a switch. I found that I can switch from auto to manual without looking, and love the large focus ring.

I use this coupled with the Olympus 25mm macro extension ring, and it produces amazing close shots. The lens itself is 1:1 and the extender boosts that considerably while retaining all my auto lens settings and capability.

I don't mind the matte finish, and love the fact that it doesn't generally need a lens shade because the front element is recessed quite a ways into the front of the housing.

I've been using some old Nikor and Sigma manual lenses from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, but they can be frustrating to open the aperture and focus and then stop down to shoot - especially with insects. By the time I open the aperture, focus and stop down they have often moved. And when a manual lens is stopped down to f/8 or f/11 it's too dark to see what's going on. The Sigma being coupled with my camera's electronics solves the dilemma and delivers bright views to the viewfinder.

You cannot preview the DOF, but a quick shot and chipmunking the viewfinder will show you what's going on.

I'd recommend this lens to anyone who is serious about macro work, and doesn't want to pack a ton-o-gear around with them. Being able to carry just the body, lens, and extender plus a tripod is enough gear to do some serious shooting.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: duct tape to attach ring flash
Comment: I attach the olympus ring flash using the sigma hood (which comes with the camera) and a little duct tape. it works great.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sharp and clear
Comment: Of all my Four-Thirds compatible lenses this has become a favorite. The Sigma is sharp, reasonably compact and features an actual manual focus mode. Yes, the 50-200mm Zuiko covers this range and is just as sharp, but this lens is much smaller and lighter than the Olympus lens and is, of course, a macro lens that focuses much closer than the Zuiko 50-200mm.

Despite being optimized for macro photography, this lens works quite well for general photography and has a bokeh that is a bit more pleasing than many of the admirably sharp Zuiko lenses. In macro operation the lens often gives a greater distance from the subject than the Zuiko 50mm macro lens does, but this lens is not (as far as I can tell) able to mount the Olympus ring flash for macro work so I use it strictly for outdoors and ambient light macro work (Edit: I have since purchased the Olympus twin flash and it works very well with this lens via an easily obtained step ring adapter.)

The build quality of the lens is not up to the level of the better Zuiko lenses and it is not a weather sealed lens but it is certainly of a higher quality than the Olympus kit lenses that normally ship with cameras like the E-410/510. It's also a higher quality lens than the inexpensive Sigma zoom lenses that have been available for Olympus and other Four-Thirds applications for some time now. I would say that it has a nice feel to it both in heft and in operation.

Due to optical designs that I do not pretend to understand the front element of this lens is remarkably deeply recessed into the lens housing. In fact, it's so deeply recessed that I don't feel the need to use the supplied screw on sun shade (which is a poor design in my opinion) nor do I feel the need to use a clear filter in order to protect the front element (it would be difficult to bang it on anything given how far from the front of the lens it is). One might view this as a money saver as well as a convenience but that's a very subjective opinion I do admit.

Finally, the lens features a fully manual focus mode that works very well but unlike the 'fly by wire' Olympus lenses that many are familiar with this lens requires that you throw a switch on the side of the lens housing in order to disengage the auto-focus motors. This is not terribly convenient, however with practice one certainly can train themselves to operate the switch without taking one's eye from the viewfinder.

To sum it up, I did not expect great things from this lens given that some of the Sigma lenses in the Four-Thirds mount have been a disappointment but I was pleasantly surprised by this lens. It is sharp at maximum aperture, it is moderately priced, it is an excellent macro lens, and it is a fine medium telephoto lens on top of it all. I can highly recommend this lens as a handy addition to any Four-Thirds DSLR camera kit provided weather & dust sealing is not required.

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