Sigma 28-200 AF

I've seen a used Sigma 28-200 autofocus (KAF) lens available for sale in a local photograhic shop for £65. Its a stubby, chunky lens which takes a 72mm filter ring. The widest apperture was 3.5 or thereabouts

On the face of it this looks a lot of lens for the price, but I've no experience of zooms with this range. Does anyone have any experience or advice ?

28-200mm is a huge zoom range, so expect good sharpness but poor drawing (high distortion), modest maximum apertures, not a particularly close focus, very expensive large filter sizes.

I would expect much better performance out of more modest designs.

Hi Neil,
I haven't used this lens really for 2 reasons. The first and foremost is that I prefer the quality of genuine Pentax glass. However, even if this was a Pentax lens, I would be wary. With such a large zoom range there has to be a compromise in image quality. If you want a "do it all" lens for occasional use and are not too worried about the image quality, it could be a good buy. However, I would recommend covering the range with a couple of shorter zooms. I am sure you will not regret it. After all, why did the original owner sell it?

Regards
Kim

I bought one of these about ten years ago, because it was (relatively) cheap.

I have since given it away.

£20 would be my idea of a fair price for it.

G

Since I got back into photography I've tried the Promaster, Sigma and Pentax (Tamron) versions of the 28-200. Lucky I was able to sell them on without too many burned fingers. It taught me a valuable lesson, get what you want, not what you can afford, says it all I think.

The FA 28-105 power zoom, and the F 70-210 are both good zooms at often surprisingly low prices. With a bit of luck you'll get them for about £100 for both, and you'll enjoy much better quality, at the cost of some inconvenience.

The 28-70 f4 is an alternative, but beware of lens separation issues.

(All lenses are Pentax SMC.)

G

Not sure if this is the SMC-F 70-210, but LCE Group have it for £39!
http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/item_details.php?second_hand_equipment_id=4264

I have the 70-210 and it is razor sharp and very contrasty.
Matt

I have bought this same Sigma AF 28-200mm last summer as I didn't want to drag/hassle
with heavy camera equipments on my travel to China + don't have enough money for proper Pentax zoomlenses.

I was fully aware of it's limits, especially the dark circle in the corners (not sure what's it called in English) if using
Wide mm. If you don't mind that it's quite a good lens for that price I think.

It's called vignetting.