Sigma AF 105mm f/2.8 EX Macro Reviews

This a truly superb lens. It takes magnificent photos and has a certain smoothness (NOT softness) that is very rewarding. The depth-of-field for macro shots is very narrow, as you'd expect, so it can be hard getting shots of flowers waving in the breeze, but that's no different to any other macro lens. The lens barrel extends to about 1.8x the normal length when focussed close. Focussing is smooth, with plenty of movement to ensure you can be pinpoint accurate. Love it!

I own this for a couple of years and I'm using it both for macro and portraits.

* Optical quality: superb. I would argue a bit about the smoothness, I guess it refers to the objects out of the focus, especially in macro range. To my experience, if accurately focused and without camera shake, this lens will give very, very sharp images and with vivid colors.

* Focus: the focus is very precise, whether in macro or portrait range. However, AF is rather slow due to the large mass of moving elements, and may become painfully slow if your camera "hunts" up and down the focusing range. Good thing that there is a switch that can limit the movement between normal, macro or full range.

* Handling: the handling is good, except that going back and forth between AF and MF requires not just toggling the usual AF/MF switch, but also moving the focusing ring to the front or to the back.

* Some example photos: all the close-up portraits below were taken in low light with this lens manually focused. Also, all the macro shots on the site, those usually with AF.

I have used this lens first on a Nikon F90x and then more recently a Nikon D200, photographing people, flowers and insects. The lens is very crisp optically, with super-shallew depth-of-field achievable. As well as macro photography, this lens is ideal for portraits on 35mm or full-frame sensors. I've found that on the D200 with it's APS-C sized sensor, the angle of view is too small for portraiture at my preferred distance to the subject, and so for that I now use a 50mm f/1.8. It's very easy to adjust the focus extremely precisely as the focus ring rotates several times as the lens slowly extends. The lens can sometimes hunt for a focus lock, and due to the slow speed of extension, this can take several seconds. Definitely not one for sports or action photography! Nevertheless, it's so good optically that it's probably my favourite lens of the 5 I own.