Sigma AF-Zoom 35-135mm f/3.5-5.6
I bought this lens at a clearance price. I considered it a good buy for its
optical quality, and was the most heavily used lens in my lens arsenal because of its
convenient range. It is a good lens for parties and travels with friends, in the
situations where all you want are just snapshots. For that reason, it has been the
"standard lens" for my N6006, and got really heavy (ab)use.
I used it mostly for negative films, and thus no much chance to observe it
color rendition. I shot it with slides several times, attempting to compare with
Nikkors. But every time, when slides came back, I was not sure which one was by
Nikkor and which was by Sigma. One impressive thing about the lens's sharpness is
that I've made 20"x30" posters from photos taken with this lens, and the sharpness
appears quite comparable with the legendary Nikkor AF-Zoom 80-200mm f/2.8, with
slightly low contrast. In those posters, the limiting factor is the film, not the lens.
One of the use of it I found as the "standard lens" for N6006 is to use the
spot meter of the N6006 while using FM as the picture taking camera. This is
particularly useful for wide-angle landscape shots where spot metering through a
wide-angle lens is simply too wide.
For it versatility and convenience, I thought I would never let go of this
lens. Unfortunately, when I got my N90s, I found the lens couldn’t communicate with
the body correctly. Occasionally, the camera displays that I have a 135mm f/1.4 lens!
When combined with an SB-26, the SB-26 goes crazy zooming when the lens is
zoomed. I guess Sigma's reverse engineering is only as good as the pre-D era, that is
before Nikon introduces the D-technology. This also explains why I got the lens in
such a great price. Now, I'm forced to look for another "party lens", and since it isn't
of much merit to keep 2 slow zooms in such a "standard" range, I'm willing to let go
of this one. But who knows, it is still "dispensably cheap", doesn't hurt to keep it
either, in case a friend asks for a loaner ;-).
My verdict: Optically great and mechanically fine convenience lens.
Incompatible with D-type camera. Too loose for manual focusing. Thus, only good for
Nx00x series pre-D era AF cameras.
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Last updated: June 19, 1997.