Playing With Lenses: Sigma UC Zoom 1:4-5.6 70-210mm

Friday 7 October 2016

Sigma UC Zoom 1:4-5.6 70-210mm

Cost: 15$ (average market price $32)

I found this lens at a local Thrifty's Store (Salvation Army). It's a "Push and Pull" type of zoom lens and one the early lenses where Sigma tried a new Ultra-Compact lens design to minimize weight and bulk. The lens looks nice, handles good, but feels a little cheap. There is very little available online on this lens aside from a few user reviews stating that the lens is slow and not always sharp over the complete aperture range.

As the lens is very compact for such a focal range, I would consider this a useful walk-around lens, so my testing was done without a Tripod (almost a must for 210mm without in-lens or in-camera stabilization). I compensated by upping the ISO settings a little.

Some pictures definitely has some sharpness issues, but in general, I was able to make more then a few sharp pictures. Not extremely sharp, but acceptable for a lens in this low to mid-range quality segment. I plan to take this lens out again on a clearer day, to really validate the sharpness. Color wise, I thought the results to be a little flat, so had to add some contrast and color back in Lightroom.

So, in summary, a compact, long range zoom lens... nice to use as a casual street and landscape lens, but limited in quality.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 70mm-210mm
Maximum Aperture: F4.0-5.6
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: MD (Minolta)
Optics: unknown
Blades: 6 blades
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 1.2m
Maximum Magnification: unknown
Filter Size: 52mm
Weight: 402g
Length: 88mm
Production: 1992 to 2000
Serial Number: unknown
UC: Ultra Compact lens design, reducing weight and size of the lens.

Samples:

Pictures were taken just before dark, so had to choose a higher ISO in order to get decent shutter speed to maximize the sharpness.