Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM| C reviewAugust 2013 | By Andy Westlake

The Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM is a premium fast 'normal' zoom for APS-CSLRs, which is designed as an upgrade for photographers who have outgrown the 'kit'zooms typically supplied with camera bodies. It was announced at Photokina 2012, as thefirst lens in Sigma's new 'Contemporary' category of compact general-purpose zooms foreveryday photography. It's a successor to a near identically-named lens from December2009, the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM, but is smaller and lighter, uses revisedoptics, and has a new cosmetic design. Prior to this Sigma made the unstabilised 17-70mmf/2.8-4.5 DC, a lens which was very highly regarded in its time.

The latest 17-70mm offers some pretty clear advantages over the average 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. It provides extra zoom range, being both slightly wider and usefully longer in thetelephoto range. Its F2.8-4 maximum aperture range means it gathers more light - twice asmuch at the long end, and 2/3 stop at wideangle. This offers advantages for both low lightshooting, and getting blurred backgrounds when shooting subjects like portraits. It alsooffers unusually close focusing to just 22cm (hence the word 'Macro' in the lens name).

The lens use Sigma's 'Hypersonic Motor' for quiet autofocus, and is available to fit Canon,Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony cameras. The Canon, Nikon and Sigma versions all featurebuilt-in optical image stabilisation, to allow shooting at slower shutter speeds than usualwithout image degradation from camera shake. The Pentax and Sony versions don't haveOS, and rely on the camera's built-in stabilisation systems instead. (Note that the lens won'tautofocus on old Pentax DSLRs that don't have the requisite electrical contacts to power thefocus motor.)

The 17-70mm doesn't have many direct equivalents from the camera manufacturers - theclosest is the Pentax smc DA 17-70mm F4.0 AL (IF) SDM - and offers an interesting middleground between upgrading to an extended range zoom such in the 16-85mm class, or a fastzoom like a 17-50mm F2.8. It's also pretty reasonably priced. So is it the ideal compromisechoice, or just too good to be true? Read on to find out.

Headline features

Approx. 26-110mm equivalent focal length range; F2.8-4 maximum apertureAvailable for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony mounts (APS-C/DX format DSLRsonly)In-lens Optical Stabilization system (excluding Pentax and Sony versions)

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Hypersonic Motor (HSM) focusing0.22m closest focus (0.36x magnification)

Angle of view

The pictures below illustrate the focal length range from wide to telephoto (on Canon APS-C,1.6x).

17mm (27mm equivalent) 70mm (112mm equivalent)

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM specifications

Price • $499 (US) • £349 (UK) • €470 (EU)

Date introduced September 2012

Maximum format size APS-C/DX

Focal length 17-70mm

35mm equivalent focal length • 26-105mm (1.5x APS-C / DX) • 27-112mm (1.6x Canon APS-C)

Diagonal Angle of view (APS-C) 79º - 23º

Maximum aperture F2.8-4

Minimum aperture F22

Lens Construction • 16 elements / 14 groups • 2 FLD ("F" Low Dispersion) glass elements • 1 SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass element • 3 aspherical elements

Number of diaphragm blades 7, rounded

Minimum focus 0.22m

Maximum magnification 0.36x

AF motor type Micro-type Hypersonic Motor

Focus method Internal

Image stabilization • Canon, Nikon and Sigma mount versions only • 4 stops claimed benefit

Filter thread • 72mm • Does not rotate on focus

Supplied accessories* • Front and rear caps • Petal-type Hood

Weight 465 g (16.6 oz)

Dimensions 79 mm diameter x 82 mm length (3.1 x 3.2 in)

Lens Mount Canon, Nikon, Pentax (KAF3), Sigma, Sony

* Supplied accessories may differ in each country or area

This lens review uses DxOMark data thanks to a partnership betweendpreview.com and DxO Labs (read more about DxOMark and ourpartnership with DxO Labs). DxOMark is the trusted industry standardfor independent image quality measurements and ratings. DxOMark has

established this reputation with its rigorous hardware testing, industry-grade laboratorytools, and database of thousands of camera, lens and mobile test results. Full test results forthis lens can be found at www.dxomark.com.

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossarybefore diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of thereviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your ownconclusions.

Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifyingglass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the imagewill display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window.

To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, tojump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down orselect it from the navigation bar at the top.

DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairlywell accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitorswe can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated)grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this reviewyou should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Zand ideally A,B and C.

This article is Copyright 2013 and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in anyelectronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author.

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Design

The 17-70mm uses Sigma's latest cosmetic design and finishing, introduced alongside itsrearrangement of its new lenses into 'Contemporary', 'Art' and 'Sports' categories. Thechanges aren't in fact huge - the lens name has moved from the zoom ring to the barrel, andlettering that used to be gold is now white - but the resultant entirely monochrome look issomewhat more understated and elegant than before. It's rounded off by the silver 'C' (for'Contemporary') badge, that's inlaid into the barrel.

In terms of construction though, the 17-70mm is much like other recent Sigma lenses at thisprice level, which means a lightweight but solid-feeling black plastic barrel, and relativelysmoothly-operating zoom and focus rings. It uses a 'double trombone' design to extend to itslongest setting, with impressively little play of the barrel when set to 70mm. As we'd expectof a lens at this price, the mount is metal.

Two large, positive switches on the side of the barrel control the autofocus and imagestabilization mechanisms. The AF switch is distinctly the larger of the two, making it easier todistinguish by touch alone while shooting. It also has a white inlay that's visible when thelens is set to AF, which provides a quick visual check for the focus mode in poor light whenthe lettering can be hard to see.

Compared to Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

Here's the Sigma alongside a fairly typical SLR kit zoom, Canon's latest EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. This view shows how impressively Sigma has managed to minimise the size ofthe 17-70mm; despite its longer zoom range and faster aperture, it's really not very much

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bigger. The real difference, though, lies in the weight - the Sigma is over twice as heavy.

On the camera

These views reiterate the 17-70mm's size, or rather, lack of it. On the EOS 700D shown left,it's perfectly well balanced and doesn't feel bulky at all. Even on the diminutive EOS 100D it'snot hugely out of proportion. The zoom ring is placed towards the centre of the of the barrelwhere it falls naturally to hand, and the AF and OS switches operate with satisfyingly positiveclicks.

About the only operational criticism lies with the manual focus ring; it's slightly 'loose' in feel,and coupled with its short travel, this can make critical manual focusing slightly tricky. Thenagain, we suspect the majority of users will use autofocus almost all of the time, so thiswon't matter much. The ring also rotates during autofocus, but that's true of many lenses atthis price level.

Dependence of effective focal length on focus distance

This lens's angle of view widens substantially on focusing from infinity to 0.22m, particularlyat the telephoto end. This isn't unusual with internal focusing zooms, and in normal use isn'treally noticeable. Its biggest impact is for close-up work, where the effective focal length iscloser to 50mm than 70mm. This means it feels like a rather 'short' macro lens, with a widerfield of view than you'd get with a 60mm macro prime.

Autofocus

The 17-70mm uses Sigma's Hypersonic Motor for autofocus, and when shooting with theoptical viewfinder our Canon mount sample was pretty quiet in use, and impressively fastand decisive. As always, though, it must be noted that focus speed and accuracy isdependent upon a number of variables, including the camera body used, subject contrast,and light levels.

Switch from the optical viewfinder to live view, though, and the story changes. Focusingslows right down (although the exact speed is highly dependent on the camera used), and ifyou refocus during recording the clicking of the AF motor will be audible on your soundtrackas the camera fine-tunes focus. To be fair most SLR lenses behave much the same, asthey're just not optimised for video work (the honourable exceptions being Canon's STMmodels).

Lens body elements

The lens comes in Canon, Nikon,Pentax, Sigma and Sony versions; ourreview sample was in the Canon EFmount.

This view shows the somewhatunusual 'double trombone' mechanismwhich is used for moving the rearelement on zooming.

The filter thread is 72mm, which meansrather more expensive filters comparedto the typical kit zoom. It does notrotate on autofocusing, though.

The bayonet-mount hood is providedas standard, and clicks positively intoplace on the front of the lens. It's madefrom thick plastic, and features ribbedmoldings on the inside to minimizereflections of stray light into the lens.Sigma has even added a ribbed grip tomake it easier to remove.

A white dot on the outside of the hoodaids alignment for mounting, and thehood reverses neatly for storage.

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The zoom ring has a 21mm wide rubbergrip, and rotates 60 degrees anti-clockwise from wide to telephoto (thesame way as Canon lenses, butopposite to Nikon, Pentax and Sony's).In typical Sigma fashion the action issmooth and even.

The front element extends 40mm onzooming and feels impressively solidwhen fully extended, with just a littlelateral play.

The focus ring is 15mm wide grip,although the ridged grip makes up just4mm of that. It rotates 50 degreesclockwise from infinity to 0.22m,matching Canon and Sony lenses butopposite to those from Pentax andNikon. The focusing action is smooth,but a little loose; the ring also rotatesduring autofocus.

A basic distance scale is marked in feetand meters. The imperial markings arein mid-grey on a dark grey background,which isn't especially legible.

Two chunky, positive switches on theside of the lens barrel set the focusand image stabilization modes. Whenthe focus switch is set to AF a whiteinlay is visible behind it; this provides aquick, positive visual confirmation of itsposition.

You can't adjust focus manually whenthe lens is set to AF (or at least, youshouldn't try).

A slightly curious scale on the outersleeve of the 'double trombone' zoommechanism shows the imagemagnification when the lens is set to itsminimum focus distance of 0.35m. Thenumbers correspond to each of thefocal lengths marked on the zoom ring,except for 17mm.

As on other recent Sigma lenses, adeeply-ridged grip covers most of theunderside of the barrel, and providespositive traction for changing lenses.It's a small touch and easilyoverlooked, but genuinely worthwhile.

An inset silver-coloured 'C' on the lensbarrel denotes that this lens is part ofSigma's 'Contemporary' range.

Sigma USB dock compatibility

The 17-70mm is compatible with Sigma's unique USB dock, which allows you to plug the lensinto your computer and apply detailed adjustments to its autofocus calibration. You can alsoupdate the firmware, which in principle provides a greater degree of 'future proofing' andreassurance that the lens will continue to work properly with future camera models.

The USB dock fits onto the lens mount,and plugs into your computer. Lenssettings can be changed using SigmaOptimisation Pro software,downloadable from the company'swebsite.

The main option available for the 17-70mm is AF microadjustment, allowingcorrection of any systematic misfocusingyou may experience. You can alsoupdate the lens's firmware.

The AF microadjustment options are more detailed than you'll find on any camera body,allowing you to define separate corrections for four different focal lengths at each of fourfocus distances. So if (for example) you find your copy of the lens tends to set focus slightlyin front of distant subjects and slightly behind closer ones, but only at the telephoto end,then no problem: you can fix that. However it may well take quite a lot of time andexperimentation to get it right.

The 17-70mm will also be eligible for Sigma's Mount Conversion Service, which means thatyou'll be able to pay to have your lens converted to a different mount should you choose tochange camera brand. We're not sure whether this will offer a useful saving compared tosimply selling your lens and buying another in the new mount, but the option's there if youwant it.

Reported aperture vs focal length

Here we show the maximum and minimum apertures reported by the camera at the markedfocal lengths.

Focal length 17mm 24mm 28mm 35mm 50mm 70mm

Max aperture F2.8 F3.2 F3.5 F3.5 F4.0 F4.0

Min aperture F22 F22 F22 F22 F22 F22

The 17-70mm is unusually fast for a small normal zoom. Compared to a typical 18-55mm kitzoom it's 0.7 stop faster at wideangle, and a whole stop faster at telephoto. This extra light-gathering ability is genuinely useful.

Sensibly, Sigma has limited the minimum aperture to F22 throughout (at least on our Canonmount sample) rather than allow smaller apertures at longer focal lengths, which wouldshow excessive image quality degradation due to diffraction.

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2. Design and Operation

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Canon EF Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Nikon DX Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 DC Macro HSM C(Pentax K Mount)

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Studio Tests

The Sigma 17-70mm performs generally pretty well in studio tests. It's weakest atwideangle, with somewhat soft edges and corners that never fully sharpen up on stoppingdown. But aside from that it's an admirably consistent performer, with good cross-framesharpness and reasonably low levels of chromatic aberration, distortion and vignetting.

Sharpness Sharpness results are generally pretty good. The lens isweakest at 17mm, where the edges and corners are rathersoft, and don't sharpen up at any aperture. But at longer focallengths it's very well-behaved, with decent sharpness wideopen, and excellent results at its optimum apertures aroundF5.6-F8.

ChromaticAberration

Chromatic aberration is kept reasonably low. It's worst atwideangle, where there's pretty strong green/magentafringing towards the edge and corner of the frame. Itdecreases on zooming in, and is very low around 35-50mm,before red/cyan fringing becomes visible at 70mm.

Vignetting Vignetting is overall rather low, given the lens's maximumaperture and compact size. It's strongest at wideangle, with 1stop light falloff in the corners wide open, dropping down to0.6 stop at F4. But in practical use this counts as nothing toworry about.

Distortion Distortion is kept pretty well under control. There's clear barreldistortion at wideangle, but it's no worse than a typical 18-55mm, and much better than most lenses with extended zoomranges. This disappears at 24mm, before turning to moderatepincushion distortion from 35-70mm.

Macro Focus

Macro - 60 x 40 mm coverageMeasured magnification: 0.37x Distortion: Moderate barrel

Minimum focus distance*: 21.0cmWorking distance**: 4.3cmFocal length: 70mm

* Minimum focus is defined as the distance from the camera's sensor to thesubject** Working distance is measured from the front of the lens to the subject

As the 'Macro' label suggests, the Sigma 17-70mm offers good close focusing specs, on paperat least. But the reality is a little more complicated, as the working distance from the front oflens to the subject is extremely short. Coupled with the relatively large diameter front of thelens, this causes all sorts of problems with lighting and disturbing your subject. The internalfocus design means that the angle of view widens quite dramatically at minimum focus too,to an effective focal length that's much closer to 50mm, so the lens doesn't 'feel' like amoderate telephoto any more at all.

Here we're looking at what we'd consider to be about the closest practical focusing distance,where the shadowing by the front of the lens generally isn't too severe, and the camera canstill confirm autofocus in live view. At this point the focus distance is 0.21m, slightly shorterthan Sigma's specified 0.22m, and the working distance just a shade over 4cm. You can geteven closer in manual focus.

With the lens set to F4 the image is pretty soft across the beard, but central sharpnessimproves dramatically at F5.6. However the corners are still soft in this flat test chart shot,and only properly sharpen up at F16. There's also quite strong barrel distortion, and strongblue/yellow fringing towards the corners from lateral chromatic aberration. In context, 18-55mm kit zooms generally offer similar coverage, but with lower distortion and a morepractical working distance.

Full Frame Coverage

The Canon, Nikon and Sony mount versions of this lens will mount on full-frame DSLRs, andon Nikon cameras DX crop mode will be automatically selected (the camera will therefore

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shoot at reduced resolution). The lens's image circle doesn't cover the 35mm full frameformat at any focal length, giving severe vignetting regardless of focal length, aperture, orfocus distance. So this really isn't a lens you can sensibly share across SLRs of differentformats.

17mm 28mm 70mm

Optical Stabilization

The 17-70mm features Sigma's own 'Optical Stabilization' system, and the company claimsthat it allows hand-holding at shutter speeds up to four stop slower than usual withoutseeing the blurring effects of camera shake. The mechanism is silent when operational, withonly the stabilization of the viewfinder image betraying the fact that it's running.

To determine the effectiveness of the OS system we subjected the 17-70mm to our studioimage stabilization test, using the wideangle and telephoto settings. The subject distance forthese tests was approximately 3m at 18mm, and 4m at 70mm; the test camera was theCanon EOS 700D.

We take 10 shots at each shutter speed and visually rate them for sharpness. Shotsconsidered 'sharp' have no visible blur at the pixel level, and are therefore suitable forviewing or printing at the largest sizes, whereas files with 'mild blur' are only slightly soft,and perfectly usable for all but the most critical applications.

17mm OS OFF 70mm OS OFF

17mm OS ON 70mm OS ON

The 17-70mm fares respectably well in these tests, although it doesn't quite match the bestoptical stabilisation we've seen. At wideangle it offers a solid three stops of stabilisation,allowing hand-holding at shutter speeds as low as 1/4 sec, rather than 1/30 sec with OS off.At 70mm things are a bit more complicated; we're able to get a decent proportion of sharpshots at shutter speeds 4 stops slower with OS turned on (1/10 vs 1/160 sec ), but thesystem is never close to 100% effective, so it pays to take multiple shots in marginalconditions.

Real world examples

The examples below should give you an idea of how well the Sigma's OS system behaves ineveryday shooting; in both cases the image would be hopelessly blurred withoutstabilization. But instead we've been able to take advantage of the ability to hand-hold atslower shutter speeds to get shots that would otherwise be difficult.

In the first example, the camera was shot in live view, held high up to shoot over the top of acrowd of people to capture the floodlit dome of St Paul's just after sunset. This is anotoriously unstable shooting position, but even so, of multiple shots at shutter speedsaround 1/15 sec, half came out perfectly sharp. In the second example, the use of a shutterspeed about three stops lower that could otherwise be handheld has allowed the use of ISO1600 rather than 12800, and the image still retains a decent amount of detail even in thecamera's JPEG.

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37mm, Canon EOS 100D 45mm, Canon EOS 100D

1/15 sec, F5.6, ISO 400 1/6 sec, F4, ISO 1600

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CommentsTotal comments: 67

3. Test results

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Canon EF Mount)

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By wylun (5 days ago)

i had the 17-70os and the new Contemporary version... i feltlike the 17-70os was alot nicer..

either way i returned it and got a 28mm F1.8 and a macroattachment

0 upvotes

By ebosch (1 week ago)

Sigma's been doing nothing but wonders lately.

0 upvotes

By yabokkie (1 week ago)

yes, with some other lenses.

0 upvotes

By Madaboutpix (1 week ago)

If the laboratory test results are even remotelyrepresentative of what you could expect in the field, the

0 upvotes

Specific image quality issues

As always, our studio tests are backed up by taking hundreds of photographs with the lensacross a range of subjects, and examining them in detail. This allows us to confirm our studioobservations, and identify any other issues which don't show up in the tests. The Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM turned out to be a generally reliable performer, with decentoptics and effective AF and OS systems. We used it on the Canon EOS 100D and EOS 700D.

Wideangle image quality

The 17-70mm is an excellent performer across most of its zoom range, but it's relatively weakat wideangle, due to a combination of softness off-centre, colour fringing from lateralchromatic aberration, and quite strong barrel distortion. This means that if you spend most ofyour time shooting at wideangle, it may not be the best choice.

Colour fringing can be readily corrected if you shoot RAW, and if recent Nikon SLRs willremove it in JPEG processing too. Softness towards the edges is less easy to deal with, butsome software can make the images look better by progressively increasing the sharpeningas you move off-centre. This is shown below, comparing JPEGs from the Canon EOS 700D, toRAW files processed using DxO Optics Pro 8.3 with corrections for CA and lens softness.

Out-of-camera JPEG RAW + DxO Optics Pro 8.3

Canon EOS 700D, 17mm F8, 1/160sec ISO 100

100% crops, bottom centre

100% crops, left edge of frame

Here you can see strong green/magenta fringing in the JPEGs, and the crops are alsodistinctly soft. DxO Optics Pro has done a very good job of removing the CA, and its lenssoftness correction has pulled out plenty of detail too. But this does come at the cost ofsome fairly strong sharpening artefacts.

Distortion

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The 17-70mm also shows quite obvious barrel distortion at wideangle, but to be fair it's notreally any worse than other lenses of similar range, and as usual is only likely to benoticeable in shots with straight lines towards the edges of the frame. Again it can becorrected easily enough in post-processing, if you're prepared to take the time. This is shownin the example below; roll your cursor over the labels to compare corrected and uncorrectedversions. See how the pier straightens out, making the image look much more natural.

17mm, barrel distortion uncorrected 17mm, corrected using DxO Optics Pro

Flare

The 17-70mm generally deals pretty well with flare, and isn't excessively fazed by stronglight sources (usually the sun) in or just outside the frame. In the first example below, withthe sun at the edge of the frame, contrast is maintained pretty well, and flare patterns aren'texcessive even at F22 (there's also a rather pretty 14-ray sun star).

The second example shows what happens when pointing the lens directly into the light atthe telephoto end, so the sun is just outside the frame (above and dead centre), shiningdirectly onto the front element. There's a slight loss of contrast at the top of the frame, and ifyou look carefully, some coloured patterns at the bottom. But overall the lens has handled adifficult situation pretty well.

17mm, F22, sun at edge of frame 70mm, F5.6, sun just outside frame

Background blur ('bokeh')

One genuinely desirable, but difficult to measure aspect of a lens's performance is the abilityto deliver smoothly blurred out-of-focus regions when trying to isolate a subject from thebackground, generally when using a long focal length and large aperture. This lens can allowyou to achieve quite substantially blurred backgrounds, especially at longer focal lengths andlarge apertures.

The 17-70mm does particularly well here, especially towards the long end of the zoom wherebackground blur is most pronounced. It won't match a 17-50mm F2.8 zoom for the degree ofblurring, of course, but it'll do rather better than an 18-55mm F3.5-5.6. Most importantly theblurred backgrounds are generally smooth and attractive, so don't distract from the mainsubject.

Distant Bokeh Close-up Bokeh

70mm F4, Canon EOS 100D 70mm F5.6, Canon EOS 100D

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Background detail, lower right Background detail, lower left

Macro

The 17-70mm's 'Macro' tag reflects its pretty impressive 0.36x maximum magnification. But inpractice things aren't so straightforward; this comes at an extremely close working distance,with just over 4cm (less than 2") between the front of the lens and the subject. This meansthat for close-up work you'll often find yourself getting right on top of your subject, with thelarge diameter front element frequently casting a visible shadow within the image area. Atsuch close focus distances the lens feels rather 'wide' too (as the the lens's angle of viewincreases as you focus closer), which results in slightly 'busier' backgrounds than you'd getfrom a 60mm macro prime, for example.

This example gives an idea of the results you can get out of the 17-70mm, in controlledindoor shooting using a tripod. As usual there's a trade-off between stopping down forsufficient depth of field, and avoiding excessive diffraction softening; in general we foundthat shooting at around F11 to F16 gave best results. But you can also see just how close tothe subject the lens ends up when shooting at minimum focus.

Canon EOS 100D, 0.8sec F16 ISO 200 Shooting set-up

There's another catch for macro work, too. Like almost all image stabilization systems,Sigma's OS becomes progressively less effective the closer you focus. This means you stillneed to keep shutter speeds up quite high to get properly-sharp images, and therefore willoften need to use high ISOs (at least if you're not using a tripod). With the high ISOcapabilities of modern DSLRs you can still get pretty decent results this way.

Flash shadowing

One problem we might expect to see, given the lens's large front diameter, is shadowing ofthe built-in flash at wideangle. But with all the recent Canon SLRs we tried, this only becamevisible at very short focus distances (less than 0.4m), which would be unlikely to cause anyproblem in normal use. However it's certainly possible the effect could be much worse withDSLRs that don't lift their flash units so high above the lens axis.

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4. Test results

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Canon EF Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Nikon DX Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 DC Macro HSM C(Pentax K Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Sigma SA Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 DC Macro HSM C(Sony A Mount)

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Sigma 884306 17-70 2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM for Nikon (Black)●

Sigma 884306 17-70 2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM for Nikon (Black)●

Conclusion - Pros

Useful combination of zoom range and relatively fast apertureVery good image quality across most of the rangeCompact sizeReasonably fast and near-silent autofocusEffective image stabilisation

Conclusion - Cons

Somewhat weak image quality at wideangle (soft corners and chromatic aberration)Macro shooting a little impractical (very short working distance)

Overall conclusion

The Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM is designed as an upgrade to the 18-55mm kitlenses supplied with most SLRs, and offers an interesting middle ground between fast zoomsof the 17-50mm F2.8 type, and extended-range zooms in the 16-85mm class. In effect youget a bit of both - a usefully-extended range compared to those typical kit zooms, and afaster maximum aperture for better low light capability and a bit more creative control overdepth of field.

In practice, the 17-70mm turns out to be an excellent choice if you've grown out of a kit zoomand want something a bit better. It offers generally better optics, a broader zoom range, andof course that faster aperture. But this all comes in a package that's surprisingly compact,and doesn't take up too much extra space in your camera bag. It's not as light as a kit zoom,but not excessively heavy either.

The lens's focusing and image stabilisation systems work well too. Autofocus is pretty fast,and near-silent when shooting stills; we've seen no obvious problems with accuracy either.Likewise the OS system is silent in operation, and works generally very well; we generallygot about three stops worth of stabilisation out of it (although as usual, it's best to take afew replicate shots when relying on OS for sharpness).

The 17-70mm's main weakness is its image quality at wideangle; here it suffers fromsomewhat soft edges which don't sharpen up on stopping down, coupled with quite strongchromatic aberration. The latter can easily be fixed in post-processing if you shoot RAW, butnote that only Nikon SLRs will correct it in their JPEG output. Softer edges are more difficult todeal with, so if you spend a lot of time shooting detailed landscapes at wideangle, this maynot be the best choice of lens.

The 'Macro' in the lens name points to its impressive-on-paper close focusing, but we foundthis to be a bit less useful than you might hope. The numbers certainly look good - 22cmminimum focus, 0.37x magnification - but in practice this equates to a very short workingdistance between the lens and the subject. This means you'll often find yourself blocking outyour own light, or casting a visible shadow on your subject. As it happens, those lowly 18-55mm kit zooms offer similar magnification with more practical working distances. So despitethe 'Macro' label, we wouldn't necessarily recommend this lens if close-ups are a specificpriority.

The Final Word

Sigma's faster-than-average 17-70mm lenses have long had a pretty good reputation as kitzoom upgrades, and the latest iteration continues in this tradition. Its combination ofextended focal length range and faster aperture offers useful extra compositional flexibilitycompared to an 18-55mm F3.5-5.6, and the optics are overall better too. It's not perfect, andin particular may not be the best option if you shoot a lot at wideangle or close-up. But it'svery good indeed, and a great choice for SLR owners looking to expand their horizonsbeyond the kit zoom.

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | CCategory: Normal Lens

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Good for general purpose zoom for everydayshooting.

Not so good for Wideangle or close-up shots

Overall score

80%

Sigma's latest 'C' badged 17-70mm F2.8-4 is an excellent upgrade option for SLRshooters who've outgrown their kitzooms, and are looking for better imagequality and more creative flexibility. Itoffers a fine balance of zoom range andmaximum aperture, while still beinghighly portable. Autofocus and imagestabilisation both work well, but imagequality at wideangle isn't the best.

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Samples Gallery

There are 36 images in the samples gallery. Please do not reproduce any of these images ona website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page).We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines forpersonal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith,please don't abuse it.

Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution. Becauseour review images are now hosted on the 'galleries' section of dpreview.com, you can enjoyall of the new galleries functionality when browsing these samples.

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C Samples - 5th August 2013

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Sigma USB Dock quickreviewAug 12, 2013

2013 Waterproof GroupTestAug 9, 2013

Pentax Q7Aug 8, 2013

70%

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4DC MACRO OS HSM | CAug 5, 2013

80%

OMG Life AutographerQuick ReviewAug 2, 2013

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7Jul 31, 2013

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This week

Did you miss it? Take a look at thePerseid meteor shower's peak'Film was never this sharp': Breaking Badphotographer interviewedIs the snapshot dead? Seattle collectorthinks soPanasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 SampleImagesEpic fail? 70-200s of all makes amongleast reliable lensesPictures purport to show rumored Sonysmartphone lens/sensor moduleLytro CEO admits layoffs, promises'breakthrough' products in 2014What's up, dock? Sigma USB Dock reviewThis just in: Camera enthusiasts are'intense' (who knew?)Cardboard printers? Samsung conceptslook to cheaper, sustainable future

5. Conclusion & samples

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Canon EF Mount)

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Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C(Nikon DX Mount)

●

Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 DC Macro HSM C(Pentax K Mount)

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