Sigma AF 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Aspherical RF - Review / Test Report - Sample Images & Verdict
Lens Reviews - Canon EOS (APS-C)

Sample Shots

The following sample shots were taken with an EOS 350D and RAW converted via RSP 2006. First shot (sheep) kindly provided by Christian Mikolaschek!

Click on a thumbnail to view the original file (opens in a separate window). Please note that the originals are FULL SIZE samples (=several megabytes) thus requiring a significant amount of bandwidth so please take care of the limited resources here.

Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 800
Focal Length 400.0mm
Exposure Data: f/8.0 @ 1/1000s
Size 3471x2311
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 135.0mm
Exposure Data: f/6.3 @ 1/320s
Size 3471x2311
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 246.0mm
Exposure Data: f/5.6 @ 1/320s
Size 3471x2311
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 135.0mm
Exposure Data: f/4.5 @ 1/1250s
Size 2311x3471
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 135.0mm
Exposure Data: f/5.6 @ 1/640s
Size 2311x3471
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 135.0mm
Exposure Data: f/5.6 @ 1/1000s
Size 3471x2311

Verdict

The Sigma AF 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Aspherical RF is not a perfect lens nor can you expect that a budget lens reaches high end quality levels. Nonetheless it is capable to provide very decent results especially in the 135-300mm range. At 400mm @ f/5.6 the quality is quite soft but from f/8 and up the quality is very respectable. The distortion characteristic is almost perfect and vignetting isn't really field relevant on an APS-C DSLR. CAs are a quite pronounced at 135mm but the overall level is still acceptable. Mechanically the lens leaves more to be desired. The quality of the used materials is fine but the friction of the zoom ring is way too high and the worst implementation that I've seen so far. There's no such thing as a free lunch but admittedly the Sigma offers quite a bit of possibilities for your bucks.

Optical Quality:    
Mechanical Quality:
Price/Performance:
      
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