Sigma 400mm F5.6 APO telemacro A-mount lens review by pseudogrammaton
 pseudogrammaton#41968 date: Dec-1-2017 | |
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| sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Canon 400/5.6; Any ultra-zoom I've tried; |
| price paid: | $285 (US/American) |
| positive: | Astonishingly sharp dead-center; Excellent colors; Very good bokeh, sometimes excellent; Solid build, yet 1 lb. lighter than modern xx-600 ultrazooms, but approx. same min. focal distance; Works well with macro tubes, keeps sharp at 2x zoom at 2.5 feet; |
| negative: | Typical iris hot spot when stopped down past f/16; Hood a bit fiddly; On A7r2, using the LA-EA4 SLT/half-mirror adapter: AF hunts a bit, be sure to use the limiter & back-focus button; LA-EA4 screw drive actuates even when lens is hard-toggled to manual; |
| comment: | Copies of this on Minolta / Sony A-mount are very rare. Shooting on an A7r2 (Sony FE-Mount), all-manual, with diaphragm control via an adapter & 42mm of macro tubes** reveals: - Close-focus down to 0.75 meters; - 2x magnified details verging on pixel-scale detail; - More than sufficient acutance to accommodate a 1.4x or 2x TC. Considerations: - I plan to investigate how much the LA-EA4 SLT half mirror impairs IQ; - Research if the LA-EA4 will behave with auto-macro tubes; - A good teleconverter is well worth the investment; **(macro tubes on a long lens is an old-school trick from back in the day when ultra-tele's had 10 meter MFD's -- macro tubes cause less than one stop of light to be lost even when nearly doubling the image (macro tube 40% rule)) |
rating summary
- total reviews: 19
- sharpness: 4.58
- color: 4.58
- build: 4.42
- distortion: 4.89
- flare control: 4.26
- overall: 4.55