Sigma APO MACRO 150mm F2.8 EX DG HSM Pro Reviews

The Sigma AF 150mm f/2.8 EX HSM DG APO macro OS is certainly among the very best macro lenses around. It is capable of delivering very good results at max. aperture and the center quality does even reach excellent quality between f/4 and f/8. Both distortions as well as lateral CAs are insignificantly low. The vignetting is visible at f/2.8 but already moderate at f/4 and negligible beyond. It is a bit unfortunate that the quality of the bokeh is not top notch. The general quality of the blur is still good but not super creamy. A real surprise is the amount of bokeh fringing - there's basically none - an extremely rare characteristic. The Sigma is not only an apochromatic lens but a so-called super-apochromat. In this lens segment we've only seen this in the "cream machine" - the Voigtländer APO Lanthar 125mm f/2.5 SL.

The Sigma AF 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM APO performs on a very high level and delivers very good to excellent sharpness in the image center and very good border and corner sharpness at any aperture from wide open down to f/11, where diffraction begins to reduce resolution. Combined with the Sigma 1.4x APO DG tele converter the resolution is a bit lower, but still on a high level, at least when stopped down a little. So, in summary a very nice macro lens that also work well as a general purpose fast tele prime.

At the end of the day, the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro seems to offer the best bang of just about anything in its focal length/aperture range. If you're interested in shooting really close-up macro, yet with a reasonable working range, the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 looks to be a really excellent choice.

Overall, it's a very tempting package. To be able to get a lens capable of taking high resolution images, with no evidence of colour aberrations, high speed AF and 1:1 magnification for such a competitive price screams great value to me.

While searching for a new portrait lens I saw Sigma’s APO MACRO 150mm f/2.8 on their website. But wait, you say, this is a macro lens, not a portrait lens! Here’s my thinking: Any portrait photographer out there worth his light meter will gladly extol the virtues of a long, fast lens for portraiture...

The Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro Lens delivers excellent image quality in a relatively long focal length (for a macro lens) at a very reasonable price. The image quality, a lens is capable of, presenting to the camera's sensor is typically the biggest concern I have with a lens. The Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro Lens quickly erased this concern for me. This lens is very sharp wide open - from the center all the way out to the full frame corners. Stopping down only improves image sharpness slightly - it is hard to improve on the wide open sharpness this lens delivers...