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Rating: 
Summary: An amazing lens for the price.
Review: First, let me say this lens is one of my favorites. I own this lens for my Pentax PZ-1 and have read MANY reviews about it. The price is cheap. In fact, it's arguably the cheapest lenses in it's class. But don't mistake a cheap price as the sign of a bad lens. I use this lens for many occassions and at it almost always delivers GREAT pictures. Yes, it's not the single best lens in the world, but it is as good as many of the lenses I've used that are two or three times the price. Plus, if you break this one you can buy another without breaking your piggy bank ... or your credit card limit.The two complaints most people make about this lens are, "It's a slow lens" and "It's almost impossible to focus manually." Let me put both those complaints to rest right now. First, when photographers refer to how "slow" a lens is, they don't mean how fast it can focus, they mean the F-stop setting. This lens is a F3.5-5.6. Granted, some expensive lenses at this focal length can go as low as F1.x, but most can't. And most experienced (and novice) photographers can use any lens that can go below F8. So, when people call this lens "slow," they should be talking about F-stops, not autofocus. I for one have found this lens to be more than fast enough for hand-held use. It's only been too slow once in about 1,000 shots. Second, the focusing ring on this puppy is short. That means it's hard to focus manually. Still, that's to be expected on a smaller, cheaper lens such as this. Although it's tough to focus manually, it's not impossible. I've used manual focus on this lens several times and got great results ... just move the ring SLOWLY and you will get great manual focus. Nevertheless, keep in mind this IS an autofocus lens ... most people won't focus the lens manually. And on that note, the autofocus is spectacular. Add in the macro ability of this lens and you've got one heck of a package! Oh, and don't forget ... It's CHEAP! If you can only afford one lens for your next vacation, make it this lens ... and use the $100+ you saved to buy more goodies.
Rating:
Summary: Great all-purpose lens
Review: I got this lens for everyday use. It has a decent zoom range and a macro mode, making it more versatile than its Canon counterpart. The regular mode takes beautiful pictures at any distance. The macro mode is a little limited, but it does let you get just inches from the subject, good enough for basic close-up work. The close-ups were crystal clear. Although you can get closer with dedicated macro lenses, most people, like me, will find this lens more than sufficient.
Rating: 
Summary: Soft focus, too many compromises
Review: I have owned this lens for about two years, and found that it was a fine lens at first, when I was just starting to learn with a good camera, but that it quickly outwore it's usefulness and now mainly gathers dust. Sigma gave up a lot on this lens to add the Macro element, which lets you focus in very close. The focus is pretty soft at longer lengths, producing pictures that are noticably unsharp. There are manual focusing difficulties resulting from saving much of the focal rings for the macro, so that you have a lot of room to turn for focusing from 2 to 3 feet but very little precision in focusing from twenty to thirty feet (and that is a range I use much more). Also, the lens has difficulties in low light, zooming in and out trying to focus on something, anything. I got this in a kit with the 70-300 lens, which I still use all the time and I think is a good lens for the money. On this lens, I would recommend investing instead on a good 50mm lens and just taking a few steps forward or backward to get your shots -- they will be much better shots than with this zoom.
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