I am considering to buy Canon rebel 2000 as a present, and the place where I want to buy it are out of Cannon 28-80 lenses, they are saying they will give me Sigma 28-80 Macro lens and charge me extra $20 for it. They said that Sigma 28-80 Macro is a much better lens, any suggestions?

-- Alex Gran (aggs400@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001

Answers

Neither one are very good lenses, but the Canon is still better than the Sigma. Both feel cheap and their optical qualities are so-so. In no way is the Sigma worth more than the Canon. Just take a look on Ebay for the prices of used Canon & Sigma lenses. Canon lenses will be about 50% more.

The problem with the Sigma lens is that if you try to use it on newer Canon cameras (the ones that haven't been introduced yet) it will probably fail. Sigma's history of incompatability problems with new Canon cameras is legendary. There are good Sigma lenses, but this is not one of them. Leave these these liars and find a decent store, or order over the net from B&H Photo.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 04, 2001.

Canon lenses are not worth the higher price (than their third-party lenses counterparts) For example the two lenses u mentioned.Sigma has an aspherical element plus macro at closest distance of 25cm and max magnification of 1:2.How about the canon 28-80mm? It has none of these,also the manual focus ring is narrow and moves in and out when focusing (inconvenient!!). The usm is quiet but do u really need this and pay more for this? The compatability problem is also a nonsense.It only occurs when u fit a lens that is not dedicated to canon cameras.Even if u find sigma lens doesn't fit the EOS body,u can ask sigma to upgrade the lens for u. My final advice:don't always pursue high-end products.Cheap ones can also yield good pics,it depends more on your skills.

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), December 09, 2001.