Squirrels are awesome—so when I decided one day that I’d photograph them using the Canon 7D and the Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 EX OS I wanted to see just how sharp some of the images this lens can take can be. Zoomed in at the full 200mm, the little guy in the picture was still pretty far away from my attic window. So what do the crops look like in this unofficial sharpness test?
Just a couple of words before I go on about how all these images were shot and post-processed. All images were shot at F/2.8 were shot at ISO 100 while all images at F/5.6 were at ISO 400. Attached to the Canon 7D, the Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 EX OS is approximately 320mm—which as you can see is still too far away. I tried shooting images where the tree in my backyard wasn’t blocking the squirrel. Indeed, you can actually see some parts of it in the images. All images were shot handheld with OS 1 on.
After pulling the images into Lightroom, I did the crops that you see in the opening image for this story. After cropping the images, there was no need to resize them for the web because of how small they became. No sharpening, white balance changes or any other editing whatsoever was done to maintain the integrity of the images. For reference, the 7D was shot at full 18MP RAWs.
Why the 7D and not the 5D Mk II when this lens is optimized for full frame use? Because wildlife photographers and most people that read this site use APS-C sensor cameras.
Here are the images displaying how sharp the new Sigma lens is.
F/2.8
F/5.6
Share your thoughts down below with us and let us know your thoughts on this lens. Is the very center of this lens sharp enough for you?
The Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 EX APO DS HSM OS is available for purchase at both B&H and Amazon.
At the time of writing this posting, the Canon 7D is available with a rebate at B&H.
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