The Sigma 17-70mm: A lens for the indecisive?

Alex Tattersall · Issue 56, Sep/Oct 2010 · pp. 36–39

Products mentioned: Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro, Sigma 17-70mm HSM, Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM, Canon 7D, Nauticam NA-7D, Nauticam 8.5" dome, INON Z240

Fellow SLR users, have you ever noticed the gleeful look in the eyes of the compact user on those two occasions in particular? 1. Airport checkin. How smugly they breeze through airport check- in and customs without the need for crippling excess baggage charges. Bypassing the adrenalin pumping Russian roulette of praying that your 20kg hand luggage Pelicase is not going to be weighed by the over-zealous check-in assistant who is having a bad day. Never having to sport the ‘haute couture’ photographer’s jacket stuffed to the top with batteries, lenses, strobes, and all manner of ‘essential’ accessories. 2. The pre-dive dilemma. Every time they hear that familiar mantra of us poor SLR underwater photographers before every dive: “macro or wide angle?, macro or wide angle?, macro or wide angle”. Perhaps we have an answer to occasion number two. We all know that lens choice will determine bot…