Sigma AF APO Tele Macro 400mm f/5.6 Performance
All the way through the aperture range, sharpness, as measured on the chart, is only fair at best. Keeping to the range of f/5.6 to f/11 will avoid the worst of the further loss of sharpness due to diffraction, but we have a fairly soft lens whichever way we look at it. It needs Unsharp Mask in Photoshop or a similar program to crisp things up and when that is done performance in the field is rather better than performance in the technical lab. There is no glossing over those MTF figures though.
Sigma AF APO Tele Macro 400mm f/5.6 MTF Charts
How to read our MTF chartsThe blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution and sharpness as LW/PH and is described in detail above. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A350 using Imatest. Want to know more about how we review lenses? |
CA (Chromatic Aberration) is commendably low, especially for a film-era lens. Clearly, the APO designation does mean something and colour fringing is not generally visible in the real world images.
Sigma AF APO Tele Macro 400mm f/5.6 Chromatic Aberration Charts
How to read our CA chartsChromatic aberration (CA) is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A350 using Imatest. |
Distortion is measurable at +0.44% pincushion, another commendable result.
Bokeh is expected to be smooth with longer lenses and this is no exception. It is easy to throw backgrounds out of focus and even busy ones look very effective.
Flare is extremely well controlled, which is especially creditable for a lens of this vintage. The lens takes into its stride even the most severe lighting conditions, with virtually no evidence of any loss of contrast.
Vignetting is only just over one-third of a stop over the entire range of apertures, a really outstanding result.
| Aperture | Vignetting |
| f/5.6 | -0.4 |
| f/8 | -0.4 |
| f/11 | -0.4 |
| f/16 | -0.4 |
| f/22 | -0.4 |
| f/32 | -0.4 |
Sigma AF APO Tele Macro 400mm f/5.6 Sample Photos
Sigma AF APO Tele Macro 400mm f/5.6 Aperture range
You can view additional images in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.
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30 Mar 2022 12:17PMOne wonders how much of this is down to spotty aging of some Sigma lenses around this time, particularly at a time of such technological change (internal focus, different ways to go about AF). This would effect even pristine copies like the one you've tested.
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5 Apr 2022 9:05AM-
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3 Jul 2022 11:29PMSign In
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