advice: carrying a single zoom (28-200 f3.5) vs a pair (28-80, 80-200 f2.8)

i'm no pro, but i enjoy action/sports photography with the occasional
nature bit and wedding thrown in for fun. strictly personal,
non-commercial in nature.

i've been using a sigma 28-200 f3.5-5.6 lens for the last couple of
years and have been generally pleased with it. i recently had the
opportunity to purchase a pair of f2.8 tokina zooms covering the same
range (28-80 + 80-200) at a great price. after getting the new lenses
it's been quite a change in terms of the size/mass of the faster glass
- heck the new 28-80 is the same size/mass as my old 28-200 and the
80-200 is a bazooka in comparison!

i'm looking for thoughts on the benefits of the bigger glass.

obviously the lenses are faster, giving me more latitude in the shots
i can pull off w/ limited lighting or faster shutter in good lighting.
any thoughts on the lens sharpness?

downsides are the inconvenience of carrying 2 big lenses and losing
the flexibility/convenience of the extended zoom range in the 1 lens
setup.

 

what advice? you seem to have sumarized it very well above; from there
it's up to you to determine how "portable" you need to be v. what you
expect from the glass.

The Tokinas should be sharper generally and through their zoom length
should be sharp. The 28-200, although I don't know it, is probably
reasonably sharp in some parts of its range, and soft in others. It
probably has a lot more field distortion as well at the short end
compared to the 28-80.

Alan.

 

I think as time goes on, you'll answer the last part of your question. You
will notice a improvement in sharpness between the two Tokinas and the
Sigma, they are better lenses, and less zoom range means fewer compromises.

 

i agree, maybe he should decide on two travel modes, heavy and light.
let the shots acticipated determine which, mode and throw in a tripod
for the heavy. --Loren