Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens - Camera Labs: Digital Camera and Lens Reviews, Workshops, News

Product Details

Description:

The high performance telephoto zoom lens is ideal for digital SLR cameras. This lens has two SLD glass elements in the front lens group and one in the rear lens group It is able to shoot with maximum magnification 1:2 at the focal length of 300 mm. It is the ideal lens for portraits, sports photography, nature photography, and other types of photography that frequently use the telephoto range. This lens has two SLD glass elements in the front lens group and one in the rear lens group, the lens has excellent correction of chromatic aberration through the entire zoom range.

Quick Glance

Camera Mount: Canon EOS Cameras

Max Focal Length: 300 mm

Lens Type: Telephoto Zoom

Max Aperture: f/ 4 (Wide), f/ 5.6 (Tele)

Summary

Product Title: Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens

Manufacturer: Sigma

Power Score: 4.2 | 16 Reviews

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Product Reviews (11)

wonderful 70-250mm

Strengths: excellent focusing, very low chromatic aberration, and good level of details for $200

Weakness: rotating front element, not as rich color as the $600 Canon 70-200/4L, consumes battery 3 times as much as non-tele lenses

I have this for more than a year now, and it's my second best photography lens purchase (the best being the Canon 50mm/1.8). It is true that the Canon 70-200mm/4L gives better colors, low focusing noise, and faster focusing speed at 3 times the price. BUT, the sharpness and details of this lens is good for 16-20 inch prints already. It is also true that the maximum focal length and maximum...
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By songkuan - Jan 27, 2007

Good lens

Strengths: easy to use, decent price

Weakness: none noted

I am new to the SLR world and I basically guessed that this lens would fit my needs. I am very happy with it. It takes beautiful macro pictures and quickly converts to telephoto with a flip of the switch AND having the focus mechanism in the correct area. That part took me a while to figure out as I didn't bother to actually read the manual! It is heavy (nothing to do with this particular lens)...
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By jsev22 - Jul 17, 2006

Good value for the money you spent

Strengths: Best in the price range. Good contrast and it makes good images during the day. It'd be a good daytime holiday snaps lens. Good package: it comes with a lens hood and a large padded case. Lightweight

Weakness: Auto focus is little bit noisy, but I can live with that

I bought this lens after visiting at literally thousands of web sites and reading users reviews. I discovered that lens has some weaknesses, but they are not significant. The most important this lens makes good images. And the price is much cheaper than similar Canon lens. When I got the lens and make some images I was not disappointed with my purchase. It is a sharp, make good contrast images....
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By lv12 - May 5, 2006

Incredible!

Strengths: PRICE!, Wide zoom range of 70mm-300mm, Sharpness at 70mm-110mm, Macro capability at 200mm-300mm, 9 aperture blades!, Hood included, Decent built quality, Light weight, Did I mention PRICE???

Weakness: High Chromatic Aberration toward 300mm, Front element rotates(problematic to use a polarizer), Zoom ring is bit stiff to rotate, bit of yellow tone, Macro to normal mode switch is somewhat difficult.

Let me start by saying that.. this got to be the best bang for the buck lens out there! Feature to feature, dollar to dollar, and the performance.. this is one incredible buy. Around 70-110mm range, this lens can take a razor sharp pictures that can rival a prime lens! Only difference is the narrower aperture of f/4. Not to mention 9 aperture blades that it has.. with so many blades it produces a very impressive and beautiful bokeh shots. Between 110-200mm range, it is still very good and sharp. And 200-300mm range, only the border quality suffers, but the center is still very good. Between 200-300mm range, you could also switch to a macro mode. It is not a 1:1 life size macro, but rather 1:2 half the life size. So between the minimal focus range and the 1:2 life size, you are some what limited if you compare to a real macro lens, but it is still highly usable and impressive. Beside, macro feature is more of the bonus. Very good bonus at that.

Now the bad news. Between 70-200mm range, the Chromatic Aberration is very good to decent, but after 200mm and beyond, it can start to get your nerve. But there are many post processing applications out there that can correct this issue very effectively, and I highly recommend that you get this. (Some are free downloads)

Also the front element rotates when you focus and zoom, so the polarizer user will have to deal with the issue of constantly adjusting the polarizer shade.

It also produces a bit of yellowish tone(like most Sigma lenses do) in the picture, but nothing photoshop can not handle. :)

When you switch to macro mode, the lens extends out farther than normal mode to allow a closer focus distance, so when you want to go back to the normal mode again, you will have to manually retract it by using a focus ring before you can switch back.

The zoom ring is bit tiff to rotate and takes some effort to get use to, but the focus ring operates smoothly.

All in all, this is a total bargain lens that is excellent as a walkaround lens with a very light in weight in its class. You should not miss this lens! Buy it NOW!

By Pasukun - Jul 12, 2006

No complaint for what I pay!

Strengths: Reasonably priced for a well built zoom lens.APO lens improve the quality tremendously and the Macro capabilty a bonus.

Weakness: Zoom ring at 200mm -300mm is tighter and difficult to adjust.

After 1 month visiting various digital camera sites and reading all the good feed backs I decided to plunge in this zoom lens. Boy wasn't I happy paid less then $200 with shipping too. The 1st few photos right out of the box was amazingly sharp and color saturation spot on. The macro photos look like it's taken from a dedicated standalone Macro lens. I would highly recommend this lens especially...
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By ptsong - Apr 25, 2006

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