Customer Reviews

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon SLR Cameras

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I disagree with Jeff Kershaw's review for the older version of this lens (Sigma 70-300mm APO Super), in that it's very unfair to compare this lens to a L series lens, as those lens start at over $500 due to it's very specific high-grade optics manufacturing process. To compare this lens to a lens that starts at over 4X the price is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Porsche. Like the civic, this Sigma lens is well rounded, good for beginner and consumer SLR photographers, and maybe some "pro-sumer" on a tight budget, or even students. For the price, this lens is a bargain, as I've been doing a lot of research before buying this lens (price range in the $130-225 for telephoto). What I liked most about this is the APO lenses, which prevent reflection inside the lens which creates "ghosting" (inverted light ghostly shadow that appers on your image) which is usually apparent in nightshots. During the day APO lenses decrease those "purple fuzzies" (chromatic aberration) you see against high contrast (like a bird's wing against the sky). Granted this lens is no Porsche like the Canon L series, but for the price range, may hit the spot for some folks. I mainly use this camera for macro photography and taking photos of the Empire state building from my roof, which is 24 blocks away. This lens is definitely better quality than the Canon 75-300 USM III f/4-5.6 which is usually considered the benchmark for this price range telephoto.

Also note that there are different versions of these lenses (despite close naming), so be careful about what you buy. The is a APO DG version with Macro specifically made for digital SLRs which is what is listed here (the "official" name of this lens is: 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro), and a non APO version of this lens which is a bit cheaper (but not worth it at all). Also there's ones listed as APO II which is the "older" version, which I don't know the quality of, but know that it is older than the model listed here.

Summary: If you're on a tight budget this is as good as it gets in this price bracket. The next tier where there's significant gains in lens imaging doesn't even start until you start spending in $600-1800 range.

I rarely write reviews for stuff I buy on Amazon, but I felt I needed to share my thoughts on this lens.

Sigma has always been a better "out of the box" experience than Canon, which unfortunately does not see fit to ship a $6 hood for a $600 lens. Sigma gives you a carrying case and a hood. The "feel" of this lens is excellent. It's tight (no focus creep), and a sort of rubberized matte finish that just screams "pro". Top marks here.

From an optical standpoint, the lens is incredibly good, considering the price. I fired off about 70 shots outside to test the aperture at the different focal ranges. Yes, there is some softness at 300mm, but this can be mostly offset by stopping it down to 4.0. The rest of the focal range is fine. I used my Rebel XT and a Canon UV filter (50mm) for the tests. In the macro mode, there's excellent contrast and saturation, and very good bokeh.

Focus is a little slow, but then maybe I'm spoiled by the Canon glass, which focuses like nothing else. Still, there's very little hunting here, except in lower ambient light. This is not an indoor lens, nor is it a walkaround utility one. But for telephoto work and even a bit of macro (as it were), it's an extremely good deal.

All in all, I'd highly recommend getting this, especially as a first-time telephoto for people who are getting into DSLRs. The closest Canon equivalent is about $100 more expensive, and I don't believe it comes with a hood or case.

First of all I must tell you that I was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of digital SLR photography. Not because I had a love of film on the contrary I hate film photography, it was more like I hated the thought of lugging around lenses and all the other stuff. I managed to build my business and reputation using fixed lens "Pro-sumer" cameras. Long story short what made me move to SLRs was performance, speed, quality and lenses like this one.If you have ever read any of my other reviews you already know I am a terrible gear head and often tend to trick out my cameras to the hilt! I was buying lenses for a rebel XT when I bought this lens on a whim. To start 70-300mm is nothing earth shaking every lens maker in the business has at least one model in this range, but the real kicker with the Sigma is the macro feature, that in a word is simply amazing. The macro feature can be switched in at 200-300mm and is tack sharp for everything from flowers, to coins to whatever!! And considering the focal range this is a relatively fast lens. In a normal capacity its dead sharp in all applications no matter what your light conditions inside or out. I have even used this lens for wedding portraits and got great results. As with all Sigma lenses the build quality is excellent as is the glass giving it the feel of a lens costing a whole lot more. As for accessories I would reccomend both a UV filter as well as a good CPL. Size wise it is what I would rate medium sized (as opposed to my Sigma 50-500mm) this makes it easy to manipulate and use in the field. If you are a Nikon user remove the lens hood and you will get amazing results using your pop-up flash! (Canon doesn't do as well with this.)
Now. If you are into pictures of the great outdoors the next thing I would add is a 2x teleconverter, Sigma claims this lens is not compatable with them and in a sense its not. But if you are willing to manually focus, and adjust the F stops your self you can pump this baby up to a 140-600mm super-telephoto!! I have one of these lenses for both of the SLR's I use (Canon 20D & Nikon D200) and with both using the teleconverter I do have to focus manually but they will meter light! Be prepared however results may be different on your camera. So bottom line is your looking for a great quality lens at a price you can live with? This is it. Are you a new or about to be new digital SLR user? This should be your first lens no question. Canon and Nikon lenses do focus faster and quieter, but what are you doing with that camera that you need to be so fast and quiet anyway? This lens is on either one or both of my cameras all the time, and when you shoot pictures for a living that says alot. Until next time be well and happy shooting!

SiNMiN

I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT.

Primary purpose of the camera is to photograph my daughter playing high school soccer.

PROS
The price is right on this "prosumer" lens. You really can't complain about 70-300 lens for $200.

Closeup / macro shots of flowers are excellent.

Outside 200mm zoom shots are crisp and look great when you load the pictures on your PC and zoom in tight with your favorite digital imaging computer program.

CONS(300 MM telephoto use for sports):
Full 300 mm zoom the picture quality is not what I had hoped. It is best described as soft focus.
Here were the cirumstances where I found the problem. I took 112 shots yesterday. Conditions were daylight and overcast. About 80% of them were at 300 mm zoom. At the 300 mm setting the pictures have a very "soft focus." You can't see it is the display panel on the camera. You can see the "softness" or blurriness when you load the picture into your favorite software and zoom in tight. The softness is over the whole image. I don't think it's a focusing issue. If it was out of focus on the primary subject you'd expect some part of the photo to be in focus, but nothing looks like it's crisp and sharp. It's equally bad across the image.

Yes, I am using a monopod and I know how to release a shutter. Film speed was set to 1600. I had the XT in Sport mode which forces the shutter speed to 1600. It still operates in auto focus and auto aperture in that mode.

No, I wasn't shooting in a fog or a mist.

CONCLUSION:
With less than one week of shooting on this lens I am not yet willing to say it's bad at the full 300 mm zoom setting. I will give it another try at a upcoming soccer tournament this weekend. This time I will force the Rebel into targeting its focus on one and only one point in the lens. I hope that improves the non-macro 300 mm zoom performance. If not, I will send it into Sigma service for them to check it out and repair if needed.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
They answer their phone quickly and are very polite.
When I called Sigma customer support they were more than willing to look into the problem. I have send it in for them to check it out and repair (if needed). Too bad, they don't exchange, they only repair. So, I will be without the lens for 2-3 weeks. I will probably have to take some photos of the same object at 300 mm and then at 200 mm and show them the difference in the picture quality.

I will keep this review updated.

**UPDATE**

I have shot well over 2000 images with it now with most of them being at soccer games. Image quality is excellent. This lens likes bright daylight to produce its best images just put the light at your back. I do find I often enhance the constrast in my photo editor, but I wouldn't attribute that to the lense. That's a function of my photographic skills.

I adjusted the Canon focus to one one point and it's really improved the issue I talked about above with the soft look of the pictures at 300 mm.

I have concluded that this lens would not be a good one to use at night time sporting events. The F4 lens just doesn't let in enough light.

Autofocus sometimes is a bit slow to lock in on an object.

All-in-all, for $200 you cannot go wrong.

Wasn't really expecting much from a 70-300mm zoom at this price range, but was pleasantly surprised with the results. Comes with a lenshood and nice carrying case.

Very good contrast and sharpness. I'd say that this is a "sunny day" lens, but it has also performed admirably during heavy overcast days.

Doesn't have the fastest AF, but more than up to the task for my needs. AF is on the noisy side (sounds like Robocop!).

At this price, this lens delivers more than I expected.

I have a Nikon D200 body and both Sigma APO 70-300 as well as Nikon 70-300 (non-ED) lenses. I tested both these lenses at f4 and f10 apartures and at 70mm, 200mm and 300mm focal lengths. The camera was on a tripod, mirror lockup was used and tripod/camera were not moved at all during lens changes for perfect apples-to-apples comparison. Identical sources of ambient light and identical flash settings were used for both lenses. Here are my conclusions:

It was very difficult to determine which lens was sharper between the two even when blown up to large picture sizes. The colors on the pictures taken by Sigma were a little bit more appealing but again only when looked at under lot of scrutiny. The depth of field on Sigma was shallower at f4 vs the Nikon which is both good (for portraits) and bad (for non-portrait pictures). Sigma always produced brighter pictures compared to Nikon lens but that can be compensated by always over-exposing the Nikon. I can say safely that a picture taken by the Nikon with one stop higher exposure is comparable to the picture taken by Sigma with Sigma winning by a very small margin only and in terms of color richness only when the pictures are blown up to large sizes.

When you switch the Sigma to macro mode it sort of becomes an apples-to-oranges comparison since the Nikon does not have a macro mode. To make it a fair test I used Nikon's published lowest focusing distance for both Nikon and Sigma lenses and switched the Sigma to macro mode. Sigma was slightly better than Nikon again when put under lot of scrutiny.

CONCLUSION:
I was absolutely thrilled with the closeups that the Sigma took that the Nikon could never have taken since Nikon does not have the macro mode. If taking closeups or macro pictures is not a goal for you, Sigma is only marginally better than Nikon so whether you spend the extra $50 for the Sigma APO or not is up to you. Happy shooting...

You can't go out and spend around $200 for a telephoto lens and expect it to perform like a $700 or $1300 lens, not going to happen. I think for the price range its a great addition, especially with the useful macro capibilities. Sure its not as fast of a focuser as Nikon's AF-S lenses, but it's also about 1/3 the price. The sharpest point for this lens is 70-220 at F/8, but thats not saying that the pictures are otherwsie unusable. As for indoor use, you need a flash. As mentioned before it really is too slow to use indoors (thats what primes are for anyways) but for the price, quality of the image, its a no brainer to pick it up

Lets face it: how many budget zooms are out there which let you take decently sharp zoomed in pictures?

This lens is a very good alternative to the otherwise expensive (but amazingly performing) white beasts from Canon (yes I am talking about the Canon 70-200mm L series). I owned it for about 10 days, only to return it. Not to say that I did not have fun with it, but I had to work very hard with it to get what I had bought it for: good zoomed in views of birds etc.

This lens has its limitations in terms of chromatic aberrations (noticeable more at high contrasty edges), softness beyond 200mm or so (and I really mean softness due to the optics and not camera/lens shake because I tested with a tripod and timed shutter release etc.), slightly faded warmer colors, etc. But it is still very good if you want to start experimenting with mid-tele zoom lenses.

In short,

Pros:
- Unbeatable price
- Will let you take decent zoom pictures, but with some work
- Decent (pseudo) macro capability, enough to let you experiment with it and figure out whether you like it or not.


Cons:
- Soft at high focal lengths
- Such high range definitely needs a tripod or image stabilization. If you have a camera with liveview, you can see how much the image jitters when zoomed in all 300mm. Its near to impossible to get a tack sharp shot of a moving target unless you have a tripod handy.
- Macro isnt real macro... it just allows you to get a bit closer to the targets as compared to other zooms.. but the DOF is so narrow you cant focus in correctly without a tripod/stabilization.

Its actually not a bad lens for beginners. In fact I would highly recommend this lens for beginners, so they can work it out without image stabilization and solid built and high quality optics.. it really made me appreciate how much old school guys worked to get decent zoom images without all the IS and VR gadgeted lenses.

Good luck, and happy imaging!

Pros:

Great color
Great contrast
Great bokeh
Good sharpness
Great bang for the buck
Light weight / small in size
Great lens hood locked in place easily
Great Portrait Lens at 70mm F4 to F5.6
Sharp pretty photos between F8 and F22
Quick accurate easy to use manual focus
Auto focus is slow but accurate in bright sunlight

Cons:

Cheap plastic feel
Auto focus pretty noisy
Auto focus is pretty lousy
Macro Switch hard to move
Photos a little soft when Aperture wide open
Auto focus does not work at all in very dim light
Lens changes length when zoomed and focused
The copy I had would manual focus past infinity!
Auto focus sometimes refuses to refocus from infinity
Auto focus is very slow but accurate in bright sunlight
Some loss of sharpness as you zoom out approaching 300mm
Zoom is slow and catches especially between 200 and 300mm
Cheap and I mean VERY cheap build, feels like it could fall apart at any time!

Now for the good:

I borrowed this lens from a friend as we were both curious how it would stack up against my Canon 70 - 200 2.8 L lens.

I mounted both on my Canon Rebel XTi on a tripod and left it at the same settings for both lens and took photos of a color test card at 100 ISO.

Then at 400 ISO I did some hand held shots of birds and my dogs in the back yard, some portrait shots of my daughter then some shots in the house with the lights off.

We were both very surprised to see the photo sharpness, color and contrast right up there with my Canon L lens when the Sigma is at F8 and above. Was the Canon L sharper? Yeah a little bit, but not much. It was hard to see which photos were taken by which lens when looking back and forth.

That makes this Sigma lens a very great buy for those on a budget who want to take some great looking photos.

And it makes a pretty good Portrait lens as well with great bokeh and a good soft look at F4 70mm then sharper at F5.6 70mm

When using the manual focus mode I found the focusing to be very quick and accurate in all situations except infinity (more on that below). The auto / manual focus switch was small but easy to use.

I got some great photos of the moon at ISO 400 1/10 second F22 zoomed to 300mm mounted on a tripod using mirror lockup and a remote release.

And the not so good:

This is a budget lens, and as such if you love to shoot birds in flight with a lightening quick auto focus like you can do with the Canon L then the Sigma 70 - 300mm is not for you.

The auto focus is pretty slow, about what I used to get out of my old Minolta 70 - 300 mounted on my Minolta 5D. It's pretty good in bright sunlight when you are focusing on brightly lit high contrast still objects. When trying to use auto focus in servo focus mode on moving objects it just couldn't keep up.

Inside in dimly lit rooms it could not focus at all where in the same light the Canon L Lens would focus in a fraction of a second. That's when the great Sigma manual focus could be used to take over.

One thing to note on the manual focus was the copy I tested would manual focus past infinity. What does this mean? If you rotate the focus ring to infinity it's actually past infinity and as a result when you go to shoot anything on the horizon or in the sky like the moon it will be out of focus so you have to rotate the barrel back just a little.

Also the zoom was really hard to operate one handed requiring me to take both hands on the lens to zoom especially from the 200 to 300 zoom setting where it really seemed to catch and become harder to turn. Maybe I'm being too hard on this lens because I'm used to the silky smooth Zoom operation of my Canon L lens but I think they could do better or maybe this is just a bad sample.

The switch for the macro mode will only operate between 200 - 300mm settings and even when between those settings I found it hard to switch between the two.


Conclusion:

I gave this lens 4 stars because it takes such great photos for the money and is a lens I would recommend for photographers on a budget and / or who don't need or worry about the auto focus speed or the two handed zoom operation and or going to be in a situation where they need a disposable lens (rock climbing etc.) and don't want to carry an expensive lens.

Bottom line if you are on a budget and don't need lightening fast auto focus or a smooth zoom I recommend this lens.

Lenses I currently own:

Canon EF-S 17-55 F/2.8 IS Ultra sharp, great colors, great low light, poor zoom action
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Rebel XTi Kit lens Muddy, slow, pile of junk Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L Fantastic colors, sharp zoomed 17 to 24mm, ultra smooth zoom action, light weight
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L Fantastic colors and contrast, sharp zoomed 40 to 70mm, zoom a little stiff at first, heavy!
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Good budget portrait lens, light weight, disposable, sharp from F/2.5
Canon EF 85mm F/1.2 L II The best portrait lens for female and children clients, buttery smooth Bokeh, heavy and expensive it shares sharpness with 135mm
Canon EF 135mm F/2.0 L The best portrait lens for males and tied with Canon 85mm F 1/.2 for sharpest lens I own, buttery smooth Bokeh
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L fantastic colors, sharp for a zoom, very versatile ego boosting and attention getting and heavy! My favorite zoom lens!!!
Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L great IS, super colors, sharp for a zoom, extremely versatile, variable Bokeh, even more ego boosting and attention getting when extended and 400mm reach!!

My next lens purchase I'm saving for right now: _Canon EF 300mm F/2.8 IS L the finest lens ever

I purchased this Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Lens after a lot of research. I read reviews and discussion on many online forums. This lens is incredibly sharp. Definitely sharper than my Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Standard Zoom Lens. The macro capability is awesome. I can grab super-sharp macro close-ups at 300MM from about 10 feet away. Excellent for wildlife, etc. Lens build feels solid. Focuses fast.

Here's my equipment: (All purchased from Amazon.com)

Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.1MP Digital SLR
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens
Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Standard Zoom Lens
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Lens