Sigma 400mm f/5.6 APO Tele Macro

The 400mm APO tele macro is a value-oriented, yet powerful prime telephoto lens. The housing has a substantive feel to it, the finish is of high quality, and the optics are superb for a sub $1500 lens. I'm inclined to diss the clumbsy layout of the aperature ring and switches, but that's a matter of preference.

My subjects tend to be flowering plants and the occasional wildlife shot, and this lens is very well suited to the task. Macro support affords close takes of flowers with crisp, detailed images on a D300 or N90s. 60% of shots are set up manually with the remainder taken using AF; its my perception that manual shots seem to be sharper than AF shots.

Sharp detail throughout aperature range. A solid tripod is a must.
Minimal Bokeh and no obvious images or chromatic aberations.
Macro
Built like a ... Jeep. Sturdy body, trim may be so-so, and it does the job.

Weight -- this is not the best lens for trekking the Sierra Nevada Range,
Slow aperature -- may necessitate mirror lock up for best outcome.

Nikon 300mm f/4 AF.

Works very well on my Nikon D80, aperture controlled, and also works good with a Kenko 1,4 teleconverter. No CA, no periscopic view, really good quality pictures. Only wish it was a little bit faster (5.6). At F8 absolutely 100% quality !!

Price, built, quality of the pictures, less distortions as new zooms.

Weight, not fast

non

no

The lens is very sharp, well balanced, easy and convenient to use, mechanics works smoothly. When shhoting a 6MP camera, the limiting factor is clearly the sensor, not the lens. It handles so well, even many of hand-held shots are very sharp. Flare is seemingly well controlled - I did a couple of sunset shots and did not see any problems. For this price, there are simply no competitors on the market. Sorry, they discontinued it.

Optical quality Build quality. Balance Built-in shade Tripod collar.

rear cap (at least in the Pentax-mount model) is a bad joke, you have to replace it immediately or risk sompromizing te rear lens.

The lens is very sharp, well balanced, easy and convenient to use, mechanics works smoothly. When shhoting a 6MP camera, the limiting factor is clearly the sensor, not the lens. It handles so well, even many of hand-held shots are very sharp. Flare is seemingly well controlled - I did a couple of sunset shots and did not see any problems. For this price, there are simply no competitors on the market. Sorry, they discontinued it.

Optical quality Build quality. Balance Built-in shade Tripod collar.

rear cap (at least in the Pentax-mount model) is a bad joke, you have to replace it immediately or risk sompromizing te rear lens.

I bought this lens used from KEH to use on my new Nikon D70. At first I thought my pictures were blurry because my tripod wasn't solid enough. After a lot of tests I found two problems. First, it was horrible wide open at f/5.6. It got better at f/8, but that was too slow for what I needed. Second, it had a very bad "front focus" problem. Which meant that, when the lens was set to auto focus, it would actually focus a little in front of the subject it should focus on. This caused serious blur. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure it was a problem with the lens and not the camera. I finally got my hands on another D70 and reproduced the problem with it. Manual focus worked fine. But, it still was horrible at f/5.6. I have the 300mm f/4 Sigma APO Macro lens and it works great, even wide open. I sent this lens back to KEH for repair (under the 60-day warranty) and was told that it is not repairable because the chip in the lens is no longer available. I'm waiting for a refund at this time. I'm now using the Sigma 300mm APO Macro lens with a Kenko Pro 300 1.4x converter. That combination works very well and was much cheaper than having both the 300mm and 400mm. I'm giving this lens a low rating to serve as a warning to those interested in buying one. Since there probably is no repair available make sure you get some kind of return policy in case you get a deffective one like I did.

Probably a good lens if you get one that doesn't have a bad chip and works better wide open.

Very soft/blurry wide open. "Front focus" problem Lens cannot be repaired if the chip goes bad.

Sigma 300mm f/4 APO Macro

Sigma customer service called me to tell me the lens was not repairable, even though KEH sent it to them. The Sigma rep was nice, but there was a serious language barrier. I could not get him to understand that he needs to send the lens back to KEH because they are the one's who sent it to Sigma. I called KEH to warn them that I would probably get the lens from Sigma. They told me just to send it to them if that happens and they would take care of it. KEH customer service is great.