Cheap. Sharp under good lighting conditions Light weight. Fairly well made (not as good as the Canon consumer lenses though). Best in the price range. Excelent Sigma backup (not used) Comes with a nice lens bag!

Hunts in low light Macro switch horrid! slow to focus

This test is when the lens being used on a APS sized CMOS sensor digital camera (Canon 20D) and not a 35mm CCD or film camera. Users of a larger sensor of film camera can expect even beter results in my opinion. Price £169. Part exchanged my Canon 75-300 non IS USM after seeing the comparison shots on the net. First feelings where of a good improvment at all ranges when wide open.Lens is not as well made as the Canon and focus is slower. Under good light conditions this lens will give very (and I mean very) sharp images if you stop down 1 or 2 stops. Under low light conditions it is slightly better than the Canon ,but suffers from unsharp images and general lack of detail.There is also some CA with the appature wide but nowhere near the amount of the Canon.Focus also hunts in low light and it is quite easy for the lens to back or front focus in these conditions.Macro switch is crap and has to have the focus in the non macro range before is will return to its correct position. If your looking for a walk around lens then this is a good choice as it performs well under most situations.

Customer Service

From what I have read there great.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 70-300 USM

Optics.Very comparable to Canon 75-300 lenses. Low price+great value Very well made-metal mount

Not a fast focus lens,but not bad. Better if stopped down a little.

I bought this lens after looking at literally thousands of images on photobase.I got the latest "red ring" version(described this way at B&H:Sigma Zoom Telephoto 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO Zoom Macro Super II AF.It is much better than the older "gold-ring" lens.It is a sharp,contrasty lens.An absolute steal for the $$,I consider it my best lens for the money spent.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 75-300 IS USM(a much faster focusing lens anf IS is nice....but I wanted a less expensive lens).

lightweight, good price

soft focus past 250mm

This was one of only two lenses I owned for several years. I managed to get pretty good shots with it. I upgraded to some better lenses and have seen the difference in performance (the f stop does make a difference). This lens has a slight tendency to hunt for focus, but no more than any other at this price and range on the market. I do find that the focus is soft past 250mm. The f stop makes it difficult to take images in really low lighting (like rainforests). It's very light. I took it on many backpacking and hiking trips. I was quite happy with it for a number of years. It works okay as a macro lens as well. If you're interested, you can see some sample images taken with this lens at: http://www.pbase.com/ccraft/sigma_70300

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 80-200mm, Tamron 200-400

lightweight, good price

soft focus past 250mm

This was one of only two lenses I owned for several years. I managed to get pretty good shots with it. I upgraded to some better lenses and have seen the difference in performance (the f stop does make a difference). This lens has a slight tendency to hunt for focus, but no more than any other at this price and range on the market. I do find that the focus is soft past 250mm. The f stop makes it difficult to take images in really low lighting (like rainforests). It's very light. I took it on many backpacking and hiking trips. I was quite happy with it for a number of years. It works okay as a macro lens as well. If you're interested, you can see some sample images taken with this lens at: http://www.pbase.com/ccraft/sigma_70300

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 80-200mm, Tamron 200-400

Price. It comes with a lens hood and a rather large padded case. Good contrast, and it makes good images during the day. It'd be a good daytime holiday snaps lens.

Value. Shots in anything other than bright light need to be done on a tripod, and action shots aren't practical. Macro/normal switch was sticky and took some effort to toggle from macro back to normal.

I have the APO Super Macro II version of the lens, for Canon EOS, on a 300D. I purchased this lens as a general use zoom. During the day or bright light it's good, and has good contrast and saturation. When the light dims this lens shows its weaknesses. F5.6 @ 300mm isn't usable in anything other than bright light. Taking the ISO up to 3200 helps a lot, but obviously the photo gets very grainy. Indoor photos are near impossible without a flash, and at 300mm probably aren't practical at all. I returned this lens, and didn't replace it. If I replace it, it might be with be with a F2.8 IS lens, despite the price. I might even go for a 400mm prime lens next time.

Customer Service

B&H accepted the return with no problems at ll. I didn't contact Sigma.

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I used a Canon 70-200 F2.8IS lens for a half hour ones, which was very heavy but took fantastic photos.

Nice color resolution is ok for the price good zoom range

Noisy AF slow AF lens front extends when zooming lens front rotates when focusing ought to be faster

The lens pictured here is not the lens I have, but it has the very same name. This lens has taken some very beautiful shots for me. Its macro setting does nicely for only being 1:2. Color is good and resolution is middle of the the road. For anything close enough to fill the frame, this lens is great. For anything else, it's just another cheap lens. If you're shooting a bald eagle at 1000 yards, you might as well not take the shot. If you want to shoot wide open, don't bother. This lens falls short in either arena. It doesn't do well for long-range subjects. Another shortcoming is the AF drive. It's pretty noisy and only moderately fast. A camera set to servo AF will cause this lens to jerk and vibrate noisily, and then hunt for focus in low light. The 4/5.6 aperture range is barely adequate. With hood attached, this lens looks goofy. With the hood mounted backwards for "storage" it covers the zoom ring as well as the focusing ring. This means that if you want it shorter for more compactness, you have to give up the ability to zoom. All in all, this is a great lens for those of us who are too broke to afford those nice lenses but still have the enthusiasm. This lens works fine for sports and portrtaits, and is ok for nature. If you're like me and can't afford a pro lens, then don't be afraid to pick up something like this. You will do just fine.

Colour. Fast motor. Price.

AF hunting in low light, especially at short range.

Main thing that sold me this over a Tamron was the quiet, fast motor. Now I have the photos back and I'm really impressed. Colour saturation is vivid (better than my wide angle Nikon?), contrast is razor sharp. Solid and positive in use.

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Vivitar

Value for money, overall optical quality, build. Kudo's for Sima for also wrapping in a decent lens cover!!

Tendancy to hunt when trying to focus in low light / odd occasions

After much research and indecision on what lens to buy for photographing wildlife with my Canon digital Rebel, I finally settled on the APO series II version. Overall I am very satisfied with a well built and great value for money lens which takes great quality pictures which are sharp enough for me right through the range.

Customer Service

Not required to date

Similar Products Used:

Canon EFS 18-55, Vivitar Series 1 100-400

1. Sharp 2. no zoom creep 3. relatively fast AF

1. hunting under low light 2. can only switch back from macro to normal mode when the focussing is in the normal range

I have the version II of the lens which I use with the Canon 300D for fashion shows. It is sharp even when wide open. But because of the focal length, you need to be steady to prevent camera shake from ruining the pic if you don't have a monopod/tripod. Zoom ring is stiff and there's no creep. Focussing speed is quite fast during good light but under low light it could hunt a bit.

Customer Service

Haven't needed any servicing.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 75-300 LD Macro Tamron 28-200 XR Canon EF-S 18-55 Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Canon 50mm f/2.5 Macro

Very good image quality Good look and feel Better than Canon equivalent Lens hood / quality case included

Auto focus is noisy and sometimes hunts even in good light

When I purchased this lens in December 03, I received an old model the shop must have had sitting around for a long time; the model with the gold ring and macro function at 300mm only. The lens didn't work with my Canon EOS 30 - auto focus was hopeless even in good light and the aperture would not close down. Attempting to take a photo with the aperture stopped down would cause the camera to seize up forcing me to switch it off then on again. The shop sent it to Sigma for a chip upgrade and Sigma sent back the Super II model the next day (with the red ring version with macro function from 200mm-300mm). The zoom ring on the old lens tended to stick at around the 150mm mark (as mentioned by previous reviewers) and the focusing ring had virtually no resistance causing the focus to shift at the slightest provocation while in manual focusing mode. Also the macro switch was flimsy and I often had to jiggle the zoom ring at 300mm in order to get the switch to work. The Super II lens zooms smoothly through the whole range and the focusing ring has been firmed up nicely. I suspect the design bugs of the early model have been ironed out with the Super II so if you hear someone say "...that lens is badly made because the zoom sticks etc...", just check which model they are talking about. The macro switch is still a bit flimsy but there's no problem switching to and from macro mode once past 200mm. There was no zoom creep with either lens even when pointing the camera down and shaking. After picking up the replacement Super II lens, I took test shots to compare it with its main (Canon) competitor - the Canon EF 75-300 f4-5.6III USM lens which I borrowed from a friend. Shots were taken on the same roll of film in the same lighting conditions of the same subject (the Yellow pages phone book opened up to a page with some colour and fine text with both pages just filling the frame), using a heavy tripod with mirror lock up and a remote release. By the way, mirror lock up makes a very noticeable difference - I tried a few shots without and they were not nearly as sharp. Photos were taken at 70mm, 100mm and 300mm at f4 (or f5.6), f11 and f22 with each lens and the results were compared by examining the negatives and professionally printed 6x4 prints under a 8x loupe. The photos using the Sigma lens were better - without exception - than the equivalent photos using the Canon lens. Both lenses did not perform particularly well wide open (f4 or f5.6) with images being quite soft. The images from the Canon lens were so poor most of the fine print from the phone book was illegible; the Sigma lens showed slightly blurry but readable fine print. Sharpness improved dramatically at f11 for both lenses with similar performance at f22. Both contrast and colour were better using the Sigma lens. Pity I can't include pictures in this review to show you the difference but believe me, it's chalk and cheese. If I had bought the Canon lens I would have taken it straight back to the shop and got something else - the pictures really were terrible. The pictures from the Sigma were on par with my Tamron SP 24-135mm zoom which I tested at the same time - not as good as my 90mm pro quality lens I also tested but you wouldn't expect it to be. A small step down in image quality from a pro lens but a very big step down in price, weight and size making it an ideal travel/general purpose lens.

Customer Service

Replaced outdated model with new Super II lens instead of just doing a chip upgrade. Prompt service.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 75-300 III USM