Price. The tight focusing ring. MACRO!!! It also included a lens hood and, get ready for this, a beautifully padded lens case with a belt loop and a rugged leather botton! You want more than this for $200 ? Did I mention MACRO?!

Noisy, even by NYC standards. Oh well! Long reach when zoomed out at 300mm. Get a tripod or a monopod. You'll thank me for this advice some day.

Ok folks, enough of comparing this to a pro lens. It's not! But for an everyday carry-in-your-bag lens, it's great! I looked at this lens as well as a Canon 75-300 II USM zoom to use on my new Canon Digital Rebel (I love it!) They were quite different even though the ranges were similar. The Sigma has a better feel with more weight. Better for windy days and winter here in The Big Apple. The focus is tighter and this is a good thing. No zoom creep on this lens. The Sigma also has a macro function while the Canon does not. I kept thinking about the macro feature on the Sigma. It works in the 200-300 range. Today I brought back the Canon lens and got the Sigma. Thanks to B&H for a great return policy. I have already tested this lens on some shrubs coming home and some far away candids in Times Square. No problem focusing and tack sharp photos. The macro feature is wonderful for pet photography and Ebay shots. I noticed some vignetting when zoomed out at 300 in low light. Hey, this is what Photoshop Elements plug-ins excel at. Who isn't using a computer these days for retouching and printing at home? It's also easy to correct barrel distortion these days as well but I have not noticed any. Yes it's a little noisy and the focus in low light wanders but show me a consumer lens in this range that doesn't. I focus manually in low light anyhow. I used to do construction photos and got used to carrying a small flashlight in my bag to highlight an object for the lens to focus on. Yeah, you need a tripod for this one, no big deal if you really want to get a shot. I found that the best thing I have ever done to improve my photography is to use a tripod as much as possible. I have already taken, and downloaded onto my computer and printed several 5x7 and 8X10 prints. I could not have asked for better. The optical quality seems to be just as good as the Canon 75-300 USM. The difference is I had to sacrifice noise for the macro feature. I'll get used to it. I have looked online for several days and I have been shocked by the quality of the Sigma photos. I had a Sigma lens years ago and it came apart while I was shooting a job for a newspaper! I never got it fixed, I just swore off Sigma lenses forever. I think they just won me over again and this time I hope there are no problems. If there are I'll be right back here to let you all know. When we work hard for your money you have every right to want quality. I found it in my Sigma 70-300 APO macro lens. Don't forget to buy a UV filter to protect your investment

Customer Service

Have not needed to use them

Similar Products Used:

Canon 75-300 4-5.6 II USM Tamron 70-210

* This is cheap lense * Macro switch is cool and macro shots are great *Good for everyday photography for a photographer who just wants to get good pictures * This is quite light to carry around

* It makes lots of noise when autofocusing and doesnt allways find the right focus - especially in low light. * Plastic feeling, allmost like a toy * Soft even when with tripod, shutter release timer and mirror lock-up used - but this only shows in BIG pictures. * With stop F5.6 @ 300mm it is hard to find lightning situation where you could use it without tripod or good flash. I got great hand held results with D60 and 550 EX flash.

This review relates to the APO Macro Super 2, which has red rather than gold trim. I bought this lense even if I had read lots of bad reviews too. This is actually a great lense, if you are not too conserned how sharp pictures details are in large prints and you mostly photograph pictures not bigger than regular book´s page. Small pictures are just great. So, if you dont need posters, this lense is quality enough. If you want to crop afterward or make big prints, this lense is maybe not for you.

Customer Service

Sigma´s email support is exellent!

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I bought Canon´s 200 2.8L and sold Sigma right after. BUT theres big difference in price too. Quality of these two lenses is very obvious.

Excellent value for money Image quality at 300mm will satisfy all but the most pedantic and those who for some reason compare this to $2000 lenses when discussing image quality Soft case and lens hood included Seems reasonably solidly built

Zoom is a little stiff and jerky at times The end of the lens rotates when focusing. No full-time manual focus means you either have to switch to MF to free up the mechanism or need to be very careful when putting on the hood so as not to twist the lens and potentially risk damage to the AF mechanism.

This review relates to the APO Macro Super 2, which has red rather than gold trim (and a different shape) and seems to be available on the Sigma UK website but not their US page. Anyhow, I digress. As a relative newcomer to the world of SLR photography I'm really pleased with this lens. At 170 UK pounds it's the cheapest I own, but then it's not going to be my 'main' lens so I didn't want to spend very much. I just wanted something that'd give me a decent telephoto range on my Canon 10D, and this does the job nicely. A number of these reviews complain about poor image quality at the 300mm end. Yes, the picture isn't as sharp as at shorter focal lengths if you look at the image on a monitor at 100 percent size. But on an 8"x10" print on photo quality paper at 300dpi (just less than A4 size) you can only notice if you've got your nose about 2 inches from the paper. I guess if you're regularly make larger prints than that, this lens may not be for you. But if you're a member of the other 99 percent of the population, it's not going to be a problem. Just make sure you're using a fast enough shutter speed (at least 1/300 second at full zoom). If you go down much below this, you will get badly blurred photos. Focus is fine. It's noiser than Canon's USM but it's still pretty quiet. It's slower than Canon's USM but it's still decently fast. In my mind, that's a small price to pay for a lens that's 200 UK pounds cheaper than Canon's 100-300mm USM lens. One thing I did notice is that, because the focus ring turns during autofocus, I have to be careful to hold the camera in a way that doesn't interfere with this. But that's not a big deal. And when you consider that the lens comes bundled with a nice case AND a lens hood as well, it has to be a winner.

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 20-35 USM Canon EF 28-135 IS USM

Inexpensive, zoom, versatility

SLOW motor, poor sharpness at a focus > 135

I found the lens to be a decent lens -- although now that I think about it, maybe I should've opted for Canon 70-200 (L) lens. It's sharp at 70mm to about 135mm, but I've found that the macro feature isn't very strong at all and the pictures I get are not very sharp. Anything about 135mm isn't really good quality. But overall, a good lens to start out with for beginners.

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Tokina AT-X 300 pro

Build,Sharpness,Macro

none

Very sharp lens, the macro is excellent, I took a photo of a small porcelain figure and it showed up the cracks in its face, which you could not see with a naked eye.

Similar Products Used:

canon 75-300 usm (poor build)

Nice construction; magnification; macro capability 200-300 range; Included accessories: sunshade and a well made case that can be put in the waist belt; 58mm filter size; APO glass; best price/results; metal lens mount; looks professional; professional results;

Switching from Macro to Normal is cumbersome, a minor weakness.

I own a Canon EOS30 (7e) body and a Canon 28-105 f3.5-4.5 USM lens. I was really interested in buying a telephoto zoom lens since I like to take nature photos. My first idea was getting a canon 100-300 USM, a nice match to my 28-105. I changed my mind when I read about the incredible Sigma 70-300 APO macro (about US135.00 less and It comes with sunshade and a nice case. It has better optics delivering vivid, crisp photos, It has a macro capability (1:2 @ 300) and the macro works in the range 200-300 superbly well. This AF lens works fine on 30E, however, the AF is slower than USM lens, I like to use in Manual focus to save camera power. The manual focus ring is broad and well placed, making my hands confortable to grip it and steadying the gear when no tripod is used. I like to use 400ISO print film exposed as 800iso and the results are perfectly "normal" so I can take handheld pictures using the 70-300 APO. This lens shows the finer details on buterflyes legs, bugs, spiders, plants, flowers, etc. This lens was aimed to advanced amateur photographers that can deliver professional results without spending thounsands dollars more. Do you really need a 300mm f2.8? Of course this is not your lens. Do you want fine details, crisp images? Sigma 70-300 APO will do the job if you use it with steadiness.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-300 non APO on 7xi Minolta mount.

Cheap Marco Compact Light weight

Mine broke twice in a year and waited 2 months for them to get the same part in each time.

This lens is great for the zoom range it has and the marco ablity is great! The f-stops of the lens make it slow and need a lot of light if you are shooting slow film. The lens needs to be shot at f11 for the best sharpness.

Customer Service

Terrible! Slow and unfriendly.

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Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 Nikkor 24-120mm f3.5-5.6

Very sharp images with good colors Excellent Macro capability Excellent compatibility with 420EX flash Solidly made Comes with good quality lined case/pouch Reasonable autofocus speed

Relative small max aperture requires fast film Awkward to switch out of macro mode

Purchased this lens for Canon EOS Elan II after considering alternatives from Tamron (70-300) and Canon (100-300 USM). Even though I don't typically blow up results past 5X7 inches, I've been very impressed with the quality of the images on prints as well as scanned images from the negatives (processed at scanned at CostCo). Even macro images taken at the 300mm setting, particularly those taken with Canon 420EX flash (direct or bounce) have been razor sharp -- much better than I had hoped for. Focusing speed is satisfactory but I find that the lens can hunt quite a bit in low light. Mechanical quality seems to be quite good. The provided lens hood is of good quality and is helpful in backlit situations. Flare seems to generally well-controlled. I've had best results with 400 and 800 speed print films due to slowness of the lens (except when flash is used).

Customer Service

No need yet

Similar Products Used:

Canon 70-210 USM Tamron 70-300

It's a sharp lens, it's good wide open up to about 200mm, it's cheap and lightweight, and it's the best in it's class, focuses well manually.

To me, none. The pickiest among you may find annoying things like rotating front or, if you use USM or AFS, the slower and noisier AF.

Having read the reviews, it seems to me there's a lot of confusion about this lens. For instance this lens has never been tested by Photodo, as one reviewer wrote. What I'm talking about is the latest APO Macro Super model, the one with the gold finish. The main difference over the previous model, which I owned and was very happy with, is the Macro capability extended down to 200mm., a major improvement since the optical quality of this lens it's much better at 200 than at 300, as one reviewer pointed out. As a professional travel photographer who also carries a medium format system, I like small and light zooms, and I've used pretty much everything in this range so far. I find this lens to be far superior, particularly wide open, than its Canon and Nikon counterparts, which I owned and used. I've got many pictures taken with this lens published on leading Italian and European travel magazine up to double page spreads and never received a complaint about sharpness. If it's OK for the client it's OK for me. It has very good optics up to more than 200 mm. but you can get nice results even at 300 provided you use a tripod and stop down to f11. The slow autofocus in Macro is due to the effective aperture dropping down to about f8 with the extended barrell, while most autofocus sensors work only down to f5,6, but that's not a problem since I've never known a photographer, me included, using AF when shooting Macro and this lens focuses manually more than passably well. And what's the problem with the rotating front? First focus, then rotate the polarizer, that's it. After all we're talking about a 250$ lens and you can't expect to replace a 5000$ 300mm f2,8 and shoot animals or sports on Velvia with it. But for general use, as mine, and using professional techniques, this lens produces excellent results. The bottom line? I've read somewhere a big truth about lens sharpness: MOST LENSES TODAY ARE BETTER THAN MOST PHOTOGRAPHERS, and this certainly applies to the Sigma. So if that is your budget or simply, like me, you don't need anything fancier, buy the lens and enjoy taking pictures with it.

Customer Service

Never used

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Pretty much everything in the 70-200 f2,8 / 70-300 f4-5,6 range by Canon, Nikon and Sigma.

APO glass is excellent- build quality is sufficiently good. Nice gold ring at end gives the lens a high-quality appearance. Very lightweight.

Zoom ring is a bit stiff and gets progressively stiffer as you pass 135mm- not horrible but not glass smooth. The lens hood while functional looks cheapish. At 300 mm the images lose some sharpness- although very little (only slide film or digital may show the softness)

The Sigma 70-300 in APO version is without a doubt an excellent lens. I had the non-APO version (super macro DL) and while genereally pleased with that lens- this APO lens is markedly improved. Images are very well saturated and contrast is very good. AF focus while not blazingly fast is adequate for most shooting conditions. It's not a sports lens or for fast bird flight or any other subject where Dynamic Autofocus would be used to track fast movement. I used the Nikon mount version and found myself very pleased with it's performance. It is currently mounted to my Nikon D1 and the images are indeed impressive (I can see pores in people's faces.) I suggest using a tripod or monopod when shooting at over 200mm- when properly used, images are sharp. The macro function works very well but minimum focusing distance is large- tripod use a must with macro...the macro switch is easy to use but when returning back to normal mode the lens must be put in manual mode and turn the focusing ring all the way in to allow macro switch to disengage- a bit cumbersome of a routine. For the price I can't see any other lens challenging it's optical qualities. I used a Nikon 300mm prime that costs 5X it's price and is maybe 10% better optically (much better/faster AF though)....if you're considering this lens- go out and get one- it's good. The Nikon D1 amplifies any image quirks and the Sigma APO has been delivering.

Customer Service

I had a 50mm Sigma lens repaired (purchased broken from an unscrupulous dealer)- Sigma repaired the lens and returned it quickly- Sigma's service was great...they didn't charge me for the repair.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 300MM F4 AFS ED-IF Sigma 70-300 Macro DL (non-APO) Tons of other lenses.