Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG Macro For Nikon Digital & Film Cameras

Product Information

As a zoom lens, the Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 DG Macro is a great. When you let the sunshine in, you steady yourself, then pull the trigger, you can get amazing shots. After using this lens again after 2 years and now able to use it correctly, I can say that it has to be one of my favorite lenses ever. Its not perfect by any means but when you use it for events, wildlife and even portraits it works so well. Images will be at the bottom for reference.

With a nice light lens body, it makes for a great companion on an all day hike, or a day at the rodeo when you have the camera to your eye for most of the time. Sharpness is better at the short end of the range 70-150mm. If there is enough light to keep the aperture in the f8 - f11 range, then images are relatively sharp (for the price of the lens). They do not compare to my Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 but that lens is in a whole different category.

Mission Complete, the review of the Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 SLD DG Macro Lens has ended. There is not much more to say, it’s a decent lens for a decent price. I do own this lens, so it will be used a lot. So let’s do a recap. Testing Is it the "perfect" lens - No, but definitely great value for the money and when you keep in its "sweet spot" it will produce very acceptable images that you can be proud of. At 70mm this lens produces images of good resolution from the widest aperture right down to f/16, with the edges gradually improving as the lens is stopped down. The best quality images at 70mm are produced between f/8 and f/11.

This I find is a common problem with this lens, with the motor shredding all or some of the teeth on the AF Gear. Indeed there are several You Tube "fixes" available to those with patience and somewhere other than the kitchen table to work on.

Sigma is a company that has some great products. This lens is a good example of their work. With its low cost and decent performance this lens is great for budget conscious amateurs to “prosumers”. It does not have the focus speed of the higher priced lenses but that it is forgivable. The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 SLD DG Macro Lens will works with APC-C to full frame cameras and perform admirably. Please Support The Phoblographer The extended focus, providing the 1:2 macro facility, is especially useful and performed well giving good definition at close quarters. The new multi-coating, which gives the lens it’s DG (optimised for digital) classification, helps a design that is good to start with, that extra bit of help in controlling artefacts. CA is well controlled and distortion reasonably well managed, although there is a slight pincushion effect at the 300mm end. (Easily cured in software on digital images) As is normal with this type of zoom lens, performance is better at the shorter focal length, tailing off a bit as the zoom is extended. However, unlike some, the drop off is not too marked and in its class, this lens performed well throughout the range.

When it comes to using this lens in general, if your camera is too light or you don't have a counterweight by using a metal tripod plate you will struggle to comfortably use this lens, I use a 230g tripod plate to counterweight the body of the camera specifically for heavy lenses like this and it works fantastic. Although if you have a light camera body even with a counterweight you might struggle as when using my K100D nothing helps counter balance the lens and i can only hold the camera for 2 minutes at a time. I bought this lens about 6 months ago to use with my Canon 450D and have been consistantly disappointed with the results. I find that for subjects more than about 20m away, it usually does not focus accurately. The photos are not crisp and sharp as they should be. I have frequently been ashamed of my photos that are not nearly as good as photos I have taken previously. People tell me I have camera shake, which I do not believe as I have never had a problem with camera shake before and even at 1/1000 sec or using a tripod, the problem is the same. The Sigma lens does not autofocus accurately especially for further subjects. The 70-300mm zoom telephoto was made in numerous versions and generations by sigma - 4 versions listed in the legacy zooms section, two in the current zooms section (see here for the current "apo" version. When at Northern nats you have to use manual focus for everything and its amazing, great fine tuning on the focus and the zoom is just insane, the ergonomics of this lens is amazing. people say "you just get used to it", No when it comes to doing pin point moving targets with constant zooming in and out having the focus at the front is so damn helpful, being able to brace the zoom ring with your palm of your hand while using your fingers to focus is unmatched, want 300mm zoom with crisp photos without any motion blur Hand held? this lens WILL do it, i can use this lens at 1/20th of a second and still have no motion blur (Shake reduction, and coffee).

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When it comes to colours it gives a very surreal but natural look, probably the best explanation of its colours are "ultra realism" its not flat but not deep either, its got the nice digital look that we look for in Plasma displays.