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Author
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DiggitalD
Thoughtful Monkey
Registered: May 2005
Location: huntington beach, ca
Posts: 316
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Review Date: Mon January 8, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $900.00
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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easy to handle
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Cons:
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coupling, piant finish
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I have been shooting with the Sigma 100-300mm for a couple years now and have found it to be a decent lens. There are obvious improvements over entry level lenses such as the Nikon 70-300mm:
The build is solid (metal), although the EX finish likes to wear off, especially around the collar groove.
The motor is silent and smooth, as are the zoom and focus rings. The focus ring is nice and big, which is good and bad; it is easy to make adjustments whether you mean to or not. The autofocus is a bit sticky. It hesitates, especially shooting anything in motion. The cameras are partly responsible, but other lenses have performed better. As a footnote: while photographing a beach volleyball tournament, the focus ring started coming loose and the AF assembly came apart. Sigma replaced the assembly, but it is a bad thing that it can happen in the first place.
It is tough to find any chromatic abberation at all, which is the first thing I noticed when shooting birds in flight.
The colors produced by this lens are good, although not great. The image sensor and post-processing (or film type) weigh in heavily here, but comparing to other lenses, it comes off a bit muted or - to the optimist - neutral. Color is far better than entry level lenses nonetheless.
--edit--
It took looking back at pre-repair and post-repair pictures to realize that the lens was not performing properly. Over time the images became too soft. The lens was sent back to Sigma for recalibration. Now it is plenty sharp, even at f/4. It looses a bit with its matching 1.4X TC, especially around the edges. Previously using a Kenko 2X TC (the best one Kenko had), I found the images to be terribly soft.
Overall, it's a good lens for the price. Compared to the nikon 70-300mm and the Sigma 170-500, it's far superior. Performance may vary from sample to sample. The lens is sharp (when it's working) and it feels great in the hand (when the barrel isn't coming apart).
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postcardcv
Super Moderator
Registered: August 2003
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 16474
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Review Date: Wed February 28, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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fast AF, constant f4, easy to hand hold
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Cons:
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AF slows with 1.4x tc on
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I got this lens about a year ago to use along side my 500mm, as I wanted a good lens with a good close focus.
The lens feels great in the hand, zoom ring is easy to use while panning as is the large focus ring. The AF is fast and true, I often use this lens for shooting birds in flight and find it tracks very well. The lens takes a 1.4x tc well (becoming a 140-420 f5.6) though the AF is noticably slower. The lens delivers useably sharp shots wide open, though is better at f8 (which is what I tend to use it at).
This is a great short telephoto zoom and offers great value for money, it makes a good biridng lens, expecially if you also carry a 1.4x tc. Defintely better than the 170-500 that I used to use, though a bit more money too.
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www.blueskybirds.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/BlueSkyBirds
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Jeremy
Upstanding Member
Registered: January 2003
Location: Wales, U.K.
Posts: 614
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Review Date: Tue April 17, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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Good zoom range, reasonably sharp.
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Cons:
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Poor autofocus tracking.
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I like to have the versatility of a zoom lens within this magnification range, so, based on several good reviews, I decided to upgrade my old Sigma 70-300mm APO macro zoom.
In some ways, I wish I hadn`t bothered! (I got many more sharp flight-shots with the older lens.)
The lens is reasonably sharp, and, at least with my Sigma tele-extender, works surprisingly well (optically) with a 2x converter. The lens makes a good walk-around lens, perhaps when combined with a wider-angle zoom. I have found the zoom range useful for precise in-camera cropping on long-range landscape shots.
However, the major reason I bought the lens was for in-flight photography of relatively large and approachable birds, such as gulls. For that, the lens (or at least my copy of it) stinks!
For instance, I took the 100-300mm, along with a Sigma 500mm f/4.5 lens, on a day-trip to Gigrin Farm, to photograph the Red Kites. Using a Canon 20D, I figured I had a number of good shots taken with both lenses. But, on examing them in detail on my computer when I got home, every shot taken with the 100-300mm was out-of-focus! On the other hand, virtually every shot taken handheld with the much heavier Sigma 500mm f/4.5 was pin-sharp.
I have since replicated these disappointing results several times.
To cap it all, the autofocus mechanism recently stopped working entirely, and the lens had to be sent off for an expensive repair.
To sum up: for static subjects, I would recemmend this lens. If you plan to photograph birds in flight (or any other fast-moving subjects), I wouldn`t! Instead, try something in the Canon range, like the 100-400, or the 400mm f/5.6. (I don`t know anything about Nikons!)
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Jeremy.
Jeremy Inglis Photography
My Blog
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condyk
Registered User
Registered: April 2005
Location: jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, UK
Posts: 213
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Review Date: Mon July 16, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Superb image quality, fast AF, good with 1.4x TCon, build
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Cons:
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Heavy, needs a mono/tripod for top performance, no IS
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Awesome lens when used well. Really needs a tripod or mono to pull out the last 10% that marks it as a ten scoring lens. I've owned nearly all the competition and this is top of the tree. Very consistent. Beat my two 100-400 IS L's and 300mm IS L. My 400mm L is only a tad better: very close indeed. Highly recommended.
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