Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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I was a little nervous about this lens..hoping it would be fast enough focus to catch whales breaching. I was pleasantly surprised. The focus was very fast. I was able to capture the whales from beginning of the breach to the last splash. Hard to do unless your lens is quick. The pictures were clear and crisp and completely in focus. Update 05/15/2018: I dropped this down from 5 stars to 4.....It is still great for the money....I used it on a newer Pentax and it had trouble focusing quickly. I went from a Pentax K-30 to a K-70. Believe it or not it focused faster on the old K-30....but since the camera died...I had no choice to upgrade. ALL zoom lens suffer in sharpness at full zoom. This lens, for the money, does a respectable job in very well lit situations. I have used it for years for whale watches....My last whale watch was earlier this month...I used on a pod of Orcas we found.....The focus suffered a bit and I did not get the sharp photos I was hoping for or had gotten in the past with this lens. Amazon says it first listed this lens in October of 2005....and there are thousands of satisfied customers with this lens. Just have realistic expectations and I think you will like it. Usually the center of the pic is pretty sharp but may soften up on the edges. I do not care about that because I put the whale dead center and crop out the soft parts.

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Im updating this review after using this lens for a while. I would drop the lens to 3 stars except that for the money it cant be beat. My primary lens is the signma 17-50mm 2.8 and its a fantastic lens even on my entry-model nikon SLR. It is crisp crisp crisp and allows me to spend more time on setting the shot than working around the equipment. Im not a pro, but am a finicky consumer with some photography and lighting training from way back when. If the pic isnt good, Im not keeping it. THIS lens gives a lot of versatility and is surprisingly open at 300mm. But, mine gets real soft after about 225mm or so. And compared to the 17-50mm sigma, subjects dont present the same depth in appearance or glow - they seem more washed. so Im having a hard time appreciating what it can do compared to the other sigma. Im keeping it - as you cant beat it for the price, and it absolutely allows you to get shots at games and graduations that are otherwise untouchable. However I wont be satisfied with it long term.

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This is a perfect zoom lense for me. I just purchased it last week and used it throughout the weekend for my daughters lacrosse games. You get your moneys worth! I am not a professional, just a long time photography aficionado, so my opinion is not technical. I LOVE THE PHOTOGRAPHS I was able to get with this lense. I took pics of my daughter running from 300 yards away and the pics are crystal clear and the colors are vivid. I highly recommend this lense if you are ready to try a zoom. I think this is a fantastic deal for anyone who wants to start taking better shots of their kids at their sports events.

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Really like the style and feel of this lens. Focus is fairly quick and sharp. I would have given it 5 stars if the sellers name were printed on the warranty as it seems to be required to do so? Still, for the price, this is a great lens that just feels right attached to the camera ( CANON 6D mk II ). Photos seem to be as sharp as any taken with my CANON lenses. Delivers as advertised.

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You get what you pay for, right? Well sometimes you get a lot more. I had wanted to try Sigma lenses for a while and this one always caught my eye. I mean how good is a lens that costs just $144? Especially when the comparable Nikon lens is hundreds more? Well this review comes to you after just a week of ownership and maybe in time Ill come back with some negatives, but right now its all thumbs wayyyy up! Out of the box I was a little worried. I have a Nikon 5100 and this lens is a very snug fit putting it on. Then the auto focus is noisy! "whirrr, thunk!" But boy, does it take a nice picture! I shoot a lot of high school sports so its a challenge for the auto-focus with players moving in and out of your view finder, or when a player is running toward or away from you. My Nikon lenses always got the focus a little soft. Not blurry, but not crisp. But this Sigma 70-300mm lens gets most of the shots the Nikon didnt. The auto-focus is fast and accurate (and noisy, but you get used to that.) I did an A/B comparison between a basketball game shot with my Nikon 70-300 and the Sigma and it was no contest. The Sigma took better pictures. Now the Nikon lens is a few years older so maybe Im seeing what a new lens can do versus and old one. But either way Im thrilled with my new Sigma so far. Tip: the Macro switch will not work unless the zoom is all the way out. Thats by design. Dont freak out because the switch seems stuck. The Macro setting is a nice bonus. Takes really nice close-ups.

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Im told Im pretty good with a camera and the last couple of years Ive been using a digital more than my 35mm Pentax. Mostly I shoot about 4000 pics a year of the local wildlife. Recently I purchased this along with a D5200 and Ive now shot over 400 pics and feel I can review it. The good amounts to pretty much everything but I dont care if its not the quietest and at range the wildlife dont seem to mind. Overall it screams quality and frankly I dont know how this level of quality glass can be sold for this price. I paid twice as much for what sits on my nose. Using this without a tripod was a surprise because I originally had almost the same number of out of focus pictures with or without a tripod but it turns out they were all completely my own fault and Ill next tell you why. The bad is equally as simple, I needed to learn my AF settings and use them correctly or go manual for the best shots. By choosing better AF settings I reduced the number of out of focus shots by 20 or more percent. My Nikkor lens is more forgiving but I expected this and didnt purchase this as a high priced point and shoot. Low light shooting doesnt seem to suffer much when using this and I do shoot a lot at dusk. At about 40 feet a finch or large frog can be shot with 24MP of resolution like my Nikon, cropping about 70% of the picture. Pictures I used to wish were better are now amazing. It comes with a nice hood for using in the sunlight and purchasing 58mm filters can improve shots even more. At this price you are not taking a chance, youre just being economical. I think Ill try a 1.4 converter with it and now I can justify the price of that. With the 18-55mm, a converter, accessories and this lens all for under $1000 (D5200s with the lens are now $575) its a nice setup. In my research I didnt find that this lens was prone to failure and Im happy with the quality of the glass so I can recommend this.

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I have not had much time to use this lens yet, but I have used it. It is great for macro and portrait shots, it feels solidly built, and the images are sharp. My only gripes with it are that it does not have vibration reduction (although if your camera has that, it definitely will not be a problem, and its not really that big of a deal anyway) and that the autofocus motor is kind of loud (but I really dont care about that either). Overall, I am extremely happy with this lens. P.S. It comes with a lens cover, lens hood, and a cover for the back of the lens, which are all great to have.

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This lens is absolutely INCREDIBLE. Everyone raves about the Canon 70-200, but that was way out of my price range so I purchased this lens in February of 2015. I am still absolutely in love with it and what it can capture for me. Its perfect for what I like to shoot, and I love the compression and the gorgeous bokeh it gives me in my shots. If you cant afford to spring for a prime lens just yet, you NEED to give this one a shot!!

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This a an exceptional lens for $119.00. I have seen it on sales for $399 so at $119 is amazing. I have only used it once and the adaptor that I purchased did not work with this lens and my Sony so everything was done manually. Still took awesome pictures and with practice they will just get better. One note on the weight of the lens -- it is heavy so hand-held shots are pretty much out of the question. It does attach well to a tripod and the macro function works very well.

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This is a great cheap lens to add to your bag. I do sports photography and this worked well for me for the price. The only drawback is that old saying invest in glass not so much the body. Although the lens is priced really well for how it performs, it is still (in my opinion) cheap glass. For everyday shooting you may not notice slight color distortions around your subjects or if your using good light the speed is good. I shoot football and found shoot at the high end of this camera during a real sunny day would give me some slight pixel and color blurring where the hot spots (bright areas like glares) were. Overall I like this lens and it works well for a cheap lens. I do Macro photography and this did a good job for that as well, the downside is at larger distances you have to really make sure the subject does not move. If your going professional or even a higher level enthusiast, go a little higher with your lenses. You typically get what you pay for.

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