Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG MACRO Reviews

Great value for the money. I used it photograph my high school daughter playing soccer. This lens definitely likes bright sunlight.

Farily slow auto focus -- it helps to burst several shots to get a good shot if shooting sports.

Soft focus at full 300 zoom in overcast conditions.

Crisp focus at 200 mm or less.

Update on lens use.

I used it again at a soccer tournament and it worked great. Opinion unchanged from above. Still a great value for the money.

I tested this lens against its less expensive "D" version brother lense, and the APO proved sharper, with more contrast, and stayed sharp at f/8.0 all the way to 300mm, whereas the "D" did not. The APO is better value, in my opinion.

The lense is a pleasure to use and easy to focus in manual mode. In automode, I do not find the speed problems (with a Nikon D50) mentioned above. It seemed to stay up with some frantic two-on-two basketball I shot on my recent vacation trip.

The main drawback I find is that it has too much CA and this can be a problem in backlit situations, such as shooting birds. The lens is not as "contrasty" as the Nikon lenses it competes with, and requires both a "hard" sharpening in the camera and use of auto-contrast in Adobe Elements to match the "pop" of shots done natively using a Nikon lense. But on the other hand, it costs 1/3 that of the Nikon 70-300mm, and has decent macro capabilities to boot.

Speaking of macro, the macro operates only at 300mm...which means that depth of field is pretty limited which in turn restrict its all-round macro use. But for the macro it gives, quality is excellent.

To sum up, if used within its capabilities and limitations, this is an excellent lense that offers truly outstanding value. It is possible to obtain truly stunning images using any of the lenses capabilities....long, short, wide-open, and fairly well stopped down, as well as in macro.

Well done, Sigma.