Mini review: Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO · Jun 21, 11:10 PM by Simon Mackie
Sigma’s entry level budget zoom lens is an attractive option for beginning photographers looking for more reach (and 1:2 macro capability) at a cheap price, but is it a good lens?
Here’s what Sigma themselves have to say about their lens:
The high performance telephoto zoom lens is ideal for digital SLR cameras. This lens has two SLD glass elements in the front lens group and one in the rear lens group It is able to shoot with maximum magnification 1:2 at the focal length of 300 mm. It’s the ideal lens for portraits, sports photography, nature photography, and other types of photography that frequently use the telephoto range.
I bought mine as I was going on a holiday to Western Australia where I knew there would be images (specifically of wildlife) that would require more zoom (or “reach”) than my gear at the time allowed. I wanted a cheap lens as I knew I wasn’t going to be using this lens often, and I wanted a light lens that would be easy to chuck into my backpack and carry with me. This lens has a manufacturers recommended retail price of $300US, but you can pick it up for much, much less than that – for example, Amazon stock the lens for less than 200 bucks.
Let’s take a look at what you get in the package:
As you can see, Sigma have been quite generous, as the package includes a lens hood and fitted cary case as well as the lens itself.
The lens, when not extended at the 70mmm end of the zoom range, is reasonably compact and fairly light (it weighs a couple of pounds) and so from that point of view it met my criteria.
Image quality
I was pretty surprised with e quality of the images that it produced. For such a cheap lens, it doesn’t do a bad job.
At the 300 mm end of the zoom, the images are quite soft. This image of a lioness, taken at 300m is a little softer than I would have liked, but without the reach that this lens has, I wouldn’t have been able to get the shot anyway:
Pull the zoom back though and stop down a bit, and the lens really doesn’t perform all that badly. It’s going to be hard to see on this reduced size image, but the details on the face of this quokka (a small marsupial native to a small island off the coast of Australia) are captured pretty well:
This picture was taken at 150mm or so.
At the other extreme end of the zoom (70mm) the lens gets a little soft again.
Macro performance
If you really want to do macro photography, you should get a dedicated macro lens (or some extension tubes). That said, the macro performace of this lens isn’t bad. Here’s a 1:2 macro shot of some small flowers:
You can get to macro mode simply by flicking a switch on the lens.
My problem with using this lens for macros is the massive working distance that you need. 1:2 macros such as this one require you to stand a few feet away from the subject, which I personally find not ideal (although could be useful if taking shots of less friendly subjects like spiders!)
Niggles and gripes
Focusing with this lens is pretty noisy and can be quite slow. It doesn’t employ the HSM focusing system used on more expensive Sigma lenses, and the lens can tend to “hunt” in low light situations. If you want to take shots of wildlife that is easily spooked, this lens may not be a good choice.
Switching between macro mode and back to normal again can be a pain in the butt – the switch gets locked and you need to move the focus to be able to switch it back.
Summary
If you need a longer range versatile zoom (say for sports or nature photography), and you’re on a budget, this lens is not a bad option. If image quality is paramount, you should probably try to save up and buy a better quality lens, but for a cheap lens that you can easily throw in your bag and take on trips with you, and get some macro capability thrown in, I definitely recommend it – you’re getting excellent value for money.
A word of warning: there are a few versions of this lens in retail. Be sure to get the APO version – this is the latest lens, and has better image quality. It is also less lilely to cause compatibility problems with newer DSLR bodies, and specifically the err 99 problem on Canon DSLRs.
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