Tamron adaptall 300/2.8 or Sigma 100-300/4

[pinholecam]

I need some advise on these 2 choices for a long tele.
This will be a general purpose long lens, good for indoor shoots like fashion shows/ events and outdoor.

I know the Sigma can be very sharp wide open for a good copy, but it has a slower max aperture. I am unsure if this will be a problem indoors.

I have no idea on how the Tamron performs. The reviews I can gather say its sharp enough. Its certainly faster at f2.8, so indoors it may be the stronger lens. The downsides are the weight and manual focus.

Prices would be about the same.

Has anyone tried out both lenses or used the Sigma 100-300/4 indoors and found it sufficient?

Thx

[jsherman999]

Originally Posted by pinholecam

I need some advise on these 2 choices for a long tele.
This will be a general purpose long lens, good for indoor shoots like fashion shows/ events and outdoor.

I know the Sigma can be very sharp wide open for a good copy, but it has a slower max aperture. I am unsure if this will be a problem indoors.

I have no idea on how the Tamron performs. The reviews I can gather say its sharp enough. Its certainly faster at f2.8, so indoors it may be the stronger lens. The downsides are the weight and manual focus.

Prices would be about the same.

Has anyone tried out both lenses or used the Sigma 100-300/4 indoors and found it sufficient?

Thx

.

I've used the Sigma 100-300 f4 indoors, but usually in pretty good f/4 lighting. The
extra stop of the Tamron adaptall 300 2.8 might be better for low-light shooting on the
K10D/K200D - on the K20D/K7d/K100D, you could bump up to ISO 1000 and still get
very clean results with f/4. With the K-X (), you could probably shoot at ISO 2000 and
use the Sigma all day long in low-light.

Here are some shots from my Sigma - again, not really low light though.

270mm wide-open about 50% crop:


300mm f/5


300mm f/8


300mm f/5 (Mall of America angst )


300mm f/4


300mm f/5

[Darius4522]

Hi,

I was browsing through ebay Australia yesterday, and noted a Tamron 300mm f2.8 MF AIS IF LD up for sale with an asking price of $1,499 AUS (about $1,370 US). The web location is here:

Tamron 300mm f2.8 MF AIS IF LD - eBay Digital Camera Lenses, Lenses, Photographic Accessories, Cameras. (end time 09-Nov-09 16:09:26 AEDST)

It looks in pretty good condition.

[borno]

I've had both and though the tamron is very nice and has a very special quality at times it also has some PF wide open so I would stop it down usually especially with a TC. I sold it after I got the DA300mm and now have the Sigma 100-300mm and like having the zoom it is very nice and sharp and I won't do without AF now. I think you would have more keepers with f4 and autofocus than f2.8 and manual focus. I would anyway.

[pcarfan]

I've had both at the same time, I even had the Pentax AF 1.7 adapter for the tamron, making it a very nice 510mm f~5ish lens. I preferred the Sigma 100-300 and sold the Tamron. I have some images posted in the 'tamron adaptall club' (-first post). The 2.8 wasn't that usable for me, mostly due to dof, it has lots of PF but that doesn't bother me, and sigma 100-300 has lightning fast AF...overall I was more pleased with the sigma 100-300. For a MF expert who doesn't mind PF (I don't as I easily PP it out), the f2.8 would be an asset, but it wasn't for me.

Sigma 100-300 F4 competes favorably with even primes of similar range in various sytem, it is one of the best lenses out there....If you serach through my post you will find pictures posted of this lens, when I sold it (I even had the fron 112mm Normal filter for it and the very rare 200F 2X TC, all were sold in favor of the Sigma..yeah! it's that good)

[pcarfan]

Originally Posted by Darius4522

Hi,

I was browsing through ebay Australia yesterday, and noted a Tamron 300mm f2.8 MF AIS IF LD up for sale with an asking price of $1,499 AUS (about $1,370 US). The web location is here:

Tamron 300mm f2.8 MF AIS IF LD - eBay Digital Camera Lenses, Lenses, Photographic Accessories, Cameras. (end time 09-Nov-09 16:09:26 AEDST)

It looks in pretty good condition.

Based on what I bought it for and sold it for even less, this sounds like a huge sum....I think the lens, the front 122mm filter and the 1.7 AF adapter pretty much costs the same as the sigma 100-300, and I still preferred the sigma. I don't remember the prices exactly, but if you want you can search my past postings, as I sold them all in the marketplace. (unlike some, I keep the prices intact for future reference)

[Lowell Goudge]

I presently use an SMC 300F4, with an SMC-F 1.7x AF TC. this combo is bad enough for CA in certain applications

I looked at using the same TC with a tamron 60B (300mm F2.8) and found CA totally unacceptable by comparison to the SMC 300 F4.

Although I want a faster combo than I presently have at 500mm, It won't be the Tamron that gets me there.

[Mike.P®]

The Sigma 100-300mm f4 is a cracking lens, have had mine for a couple of weeks now and its not going anywhere. I would probably sell my F* 300mm f4.5 before I got rid of it.

[wtlwdwgn]

I have the Sigma 100-300 f/4 as well and it is a very good lens. I have the matching 1.4 TC also and my K10 and 20D's AF just fine at f/5.6. It's a very impressive lens. The f/2.8 max aperture is tempting but I'd still only get it on a premium MF lens or an AF lens. Just my ¢¢.

100mm.


300mm.

[pinholecam]

Thanks for the replies and nice sample photos.
It seems the choice of a Pentax 300/4 or Sigma 100-300/4 is the consensus here. I know of the Sigma's capabilities, my brother has it, and its scarily sharp even with a sigma 1.4x teleconverter. I just thought the fast Tamron might be a good deal (guess not)

[pcarfan]

It's available at the marketplace for a very very good price.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...odel-360b.html

The 200F TC is ~$200, the PK-A adpter at least $80, the 112mm filter also adds value. The lens is the later design which is supposedly better than the one I had. For $800 for the lot, one cannot go wrong.