| Author: | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2009 Location: Canon City,CO Posts: 26 | | Review Date: January 1, 2020 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, light, | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1
Autofocus: 8
New Or Used: Used
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Made a few images with it overall I like this lens, only paid $100 for it and it shoots far above that. Here is an image of my pooch I took with it (some cropping and a tad of Adj. from .dng)
https://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/photo-kato-58413/&u=17961 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 3 | | Review Date: April 7, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 8 |
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  | | | | | Junior Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: Sandnes Posts: 36
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 10, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | image quality | | Cons: | front lens rotate during focusing | |
Weight is not big deal, but front lens rotates durign focusing, so using a polar filter make an inconvenience.
Here's sample image - K-5, ISO-200, 300mm, f/8, 1/500:
Resized image:
100% crop:
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Posts: 2,519
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 22, 2012 | Not Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | nice size and weight. feels solid. fast AF | | Cons: | focus and zoom creep. very soft. seems to cause underexposure | |
I didn't want to spend much on a zoom so I opted for the Sigma DG OS 70-300 4-5.6 due to the attractive price point. At first I was impressed, but over the last 8 months I have learned much of this lens, and will be selling it soon.
Lets get the positives out of the way first.
The lens is of average size, being similar in size to the DA*50-135mm f2.8. Weight is a little less. This makes it easy to hand hold, even when shooting at the long end of the zoom. it is actually very surprisingly easy to operate. I actually find myself manually focusing it as the zoom ring is very smooth on my copy.
On that note, the AF on this lens is surprisingly quick and does not focus hunt as much as other 3rd party offerings I've used (notably the Tamron 90mm Di Macro likes to hunt, as did my Sigma 18-250. Its very noisy however. it does not use the camera's screw drive linkage but instead has its own built in focusing motor. Not DC or SDM, but its own micro screw drive motor.
It is also optically stabilized. But they say you should turn off the internal camera stabilization to use the lens properly. This is annoying to me so I just leave the OS off. On that note, there is at least a 2 stop difference for me when hand holding using the lens's OS vs the Camera's. 4-5 stops compared to no IS.
The lens does cover the full frame image circle.
So where do we go from here?
Its not a great lens... In fact, I would rather take the Pentax 18-250 or 55-300 DA series lens's any day of the week over the Sigma. First of all they are lighter and more compact. But most of all, the DA lenses are sharper. Not by much, but enough. There is also a lot less focus creep.
This is one of my biggest gripes. I often use this lens for sports, or at least that's where I seem to be using it most. What I commonly do is point the camera in the sky when I'm not shooting now because if I point it down, even at the slightest angle the focus goes all the way out. Depending on how long I hold it down, especially straight down I will also see it extend to the full 300mm. This is annoying when you have your focus set and want to bring the camera up quick for the next shot only to find your focus is completely out of wack, and often your zoom is too.
On that subject, I know the lens is a 4-5.6, but I often shoot it at f8 just so that I can get some detail, especially around infinity where I commonly shoot this lens. But I also have to over expose my shots. I find that if I shoot at 0 ev the images are coming out very dark, equivalent to -1.5 ev with say...my M 200 f4. So I often over expose at least a full stop just to get enough light. I have no idea why this is... it is the only lens I have this issue with. Seeing as how the camera is whats doing the metering it makes very little sense to me.
On the flip side, if you start shooting around 80-150 and on much closer subjects than say... race cars roaming the track... to maybe a person 10 feet away, the bokeh is very nice and it starts showing some detail. Contrast is lost however and things seem to be washed out a bit. I've never used this lens without the hood...but fear it would show me some serious flare.
| | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2010 Location: LZ Chaos Posts: 10 | | Review Date: April 20, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $359.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Image Quality, Auto Focus System | | Cons: | Weight | |
I recently bought this lens and spent about a week messing around with it before I used it full speed shooting a race.
The pros:
-Image quality. I have yet to find a flaw in image quality. In fact, when I zoom in on and image and crop part of it to make another image, the quality doesn't degrade, which would happen with my old lens.
-I feel like the auto focus system is real good. I didn't have any issues with it hunting and it seemed like it was faster and more spot on than my other auto focus lens.
The cons:
-Weight. This lens is somewhat heavy. I used a monopod for shooting the race, so the weight was somewhat mitigated, but just lugging the camera with the lens by itself can be bothersome.
All in all, it's a really good lens and I would suggest it to anyone who needs a quality zoom lens.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2011 Posts: 37 | | Review Date: August 14, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Crisp, clean, sharp, quick | | Cons: | "Sometimes" AF hunts, but it's rare | |
My favorite. Now I have to say it's likely all lenses are not created equal. With QC today the same lens may not do you justice no matter what the brand. But I'm amazed by mine. It out shines virtually every zoom lens I've ever owned.
Hand holding at 300 is no problem at all. And the macro function is stunning.
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