| Latest Review Posted | Sigma DG Macro 70-300mm F4-5.6
After reading the mostly negative reviews here, I felt obliged to offer my perspective, which is a bit different. I received this lens for Christmas, and, based on the price, I expected a flimsy, mediocre-quality lens. But I am very happy with this lens so far. I've actually only had it a week and I've only had the opportunity to do some hand-held shooting, but I am impressed with the results. It's solid and the zoom & focus rings are smooth, though the zoom ring had some tight spots initially that I needed to work out.
A lot of lenses out there claim macro with a 1:4 ratio. That's not really macro; it's hardly even close focus. But this lens does a 1:2 ratio, which still isn't macro, but it's reasonably close. And the sharpness, color and contrast are better than any other near-macro lens I have, including a Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm with 1:2 macro and a Tamron SP 60-300mm with 1:1.55 macro. To get the lens into macro mode, you must be in the 200-300mm range. To get it out of macro mode, you must be focused beyond macro distance. Here are two shots I took the day I got the lens at 300mm in the macro mode:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/5373810479_d3e4497cf6_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5130/5373810301_12292dd098_z.jpg
I did less post-processing of these images than I have any other images I've shot with my K-x. It was basically a little bit of recovery in the highlights, resize and upload to Flickr.
Here are a few more shots for reference, all hand held... |
