Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG Macro For Nikon Digital & Film Cameras

Product Information

Distortion is very well controlled at 70mm producing 0.07% pincushion distortion, which is an almost negligible amount. At 200mm the amount of pincushion distortion rises to 2.62%, which may be noticeable in some circumstances, but more often than not, will not cause any issues. The Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 DG says it’s a Macro lens so why would you not use it? It’s fun during the summer time when flowers are abundant with provides perfect times to use the Macro feature. The Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 DG Macro handles these types of shots very well. It’s not the best, though in an indoor light box or product shot setting. There is just too much fumbling being up close, for me anyway. I used manual focus and auto and i just did not enjoy the lens in this scenario.

Sharpness is better at the short end of the range 70-150mm. If there is enough light to keep the aperture in the f8 - f11 range, then images are relatively sharp (for the price of the lens). They do not compare to my Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 but that lens is in a whole different category. When it comes to colours it gives a very surreal but natural look, probably the best explanation of its colours are "ultra realism" its not flat but not deep either, its got the nice digital look that we look for in Plasma displays. Sigma's Optical Stabilisation system helps greatly with being able to take images in low light conditions and at slower shutter speeds. I was able to take sharp hand-held shots most of the time at shutter speeds of 1/15sec at 70mm and 1/30sec at 300mm, which is pretty good performance and will help greatly to tame camera shake.i would recomend this lens to anyone looking at a good entry level lens but there a just a couple of tiny little niggles. I have used this lens quite a bit on my K5 and I like it. I use it in situation where I need different focal for fast subjects. For example, it is very convenient in amusement parks and animal shows. The AF is very fast and pictures are ok. So, I am very satisfied with the results.

ePHOTOzine resident lens tester, Gary Wolstenholme casts his discerning eye over the Sigma 70-300mm. Below is our lens test data. To find out how to use these graphs look at this article: How we test lenses Sigma lenses are popular due to their ease of use, portability and the sharp results which they capture, with a variety of focal widths to choose from. These enable photographers to choose between wide aperture prime lenses for portraits, street and documentary, or versatile zooms which cover ultra wide, standard and telephoto focal widths. Used in Macro mode, this lens shines as this shot of a Southern Hawker Dragonfly in flight shows. Taken on a Canon 1D with the lens set to manual focus. 1/800sec at f/8 and ISO500 the Sigma 70-300 fits right in and does the job i need it to do-when the light is good and you can shoot F8 or better @1000sec this lens is a great lens for budding photographers on a budgetI would very much like to hear from anyone else as to other brands of circular polarising that maybe do work with this lens. Venture further into the zoom range and the clarity drops off noticeably. The lens is still capable of producing acceptable results for most wide open, but stopping down a couple of stops will improve the clarity of images. In use, I did notice a drop in contrast at 300mm, which will affect the apparent sharpness of images.