Sigma APO 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG Macro Lenses

[jorbaicoo]

hey all just wondering if anyone can give some feedback on this lens cuz i might be getting one, mostly for wildlife photography and am mounting on pentax k-r cheers,
Jordan

[arthurking83]

I reckon up to about 200mm or so(maybe a touch more) it works quite well.
They are a cheap lens, and the price is indicative of the ability that the lens is capable of, so! .... if you pay (eg.) $250 for one, then expect the images you get from it to be lower quality than from a more expensive (eg. 70-200mm f/2.8) lens. Maybe not 1/10th of the quality, but if you can get 90% of the quality that the bigger guns seem to offer, then you have achieved a good value for money purchase.
If image quality is the most important aspect in your life, then this lens is going to disappoint(I believe).. so don't be under any illusion that you are going to cut it with the best nature photographers by using a cheap piece of hardware!
Once you have trained yourself into this frame of mind, it's surprising how well this lens actually performs! (just not above this 200-250mm focal length point).

Oh!..... and as for the macro ability!! Forget it! The lens is best described as 'hopeless' in this respect. It will produce an image(of sorts), but you will forever be dreaming of one day getting that 'proper' macro lens for the task of capturing macros.

I reckon a new price of approximately $200 is reasonable for this lens, and an ebay price in the <up to> $50 is about the most one should hope for.
I occasionally scour ebay for one, but they all seem to go for more like $100 or more! .. insanity!
I think there are at least three.. maybe four variants of this lens, over the years.
I used to have the very early model(10-15years ago), and it was updated to a newer design a few years back.
I think there is also a non APO version too and there is also a non Macro version. Apparently the optics a slightly better with the macro and APO version(even tho as a macro it's useless!)... and now there is an OS(optical stabilised) version as well.

[jorbaicoo]

ok thanks mate

[Kym]

The APO version is much better than the non-APO
I've seen both and owned the APO for a while