Lens Question

whitelightrider

Hi guys,

Would this lens be a good upgrade? I have a 18-55mm lens that came with my 300D.
Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO

Price is 125 Euro.

Fajitas!

At that price, it's hard not to.

Can't go wrong with them IMO.

Alun

Usually these lenses sell for €190-200 even on sites like technikdirekt.de, so it's a bargain alright. Is it new or second-hand?

ladgie353

I assume upgrade means as an addition?
It will be an ideal complement to the 18-55 (as long as it doesn't produce the Err 99...) but wouldn't be great to replace it.
To check for err 99, set the camera to manual, pick an aperture of F8 and try to take a pic.
If everything works (except the picture which would probably be black...), you should be in the clear.
I have the older version of the lens and cannot use it unless it is wide open (Canon 10d).

JMcL

whitelightrider wrote:

Hi guys,

Would this lens be a good upgrade? I have a 18-55mm lens that came with my 300D.
Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO

Price is 125 Euro.

Excellent lens, especially if that price is right! Just make sure of the following:

1) It is actually the APO version of the lens. There's a non-APO version which is nowhere near as good

2) That it's the new version (if it has DG in the name it should be). It should have a red ring just behind the front of the lens, if it has a gold ring, avoid - these are the older ones and most probably will not work with a 300D.

ie, it should look like http://tinyurl.com/ahjsg

John

Alun

JMcL wrote:

2) That it's the new version (if it has DG in the name it should be). It should have a red ring just behind the front of the lens, if it has a gold ring, avoid - these are the older ones and most probably will not work with a 300D.

My non-DG version has a red ring behind the front of the lens

JMcL

Alun wrote:

My non-DG version has a red ring behind the front of the lens

The DG just signifies that there's a special coating on the rear element that supposedly reduces flare on digital SLRs (though you could be cynical and say its an excuse to charge a bit more - the DG versions are usually more expensive than the non-DG). Your lens is the slightly older model without the DG coating, and doesn't miss it a bit from what I hear.

The version with a gold ring is an older version again, which has major compatibility problems with more recent Canon DSLRs, and should be avoided. They're still around for sale. I saw one in a shop in Cork a few months ago!

Sigma lens naming is a pain. You can come across at least 5 similarly named 70-300mm lens (gold ring APO, red ring APO, and non APO, plus DG APO and non APO)

John

Alun

Yeah, I knew about the coating thing ... I misread your post and thought you meant that the red ring indicated it was a DG lens.

Anyway, to complicate matters even further, when I bought mine, I was told that the Sigma rep had told the shop that all of the lenses manufactured recently (this was just after the DG lens had come out) had actually been manufactured with the DG coating anyway, and adding it to the name of the lens was just a bit of marketing to please the TLA (*) fanatics

(*) Three (or in this case Two!) Letter Acronyms

rabbitinlights

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7620526897&fromMakeTrack=true

evilhomer

rabbitinlights wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7620526897&fromMakeTrack=true

£25 sterling for postage!!!! Thats such a rip off.

Still brand new price delivered comes out at €183

Which isn't bad.

It's €199 for that lens on http://www.ac-foto.com and thats before postage.

http://www.ac-foto.com/ac/shop/shop.php?new_sprache=eng&step=&hersteller=&kategorie1=&kategorie2=&Rechtsbelehrung=

Is this a good zoom lens? or are there other sub €300 that would be better?

Alun

There's a guy in the Adverts section selling one (Canon mount) for €150 when I last looked ... be quick

Borderfox

They are €199 in most place in town, nice upgrade but I thnk it is a bit soft at the long end..

Zombrex

Do Sigma DG lenses come with Canon EF mounts or are they only the new digital only (300D, 350D, 20D, 30D) EF-S mounts?

Borderfox

DG (DG Lens)
These are large-aperture lenses with wide angles and short minimum focusing distances. With an abundance of peripheral illumination, they are ideal lenses for Digital SLR Cameras whilst retaining suitability for traditional 35mm SLRs.

DC (DC Lens)
These are special lenses designed so that the image circle matches the smaller size of the image sensor of most digital SLR cameras. Their specialized design gives these lenses the ideal properties for digital cameras, the compact and lightweight construction is an added bonus ! including compact and lightweight construction.

hmboards

ladgie353 wrote:

I have the older version of the lens and cannot use it unless it is wide open (Canon 10d).

I had the same problem when I bought my 300D a few years ago. I had the older Sigma 70-300 from my film camera and couldn't really use it. I sent it the Sigma service centre in Ireland (Cork I think) and they "chipped" the lens for free so it would work correctly. It was well out of warranty at that stage, and I only had to pay for postal costs to them. It might be worth investigating the possibility for your 10D. It's not the sharpest of lenses at 300mm though. The newer ones may be better. Also mine's not APO.

Zombrex

Borderfox wrote:

DG (DG Lens)
These are large-aperture lenses with wide angles and short minimum focusing distances. With an abundance of peripheral illumination, they are ideal lenses for Digital SLR Cameras whilst retaining suitability for traditional 35mm SLRs.

DC (DC Lens)
These are special lenses designed so that the image circle matches the smaller size of the image sensor of most digital SLR cameras. Their specialized design gives these lenses the ideal properties for digital cameras, the compact and lightweight construction is an added bonus ! including compact and lightweight construction.

Cheers, thanks for clearing that up ... i knew there was some range that was only for digital SLRs