New Lens - What have I bought??

otron

Hi All,

I recently bought a Sigma 75-300 lens "with macro" on ebay, it was going cheap so I said WTF.

I paid 51GBP for it, which I figured was a pretty good price, but now that I have my hands on it, Im a little bit suspicious of how old/good it is.

Pics are here
http://static.flickr.com/77/219052465_356ea42a9d_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/81/219052484_dd81d8170d_o.jpg

It doesnt extend by rotating the lens, rather you just push it out.. if that makes sense.

Anyway, Ive been trying to locate info/reviews of it on the net but I cant find any. Can anyone help?

The "macro" on it doesnt seem up to much, I seem to be able to focus better at close distance using the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Canon 350d.

Im interested in peoples opinions - Did I buy a lemon?

Cheers

Oriel

Did you see a photo of it before you bid for it?
Most importantly, what's the image quality like?

Dimy

You can buy a brand new Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro cheapish for around 200 euro.... I would never buy 2nd hand stuff of Ebay, been hearing a lot of horror stories.

digitalbeginner

Hi otron,

sounds like you have a VERY old lens. The last time I had a 'push/pull' zoom lens was on an Olympus OM1n back in the early eighties. If it is of this vintage then it would explain the lack of reviews.

There seems to be a depth-of-field gauge on the end of the lens. I don't see these on digital zoom lenses anymore, they were very handy for not only seeing immediately what your depth-of-field was but for setting up your infinity dof. In other words if your lens max focus is 10m then everything from 10m to infinity is in focus, but with say f22 you could immediately put the focus so that the far end of your dof is just over 10m (ie all the way to infinity) and the near end would be something like 6m. I really miss that. Does anyone know if they still have it on high-end (high price!!) lenses?

otron

The image quality seems fine, although I havent had a chance to take it out and about so havent exactly tested it properly.

There was indeed a picture on the ebay listing, and the picture is accurate. I guess I didn't pay enough attention .. unwise, I know.

mtracey

For that price you're not going to loose anything if you resell. Can't imagine that the quality will be great though. Is the lens clean, i.e no fungus and no scratchs?

You should try and get the 70-300 APOII Red Stripe not Gold. Much better lens,
even better than the current Nikon and Canon versions.

Fajitas!

Have a very similar model to you, mine was passed onto me by my dad, grand aul lens.

I find the push/pull kinda handy! Though I still have a rotating barrel on mine.

Roen

I wouldn't expect the 70-300mm to be able to focus as close as the kit lens you have anyway. The 'macro' denotation just means that it has some (loosely defined) ability to focus at close up objects. A real macro cannot focus to infinity and will only be useful for very near objects. Even my 100mm f 2.8 macro will focus to infinity and is widely regarded as one of the sharpest lenses around, but at the end of the day it isn't a true macro despite it actually being labelled as such by Canon. I think the only real macro out there for 35mm/Dslr is the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 Macro Photo, which will only focus to about 5 inches away!
Maunfacturers bandy the term macro about like there's no tommorow, all my old 35mm lenses had macro on them but they were as much use as a chocolate teapot for macro work.
Anyway the important thing is that you're happy with the results from the lens. Plus for £51 you can't go too far wrong.

rymus

Hah! That looks like one of those old Russian submarines!