Sigma 70-300??

Would someone please explain to me the difference between the two Sigma 70-300 lenses for the nikon mount. I'm interested in an affordable lens with good distance for shooting wildlife.

Mostly deer, turkey, and birds.

Thanks!

The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro might be the way to go. This lens has the red ring. A lot of people on this forum like it. I've had some good photos with it. Good luck with the lens you get.
George

For me, the lens is a good/great value -- about $200 and it does what I want. Sure, some day I'll upgrade, but it'll take a lot of savings to replace it.

The "70-300 f4-5.6 apo dg macro" appears to be their latest release; the "70-300 f4-5.6 apo macro super II" is listed as being discontinued (at sigma4less.com).

The lens really requires good lighting, as I fully expected before buying it. Here are a couple shots:

The standard duck shot...



Baseball on a cloudy, rainy day...

Hi Martin

the main difference, at least for the ones sold here, lies in the fact that one kind is marked APO, so has more (three, from the brochure) ED lenses that give better response to chromatic aberration, while the other has only one, being cheaper. Once I had and it worked fine, for its price.

Martin047 said:

Would someone please explain to me the difference between the two
Sigma 70-300 lenses for the nikon mount. I'm interested in an
affordable lens with good distance for shooting wildlife.

Mostly deer, turkey, and birds.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

--

Photography is the most beautiful way to discover God around us in little and simple things.

http://italy74.smugmug.com
http://it.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dlb74pr/my_photos

Scott.... I said that I had some good shots with my 70-300, but the two you sent in are outstanding. My son plays baseball and not one shot is as good. I use a D70 with the Sigma. Please post the settings you use. If you use a D2x I'll understand.
Thanks,
George

I recently purchased the Sigma 70-300 APO DG ($185 US) from Sigma4less.com, here are some shots with the D50. I'm very pleased.







I'd love to have a 2.8 400 mm, but my pockets aren't that deep....

Thanks for the kind words... most of what I do comes from others on this forum, and I have a lot of learning still to go.

To get the pictures at the baseball game, I upped the ISO to 640 since it was a little rainy and not very bright light. This allowed two things: First, a higher shutter speed to keep motion blur down at 200 to 300mm. Secondly, it allowed me to stop it down between f/6.3 and f/9; it appears the lens performs better stopped down (f/8 and above?, hard to say).

The duck shot was on my first walk-about with the lens. It was a very bright winter day, the the 70-300 seems to like a lot of light.

As for post-processing, I shoot everything in RAW and follow a workflow from "PSCS2 Workflow" by Tim Grey. I've only read a couple chapters, but it's helped in many subtle ways. All the baseball pictures have been post-processed for white ballance, exposure, shadows, etc., etc. down to sharpening, so they're definitely not "straight-out-of-the-camera"!

Here are the rest of the baseball pictures with EXIF data:
http://www.pbase.com/purkers/osubaseball

Hope this helps!

Nice pics Joe, I'd love to get some shots like these. And thanks to everyone that replied to my question.

I was going through the old forums and found these pics...TOTALLY AMAZING is all I have to say. That lens is great. I myself am going to be purchasing the Nikon D50 and this lens and I am hoping it work for baseball. My son plays centerfield when he is not pitching or catching and in softball my daughter plays right field. What do you think of the reach it has to the outfield of a junior high and a high school baseball field. Any ideas?

Again amazing pics

Just makes me certain this is the lens for me. Sharp photos!

Awesome pictures!! I am just looking at Sigma For Less and thinking of buying the Nikon D50 and the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro for Nikon AF. Can you tell me if they are reliable (SIGMA FOR LESS). Do you know if these items have USA warranty? I tried to call them, but they were not available.

The total for the Camera body and lens was $702.32 with shipping (10-14 day). I think this is a good deal, not sure if they are very fast or if I will be waiting around forever. I know I could pay more for faster shipping, I was just hoping to save some for another lens I am wanting.

Any way let me know what you think!

I bought mine from sigma4less, no problems. USA warranty.

I,ve pretty much decided to buy this lens (Sigma Zoom Telephoto 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro Autofocus) from sigma4less. What i'm concerned about is in some posts there's talk of inconsistent build quality. Has anyone had to deal with that? Anyone had to swap out or return anything at sigma4less?

bump