Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG IF Macro Aspherical Lens for Canon SLR Cameras: Customer Reviews & Product Details

I bought this lens and was absolutely repulsed by it. I bought for use with a Nikon (though my issues were all thanks to Sigma so I include it here for the canon). Though cheaper, and generally inexpensive for this sort of zoom range, what killed the deal for me was two things. First, it has no stabilization (ok, not all lenses need it, but at 200-300mm in anything but sunlight or bright studio, even a steady hand sniper needs VC/IS/VR -whatever your flavor-). Secondly, but most annoying and the primary reason for returning it because it's something that really surprised me, when you focused on an object with the lens racked out to, say, 300mm (full telephoto), then zoomed out even a slight bit to, say, 250mm the lens would suddenly be not clearly focused on that same object (assuming you locked the focus on the object somehow such as keeping the shutter button half-depressed or manually focusing in the first place, and with AF not in servo/continuous mode). In that same situation if you pulled further back to say 75mm or 50mm, the focus would be so out of wack that it destroyed the picture -if it weren't completely destroyed by the blurring earlier-. Everything was blurred and generally unrecognizable at this point. I had come to expect that this would not happen with a modern lens but was very much surprised. This essentially meant that you could not zoom into an object for the purpose of confirming focus on the correct area, then zoom back out to compose the shot. The problem existed if you focused at wide and zoomed in to confirm. It would keep the focus point such that when you came back out to wide it was still focused, but when you were zooming to confirm the shot would be very blurry. I immediately returned the lens upon discovering this.

In its stead I bought the Tamron 18-270mm, whose VC is far superior, the lens has more range (18mm is a huge a difference from 28mm considering angle of view and how much more you get in the shot, but 270 versus 300 isn't a big difference), and performs wonderfully. It is my "workhorse" lens (i bring it around everywhere and keep it attached much of the time). For what it's worth, there's currently an $80 rebate on that lens through 4/30/2010 bringing the price to $550 at places like Amazon.com and [...]. Seriously, a lot of people buy a new lens very seldomly for an SLR (especially if your aren't an enthusiastic hobbyist or amateur photographer). My suggestion for those replacing the unimpressive kit lenses that come with SLRs with a reach of ~55mm, spend the extra money to get a great all-around lens with phenomenal zoom range and great performance that you can use in 95% of the situations. Mine has survived a lot of abuse thus far.

It was what I expected. Good construction. Comes with what you needs to enjoy this lens.

I wanted a general purpose lens for my everyday use and this one fills the bill nicely. The lens has a good solid feel, not too heavy, but not so light that you don't feel like you've attached a piece of cheap plastic to your camera body. I've had no problems with resolution throught the range of the lens except for a bit of softness at the edges at 300mm. The only issue I would mention is that the zoom ring is a little stiff for my taste. If you want a good, general purpose lens without having to pay the price of a Canon L series, this is a good bet. Optical stabilization would be nice, but it is available on the newest version of this lens.
I shoot a lot and this lens seems to be rugged enough to stand up to difficult environments. For my purposes iit definitely was a good buy.

This is a low cost and very versatile lens so long as one does not expect perfection. Not as sharp as lenses costing 3-4 times more (big surprise there), it is nonetheless good enough for most hobbyists. I bought it as a one lens choice for vacations and travel. I dislike carrying a bag and multiple lenses while traveling, but I wanted a wide zoom range at a low price. This fills the bill nicely. I am a bit disappointed in the telephoto end of this lens. My Tamron 75-300 brings things a good deal closer than does this lens's 300mm setting. I have tested them both at the maximum focal length on the same subjects, and the Tamron definitely renders subjects as substantially larger. I am not convinced we are getting the full 300mm focal length here. I think it's really somewhere around 250mm (either that or the Tamron is really more than 300mm). That being said, I am still happy with the lens over all. It's relatively light and compact and has a big zoom ratio even if its not quite as big as advertised. Macro works well. I have not been disappointed with image quality, although if I were shooting professionally I would want something a bit sharper.

I recently purchased a Sigma camera lens for my Canon xti. 28-300mm
I took a trip to Lopez Island last week and cannot express the joy I have gotten with the pictures I took on the trip. Just wonderful!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,
Priscilla