Sigma APO 100-300mm f/4 - reviews/samples

DoctorIt · March 7, 2005

APO 100-300mm f/4 EX IF HSM

Sigma sure loves their acronyms/initials. :lol3

But anyway, I got my new lens on friday and I love it! I just wanted to post a bit of review and some sample shots on it. First off, it seems Sigma really got it right with this lens. There seems to be a hole in Canon's lineup - fixed aperture longish telephoto zoom. Sure the 100-400 IS kicks butt, but it's way too expensive for a non-fixed aperture! Sigma to the rescue with a sub $1000 100-300mm fixed f/4. Its tack sharp, HSM focus is as fast as the EF 70-200 L (haven't done them back to back, but it felt just as quick, at least in good outdoor light), and it handles very well - not too big, but big enough to let you know its a big lens. Another great feature is fixed length, everything is internal. This really gives it a solid pro feeling, much like the 70-200 L, and much unlike the 100-400 IS L (just my opinion).

Since the price was so reasonable, more later, I picked up the 1.4x TC at the same time. The addition of this loses you a stop, to f/5.6, but performance in terms of image quality, at first glance, has no effect. No effect to focusing speed. I don't quite have a ton of shots yet, but I plan to do a test of TC no-TC back to back, soon.

To the price... $749 and $149 for the TC. I want to give a good review to "Sigma 4 Less" here. Apparently, they bought out a Brooklyn store front that had less than great reviews in the past, but from my research, it's just the store that's old, management all new. I found good ratings on resellerratings.com and one good plug on FM, so I went for it. I would recommend them as the prices are by far the lowest. They did give me a call and try to sell me a filter, but took NO for an answer quickly and easily. Purchased online wednesday, got tracking info on thurs after lunch, had the lens on friday at 1pm!!! Granted, this is a reflection of how efficient UPS is from New York to Mass, but still, fast service. Total shipping cost was $15. Very reasonable. Stuff arrived packaged well, all brand new as expected, no ripoffs here.

Blah blah blah... Here's some shots:

Look at how buttery this bokeh is!

And finally, this is what the lens looks like in action:

Sunday's weather was pretty nasty, and saturday I had too much work to do, so you'll have to wait for some better examples of shots. But I have to say right off the bat, I really like this lens. With the TC, it'll be great for wildlife, and without, it'll be great for sports too.

:thumb

Michiel de Brieder · March 7, 2005

Thanks for the write-up Eric!!!!
That lens really ahs a smooth Bokeh!!! Hmmmmm, no, I must be strong.. must... save... for..... larger telephoto......
Thanks

BridgeCity · March 7, 2005

:Insert drool smiley here:

pathfinder · March 7, 2005

Nice write up Erik

ian408 · March 8, 2005

Good, objective write up. Thanks!

ian

dkapp · March 8, 2005

Thanks for the great review

I've looked at this lens for the Nikon several times. I'm not sure I need a fast zoom, but the Sigma prices are very attractive.

The other lens on my list is double the price of the sigma, but it does have VR. I'll have to do some serious thinking.

Thanks again. You rock.

Dave

Mongrel · March 8, 2005

I like mine a lot as well...

gus · March 8, 2005

Beautiful mate...3 days is all i req for a report

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

dkapp wrote:

Thanks for the great review

I've looked at this lens for the Nikon several times. I'm not sure I need a fast zoom, but the Sigma prices are very attractive.

The other lens on my list is double the price of the sigma, but it does have VR. I'll have to do some serious thinking.

Thanks again. You rock.

Dave

It was a D70 mounted of version of this lens that did it for me. My best shooting buddy has had his for about 6 months now, and I played with it a few times while deciding where to go for my own. It was really nice to get some time tested reviews from him as well.

And you ain't kidding, I think for the money, this lens is an absolute steal!

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Beautiful mate...3 days is all i req for a report

Yeah right, I couldn't even get it shipped to you in 3 days

and everyone else, you're welcome. I hope to be able to do more lens reviews in the future

Andy · March 8, 2005

BridgeCity wrote:

:Insert drool smiley here:

like this?

BridgeCity · March 8, 2005

I must be a forum noob... Is that on the list of smileys for the site? or is that a link off another site?

gus · March 8, 2005

Doc i would love some night street shots with this lens... would be interesting to see the shutter speeds/iso in this enviroment.

gus · March 8, 2005

DoctorIt wrote:

Yeah right, I couldn't even get it shipped to you in 3 days

and everyone else, you're welcome. I hope to be able to do more lens reviews in the future

Ya flamin' drongo ! I ment the 3 days that you have had it.

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Doc i would love some night street shots with this lens... would be interesting to see the shutter speeds/iso in this enviroment.

eeks, night shots... with a long lens

I actually tried last night as I was walking out to the parking lot. I spotted a bunny huddled in a corner, so I pulled out the camera which had the big gun attached. I gave it a go. But fer chrissakes, you can't hand hold that behemoth! Even at ISO 1600 at f/5.6 I had a shutter speed of at most 1/20. No way. I used a bench, checkbook, and lens cover to prop up the cam and lens for this shot:

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Ya flamin' drongo ! I ment the 3 days that you have had it.

never been called a drongo before.

gus · March 8, 2005

DoctorIt wrote:

eeks, night shots... with a long lens

I actually tried last night as I was walking out to the parking lot. I spotted a bunny huddled in a corner, so I pulled out the camera which had the big gun attached. I gave it a go. But fer chrissakes, you can't hand hold that behemoth! Even at ISO 1600 at f/5.6 I had a shutter speed of at most 1/20. No way. I used a bench, checkbook, and lens cover to prop up the cam and lens for this shot:

So your going to make me buy the 2.8 then ?

Whats the tech bit there ? An f/2.8 will double the speed to 1/40

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

Humungus wrote:

So your going to make me buy the 2.8 then ?

Whats the tech bit there ? An f/2.8 will double the speed to 1/40

I think you're on to it... even the f/2.8 won't really give you night shooting capability. I had the extender on, so i was maxed out at f/5.6. If I had taken that off, I would have been at f/4, 1/40 (roughly). So yeah, another stop to f/2.8 would give you roughly 1/80, heck, I'll even give you 1/100 second for good measure. The light on the bunny was pretty dim indeed, so give yourself a streetlight, maybe a 1/3rd stop there, and with a 20D you could pull off ISO 3200... so yeah, technically, the f/2.8 could be used at night - you'd be somewhere around 1/200 second, so you could handhold. But only at the short end anyway. Why would you spend more than twice as much and have a twice as heavy lens for one or two night shots? the f/4 is more than ample during the day.

Thanks for making me go through that Gus! Now I feel even better about my lens. Even if I had more money, I would do it again - get the f/4 and with the rest of the money, I'd buy the sweet 150mm EX macro lens.

gus · March 8, 2005

I can only talk about what ive read & if you look at both the 2.8 & the 4 on FM...all people mention about the f/4 is its sharpness....almost like its sharper than f/2.8.

DoctorIt · March 8, 2005

Humungus wrote:

I can only talk about what ive read & if you look at both the 2.8 & the 4 on FM...all people mention about the f/4 is its sharpness....almost like its sharper than f/2.8.

I researched this one to death and found the same results all over. Nothing but 10's for the f/4 and some mixed bag for the f/2.8. The only explanation I can find for this is that the f/4 was designed from the ground up as a great fixed length/internal focus telephoto zoom (also newer than big brother, I think). The f/2.8 started life as the 300mm prime, the guts were redesigned to be a zoom and elements were added. Something to be said for starting with no preconceived design constraints.

gus · March 9, 2005

Ok...your doing well mate...now some low light indoors stuff both short & long with the exif

There are people needing to see this....

wxwax · March 9, 2005

Nice thread, doc.

DoctorIt · March 9, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Ok...your doing well mate...now some low light indoors stuff both short & long with the exif

There are people needing to see this....

I really don't know why you'd use this indoors... maybe cause I'm thinking in the mind set of my rather small apartment. Even at 100mm, I'd be clear across the living room to use it for even a portrait.

Which is exactly what I did when I first took it out of the box. I promised the lady I wouldn't show this photo anywhere, as she was feeling under the weather and "ugly" that evening. But this was taken indoors, low light, no post proc whatsoever:

click on it for the exif box...

So this was handheld on the longer end, high ISO. I was really impressed with how sharp this was at such a slow shutter. BTW, what is up with that focal length guess - 2144mm!!!

dunno

So gus, gimme a specific assignment, I'll see what I can do.

DoctorIt · March 9, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Nice thread, doc.

Thanks waxy, after 1300 posts, I was bound to finally do one right!

DJ-S1 · March 9, 2005

That does NOT do her justice, Erik. Hope she doesn't find out... :whip

DoctorIt · March 10, 2005

DJ-S1 wrote:

That does NOT do her justice, Erik. Hope she doesn't find out... :whip

:uhoh

How's the Drebel treatin' you?

DJ-S1 · March 10, 2005

DoctorIt wrote:

:uhoh

How's the Drebel treatin' you?

"She's a rebel,
She's a rebel,
She's a rebel,
And she's dangerous."

- Green Day - American Idiot

Worse than Pandora's box. Do you know how hard it is not to buy lenses, tripods, flashes, cases...?? It's killing me, but I've been good so far. :twitch

Love the camera, haven't done anything much more than snapshots with it yet mostly due to lack of free time lately. It's taking me longer to learn everything than I expected, but I'm getting there. And it sure is fun! I actually took a photo with a shallow depth of field, imagine that!

I see you are enjoying your new one. Your posts actually made be look up the definiton of "bokeh"; I had guessed the right meaning but I didn't realize it was a Japanese term.

Sigma APO 100-300mm f/4 - reviews/samples

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