Strong light sources in the frame will cause a little flare, spreading from the light across the image centre. Typically this lens controls flare pretty well throughout the zoom range, with only feint green and amber ghosts appearing in extreme circumstances. Light sources just outside the frame cause few issues, with contrast being reduced a little in extreme circumstances. The supplied lens hood virtually eliminates this, so I would tend to leave it fitted at all times. With a nice light lens body, it makes for a great companion on an all day hike, or a day at the rodeo when you have the camera to your eye for most of the time.

Distortion is very well controlled at 70mm producing 0.07% pincushion distortion, which is an almost negligible amount. At 200mm the amount of pincushion distortion rises to 2.62%, which may be noticeable in some circumstances, but more often than not, will not cause any issues. This lens is one of two virtually identical offerings from Sigma in the extremely popular 70-300 category in which almost all manufacturers have at least one contender. Although still in the budget sector, this one, the APO version, is the better of the two offerings. We take a look at what you get for your money. This is where this APO lens differs from its sister, utilising two extra SLD (special low dispersion) glass elements in the front group, making three in total. SLD glass is denser, accounting for the slight increase in weight over the lesser lens.

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By 135mm, there has been a slight drop in resolution, with the lens still producing good centre sharpness wide open. The best quality images are still produced between f/8 and f/11 with the sharpness across the frame being absolutely uniform at f/11. Mission Complete, the review of the Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 SLD DG Macro Lens has ended. There is not much more to say, it’s a decent lens for a decent price. I do own this lens, so it will be used a lot. So let’s do a recap. Testing Lens Quality/Build. This lens is built exceptionally well, it's plastic but there's a good weight to it, and the zoom functions/focus ring still works with 0 issues 10/10 (was bought new with Pentax K100D)

Contrast is good, as is colour rendition,sharpness and resolution. Maybe a tad soft wide open, but it is more than useable. When at Northern nats you have to use manual focus for everything and its amazing, great fine tuning on the focus and the zoom is just insane, the ergonomics of this lens is amazing. people say "you just get used to it", No when it comes to doing pin point moving targets with constant zooming in and out having the focus at the front is so damn helpful, being able to brace the zoom ring with your palm of your hand while using your fingers to focus is unmatched, want 300mm zoom with crisp photos without any motion blur Hand held? this lens WILL do it, i can use this lens at 1/20th of a second and still have no motion blur (Shake reduction, and coffee). The next part of the barrel has a basic depth-of-field scale marked and, again on the left, carries the switch to enable ‘Macro’ photography. The final 25% of the barrel forms the focus ring, which, in manual focus, is nicely torqued. Once switched to Autofocus, it cannot be over-ridden and becomes stiff for that reason. In normal mode, focussing can extend the lens a further 17mm. There is a red ring around the lens to denote the APO version, which is needed if you have the two lenses side by side! ePHOTOzine resident lens tester, Gary Wolstenholme casts his discerning eye over the Sigma 70-300mm.Image Quality and colours. When it comes to image quality its Very good, its not prefect and depending on your aperture and zoom but it won't let you down.