For Canon user especially who just into the world of photography and happen to just bought himself or herself a beginner level DSLR, kit lens that came with the body isn't enough, especially if you're into bird, animals or even street photography. For some the 55mm end isn't enough, so they need a better lens, dedicated in long range photography.
Sure you can buy the fast Canon EF 70- 200 f/2.8 IS USM with a lump of money or maybe selling your liver but there are always alternative to these telephoto lens.
For canon user, there are actually there models that are cheap enough and also providing decent image quality. Best bang for the bucks they say. The Canon EF 75-300mm USM III, the Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS, the Tamron 70-300mm or maybe the Sigma 70-300 APO DG MACRO. For me i took the Sigma lens.
Sigma 70-300mm f/4 -5.6 APO DG MACRO
I bought it for RM 750, maybe about 230 dollar. The package include a lens bag, lens cap, manual, guarantee card, resits and also the lens itself.
Physically, it was quite heavy although not as heavy as a 70-200 barrel but it was heavy for person like me, skinny and doesn't usually use telephoto lens. It weigh around 0.5 kg to be exact. The body are made from metal so the build quality is good in this lens. The zoom and focusing ring are quite smooth i can say but for me, i find it confusing sometimes to zoom because for canon lens, to increase you zoom range you have to rotate it clockwise but for this lens it's anticlockwise. But nonetheless, that was not a major problem. The maximum length of the lens could be very long to some people but it was nothing.
I have taken many picture with this lens and i can say that under good lighting condition, the image produces could be really nice. The lens do hunt especially at night so to overcome that do focus first then zoom in. For macro mode, set it to manual, rotate to the maximum length which is 300mm then turn the macro button on then rotate the zoom ring the the maximum level. Then if you don't trust your eyes much in determining the focusing, feel free to turn the AF on again. It still hunt sometimes but for most of the times, it went well.
The macro mode for this lens come in ration of 1:2. So don't expect to get a picture whereby you can count how many eyes does the fly have, you can get a great photo of flower or such but a lot of practice needed to be done first if you're just into macro shooting. Few shot after the jump.
On the side note, it's difficult for me to find it's weakness. Sure it does hunt in low light, it is not fast as the f/2.8 telephoto, it is not a white barrel(they look awesome to me though.) but it was great. Another downsize of the lens is that it does not have stabilization unit built in the lens. If you have really shaky hands and really depend on stabilization unit to not make your photo blur, feel free to get the Canon EF-Ss 55-250mm IS. I does have IS unit or image stabilization. But in my opinion, for telephoto, tripod and a fast shutter speed is indeed compulsory. Stabilization just like the icing on the cake. It make it much better.
Quality side, i guess you have to search for it else where because sadly i don't have any other telephoto lens to compare with.
Overall i can say that this lens is very nice lens to have. For a starter, it gave you a macro capabilities and also a telephoto properties. Both although not at the very best, is good enough for a beginner. And if you still have doubt about the lens, feel free to stop by any shop that sells this lens, try it for yourself, take some picture with it and then compare with the other lens you have in mind.
If you want to view more photo's that are taken with the lens just drop by my flickr by clicking on the flickr button on you left or just visit it here
