Excellent lens and an incredible value!
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| Review Date: May 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: P. Landry, Nashville, TN |
I hesitated purchasing this lens for my Nikon D40X--probably looked at this listing six or seven times before making the purchase. Truthfully I was worried about how inexpensive it is. Now, I'm probably a pretty average amateur photographer in that the majority of my pictures are family stuff: kids' sporting events, vacations, birthdays, and the like. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to compromise on quality just to save some money, and I know that the Nikon 55-200 is a quality lens.
But, I purchased based on Michael Del Priore's review (his was the only review at the time)--I figured, at this price (especially when compared to the Nikon 55-200), why not give it a shot, and I'm glad I did.
This is an excellent lens. The auto focus motor is fast and doesn't chew up the battery (I was concerned about that, but I shot almost 170 pictures at my son's games two Saturdays ago and didn't use any more battery than the Nikon 35-70 lens that came with the camera). Like "cinderoo" I haven't had any stabilization issues to speak of either, even snapping away while following 12 year old boys run the length of a field. That may be more of an issue with macro photography, but I'd imagine most of the (admittedly limited) macro photography I'd do would probably be with a tripod anyway.
Now, no one would mistake me for a professional photographer, but I can tell you that when I pull up photos shot with my D40X and this Sigma lens on my 24" iMac and view them full screen they are *everything* I was looking for when I decided to move to an SLR camera. |
Unbelievable bargain!
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| Review Date: May 9, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Dave, Massachusetts |
I wanted a cheap telephoto lens for those times I need the reach. Since I don't use it that often, I felt no need for a large or expensive lens. I debated between this lens, the Tamron 70-300 Di, and the Sigma APO of the same type. This was the cheapest so I went with it. Frankly, I can't believe how good this lens is for its price. At 70mm, it's tack sharp corner to corner. Even 200-300 it's quite good. And the Macro mode is just icing on the cake--1:2 magnification means you can get quite close.
It's true, you need a fair amount of light for this lens to shine--no argument there. But for the individual who only does this sort of stuff for fun, this lens is hard to beat. I can't imagine the APO variant is worth $70 more--I cannot detect any difference from sample pictures posted online. So if you only need a lens of this focal length occasionally, this is the one to get. |
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