range of focus with auto focus and manual focus, at all ranges the lens was spectacular;

the lens is heavy, but I'm a big man with large hands;

I bought this lens to go with my Minolta Maxum 7D, and tried it on my Sony a330, .....wow it worked great, on both cameras, and did as well on my Sony a700.If your budget is kinda limited, and you want a good but not so expensive lens that takes sharp pics close and far, and you own a Sony camera, I say buy yourself one of these you won't regret it.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-300

I just got this lens for my Canon 40D and Canon XTi. This lens will not work with these cameras. I get an ERROR message every time I use an f/ stop higher than f/5.6.

The zoom ring on this lens failed twice in the last 2 years, this causes the zoom to turn non stop whitout zoomining. It cost you 92 dollars to fix the ring. This is due to a poor design of the zoom lock.

Similar Products Used:

nikon 18-200 vr
nikon 80-400 vr
sigma 18-30

Huge zoom range. Sharp pictures (within reaonable expectation limits) Compact and not overly heavy for a 300-mm lens. Manageable distortion and chromatic aberration, nothing that can't be dealt with. Zoom lock, prevents creeping. Convenient hood included. Unbeatable price.

Quite dark, AF hunts sometimes. Not suited for macro. Kind of odd barrel distortion, sometimes quoted as "moustache" distortion. Manual focus ring to coarse, has a somewhat cheap feel.

I have been using this lens for nearly a year now. Having read the reviews, I was first sceptical whether such a lens would be useful at all on a Pentax digital body. But I got one of the last samples of the Aspherical IF series for an unbeatable price at EBay. So I decided to give it a try. Having had some experience with an old Tamron 28-200mm, I did not expect too much, but the latest versions of the Sigma Hyperzooms have gone a long way since the appearance of lenses with a 28-200/300 zoom range. The lens delivers sharp pictures throughout the entire zoom range. This lens is certainly not a match for primes, or zooms with a more limited range. If you look closely you do find all sorts of aberrations, like an odd barrel distortion, purple fringing towards the edges, etc. But none of this is really dramatic. I have made excellent prints up to 20x30 (cm). The lens is not very fast. This sometimes causes the AF to hunt in the tele range. I used it on a hiking tour in Switzerland and got beautiful close-ups of all sorts of animals. 300mm on a 1.5 crop factor camera gives you an amazing range. Taking into account the alternatives, I do not agree with some other reviewers that this lens is overly heavy or large for the range that it offers. Certainly, getting closer to the subject would allow you to travel lighter. Unfortunately, those chamois and ibex are not very cooperative in that regard. Even at the longest focal length, the lens delivers amazingly sharp pictures with a high level of detail. On a 300-mm shot of a mountain cabin taken from 3.5km away, you could clearly see that the door to the cabin is still open. In my opinion, this lens is certainly not the universal lens, such that you will never desire anything else. But if you can only take one lens, and you do want to have some more tele range, this is the one to take with you.

Customer Service

Fortunately no need to contact.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-200mm (about 20 years old), sharpness much worse Sigma 70-200 EX F2.8, a totally different class in terms of image quality, but also nothing you would like to drag uphill either... Sigma 18-125mm DC, little brother with more wide angle but less tele

Zoom length. Fast focus.

Barrel extends unless you lock the zoom down. No Macro setting, but close-ups are still easily attainable.

I bought this lens about 1 year ago and have been impressed ever since. It's rekindled my passion for photography! Mounted on a Pentax Z10, I have had no problem making almost any outdoor shot, from soccer action to close ups. Seventy rolls of perfectly exposed crystal clear shots later and I am still wowed by the results.

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

NA

Reliable Autofocus if used outdoors. Compact. Great wide angle lens.

Best off using manual focus indoors. Weigth. Not a true 300mm lens. Only about 250mm or 280mm.

I've had this lens for almost two years and take it to work daily(I work at Miami MetroZoo). It's a great wide-angle lens and an okay telephoto. Works best with 400ISO film. I can switch this lens from my Canon Rebel to my Elan 7 without any problems. If you like pack lite, this is the lens for you. It eliminates the need for several other lenses. There is no need to swap lens and risk dropping one of them in the process. The only problem I've had with this lens is a clicking sound which occurs when zooming between 50 and about 85mm. I just keep using it as is.

Similar Products Used:

None. This is my first zoom lens.

Handy, durable, economical, sharp shots

Lens creeps, heavy.

I have read a lots of bad reviews about this lens. I somehow do not agree to the above. I have shot almost 100 rolls with this lens with Nikon N80 and results are amazing. Actually at 300 I got amazing sharness. I think a lot has to do with what camera you use with this lens. I recommend people to use 800 speed films. As some people might not know that 800 is the best fild for zoom cameras.

Wide rage, low price (you can get it for as low as $200

very dark, very slow

Good for daylight, unusable for inside photography. It is two stops slower than the standard CANON lenses, and it is true, it doesn't work with the new EOS. It locks almost everytime I attach it to my Elan7e, but no issues with my backup camera, a EOS 3000. It is NOT an "one lens for every occasion" lens.

Good clear shots at least for my purposes - a marked improvement on the lens supplied with the camera and very versatile due to the wide zoom range. Quite conpacy given that it is a 300mm zoom.

Heavy, and noisy on the Dynax 5. Not good for quick discreet shots as it takes more time to focus. Don't tradein the supplied lens yet! It seems to drain the battery more than the lighter lens, presumably because the camera motor needs more power to drive the focussing.

The lens works well with a Minolta Dynax 5. The pictures are sharp and, as mentioned in another review here, seem to have a warmer feel than the Minolta Dynax 28-80 lens supplied - perhaps more red in there somewhere? Not as fast to focus as the supplied lens and seems comparitively very heavy on this light camera. I also think that the built-in flash unit will not be usable with this lens. It is not as idiot proof as the supplied lens, so you need to take more care when composing shots. For example, the camera shouldn't fire if the Autofocus has not fixed itself on an object but I have one or two shots which are blurred throughout. This has not happened with the supplied lens at all.

Customer Service

Knowledgeable and helpful

Good all around lens if your limited to weight, number of hands and pockets you have.

Make sure you lock your lenses--it creeps Don''''t expect anything over 8X10 with sharpness. Photoshop here we go.. Not the fastest lenses in town. Velvia = tripod most all the time.

For backpacking and in the woods this lens is alot easier to carry around than two or 3 pro lenses covering the same range. I have blown up some photos to 11X17 and you see softness at the 300mm range.

Similar Products Used:

28X70 Minolta