Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8

Oakey22

Oakey22

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Ian Oakey
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I have been looking to upgrade my lens so something a little better so it lets more light in for low light. I have seen this lens but it comes with a nice price tag compared to my other lens. I will be using it for motorsport and football, the local football team i will be taking pics of only has basic floodlights and my 100-400M L will not cope with it as that is about f/5.6 at the length i need.
I have a 100-200 L f/4 forsale at the moment and was wondering if it would be worth me selling both of these as i can get the sigma + a 1.4tc to get the range my 100-400 has.

Does anyone have this lens and is it as good as i keep reading, i can get it for about £1669 from jacobs.
 
I think this is an amazing lens. I do wildlife and I never hesitate to use it at f2.8, the only reason I step down is for more DOF. I never used it for sports, except from one time when there were some people biking in my neighbourhood and i did some practice on them. I was quite pleased with the results, even though someone with better experience would get better results (or more keepers) than me. Most of the photos from that day had the trees in the back in focus instead of the bikers:bonk:.

I do use it with the 1.4x TC, and i was a bit dissapointed with the results wide open until last night. Read this thread

If it is sharp enough with a TC for me that I want that feather detail from small birds then I guess that it will be more than enough for you.

Joe T had some issues with AF performance when combined with a TC on his D200. Even though it does slow down with a TC, it's not that bad (joe was saying that it needed 3 seconds to cover the whole focusing range from 2.5m to infinity where i counted a bit more than 1 second).
 
I had the EX version and loved it, I sold it to whitey on here, he's been using it for motorsport, i'm pretty sure he's happy with it.

I found with the 1.4x TC on the performance was very good though most of what I was photographing didn't move about much, I didn't notice a drop in picture quality at all with the 1.4x on but with a 2x on there was a noticeable drop
 
I had just read that thread and looked at the 120-300mm because of it, i only have a 40D but might be upgrading that soon aswell to get the better ISO noise that the 1D offers, just noticed that if i paid with a cashback site it would be a little over £1610 with a 3 ear warranty i think.
 
they have 3 year warranty as long as you buy it before 31/12, it's a sigma offer

EDIT try one out before ordering, the weight may come as a bit of a shock, it did with me
 
Sorry to say that I tried 3 of these including one at Sigma HQ and they were all poor. I dont know if it was a "bad batch", but the focus was incredibly inconsistent as though the lens couldn't keep up with the camera. By contrast my Sigma 100-300 F4 was superb. I think the motor just cant shift that big lump of glass around fast enough.

I sensibly gave up (refund from Jessops) and bought a 2nd hand Canon 300 2.8L non-IS for £1500 and haven't looked back. The Canon is an amazing lens. I thought I'd miss the flexibility of a zoom but the IQ is stupendous. The build quality is far better than the Sigma with ball bearings running in the tripod mount collar for example.

Oh - look - they've got another one in stock...I'm sure they'll talk turkey on a deal.

http://www.apertureuk.com/used-Can.htm

By the way, Jessops price-matched the Sigma 120-300 to £1460 when I called the mail-order line. Worth a try if you go that route.
 
wack61 said:
I had the EX version and loved it, I sold it to whitey on here, he's been using it for motorsport, i'm pretty sure he's happy with it.

I found with the 1.4x TC on the performance was very good though most of what I was photographing didn't move about much, I didn't notice a drop in picture quality at all with the 1.4x on but with a 2x on there was a noticeable drop
Click to expand...

i am yeah, very happy with it

use it with a Sigma 1.4x to and never had a problem
 
another vote for here, also used with the 1.4TC - which can slow focusing speed a tad but once locked on, it stays there. IQ is very good even with the TC. Would definatelt recommend a good monopod though, it's a heavy old beast.
 
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