Sigma 70 - 200 with APO or without?

[photographyman]

Hey guys, i have been looking at the above 2 lenses recently, although i understand what the APO is im not quite sure which would be the right choice.

I shoot mainly sports and am currently using nikon 55 - 200 mm, so anything is an improvement..

Thanks for any help..

 

[KIPAX]

AFAIK the APO is about image quality.. so will ahve no effect on how you use it so will make no difference if your shooting sport or not.. APO should be a better quality picture (but I have no idea by how much) but has no performance impact.

This answer is given to you by a NON Expert.. so wait for other answers as well

 

[photographyman]

Thanks for this Kipax, it does make sense to go for the APO but something keeps nigglin me about the other type, thanks again.

 

[Gary Coyle]

The Sigma APO is the very oldest version of this lens, (1999) quite slow AF and no lens coating, best option of them all is the first EX DG HSM version, you get the anti flare coating and the Hypersonic motor, for sport, i would personally avoid the later Marco and Macro II versions, for some reason the AF slowed down even though the Macro II version included HSM II

I have no experience of the new OS version but i assume budget is a major consideration if you are looking at the cheap original APO version, you wont get spares for this if it breaks so be careful.

 

[TCR4x4]

I think most sigma lenses are now APO. The first 70-200 was just titled APO, and the others since have had many other titles, but still all include the APO tag which means..

n order to attain the highest quality images, the APO lens has been made using special low-dispersion (SLD) glass and is designed to minimise colour aberration.
SIGMA's APO zoom lenses minimise colour aberration. As the refractive index of glass depends on the wavelength of light, colour aberration occurs when different colours form images at different points. This problem often occurs with telephoto lenses, but the Special Low-Dispersion (SLD) glass and Extraordinary Low Dispersion (ELD) used in SIGMA's APO lenses help to compensate for colour aberration, thereby allowing them to produce sharp images.

I have the sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG HSM APO Macro. This was replaced by the
Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG HSM APO Macro II Which was replaced/run alongside by the
Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG HSM APO Macro OS

 

[Gary Coyle]

The original one designated APO also had a horrible rubberised coating on some body parts

 

[photographyman]

Thanks guys,

So let me get this right(i think) the best one would be 70 - 200 DG EX APO HSM, non macro( gary)....