Hi, I was looking at investing in a large zoom lens and it dawned on me that i know very little about large zoom lenses and decided i would look to the people of the green screen for opinions on a 70-300mm lens. i was looking at the Tamron 70-300mm 1:2 Macro Zoom Lens with BIM for my nikon D3000. i am open to sugestions but don't have an arm and a leg to spend on a lens. i do know that the more money the better the glass and i am trying to save up some money. Thanks for all the help!!
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I ordered a Sigma 70-300 last week. It came in last friday and I haven't used it much but I am happy so far. I also haven't got to play with the macro at all. It isn't Nikon glass, but for $200 I got a little more reach and macro. You will need a tripod on the 300 end. It has a built in motor too. Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me and I will take any specific test shots for you this weekend.
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Sigma makes a 70-300 in the same price range as the Tamron you are looking at. Only difference from my understanding is some coatings/types of glass that help with lens flare and picture quality. I had a Tamron lens for my Minolta film camera years ago. it was the do all 18-200 and my untrained eye was always pleased with the results. I found it to be a good lens. I went Sigma this time because a friend of mine that shoots a lot and has tons of gear, buys Sigma if he doesn't want to drop the $$ on Nikon glass.Comment
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thanks for the information, i do have one question though. what is the difference between the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro Autofocus Lens for Nikon AF and the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro Autofocus Lens for Nikon AF-D. mostly the apo and the -d after the autofocus?
thank you.
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The APO is Apochromatic. From the Sigma website:
"This lens has two SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements in the front lens group and one in the rear lens group, the lens has excellent correction of chromatic aberration through the entire zoom range."
The two SLD elements in the front group is the main difference. The non APO lens only has the one rear element. A salesperson at B&H said the APO version was a better choice. Seemed to be giving an honest answer, but at the end of the day, he is a salesperson. My guess would be that it will only make a noticeable difference in a certain few situations. I found the higher priced version first so I never really looked at the other one. Both lenses seem to have gotten good reviews on B&H and Adorama. I dont think the cheaper version would be a bad choice. Maybe someone else will chime in on how important this is. The -D has something to do with the lens knowing what distance you are focused at by my research. I wouldn't think it should influence your decision.
Article about the Nikon designations. Love him or hate him, I find his technical info helpful:
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If you are going to be using the 70-300 by hand at all make sure it has image stabilization. For nikon that would be labeled as VR.Comment
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