Sigma lenses

tamron lens’s probably your best bet for ruggedness and reliability, in my expirence they are of a better build quality than canon’s own… i’ve got a tamron 80-300mm on the front of me 350D. i’ve also a 85-210mm made in the late 70’s for my Konica T3 and its still as good as the day it was made.
I’ve owned a couple sigma lens’s over the years but not impressed with the build quality, they’ve either ended up in the bin or being given away for spares!

tamron lens’s probably your best bet for ruggedness and reliability, in my expirence they are of a better build quality than canon’s own… i’ve got a tamron 80-300mm on the front of me 350D. i’ve also a tamron 85-210mm made in the late 70’s for my Konica T3 and its still as good as the day it was made.
I’ve owned a couple sigma lens’s over the years but not impressed with the build quality, they’ve either ended up in the bin or being given away for spares!

Do sigma have a standard warranty on lenses or does it vary on how expensive they are?.Did you have trouble in getting the bigma fixed sam?

Im not familiar with either lens but my experience with Sigma isn’t fantastic. I’ve had the Bigma for around 2 years now and twice it has broken down with the same problem. Fortuently it’s still in warranty but im still waiting for it back.

If my photos turned out as half as good as yours grey area i’d be delighted:)

Thanks a lot. 😀

But in all fairness I should point out that almost all of the pictures I post in the Commercial Aviation forum are taken using my Canon 70-200 f/4 “L” zoom rather than with the Sigma zoom.

I’ve had 2 sigma lenses. The first one failed on holiday. It was replaced under warranty (just). The second one failed in exactly the same way. On holiday.

Quality optics or not, they are no good in pieces at the bottom of your camera bag while you try to find some other method of recording your holiday memories.

If my photos turned out as half as good as yours grey area i’d be delighted:) ,i have a trip to gatwick coming up & if i find the results not to my liking i’ll buy the sigma 70-300mm APO for my trip to AMS in march,so hopefully i can get the best out of my D50 whatever lens ends up on the end of it,thanks for all the replys;)

I’ve got a 70-300mm APO DG zoom as well.

While this model does have its faults, as pointed out above, overall it represents excellent value for money. 🙂

Hi Gary,

I used the have the 70-300 APO before it broke down. It is a really nice lense that with good weather makes very good shots. In bad weather the results are less good, but for the money still very acceptable.

While it is a 70-300, I would not recommend using it above 250mm. But considering that digital cameras got a crop factor anyway that should still suffice for most airports.

Only disadvantage I had is that on really bright weather the blue sky would wash out to a greyish blue. With paint shop that can be corrected, but takes some time.

If you give me you E-mail (by PM if you want to keep it private) I will send you a few unedited sample images. The camera I use is a canon 10D.

Have no experience with the other lenses you mentioned.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of the sigma 70-300mm APO?,i was wondering if this a “better” lens than my nikon 70-300 AF G lens?,The sigma lens has a macro function (whatever that means:confused: ),so is it suitable for aviation photography?.There’s also a sigma lens that covers 28-300mm range which is very appealing as i wouldn’t get a full frame shot of anything bigger than an A330 at DUB with just 70mm.So any suggestions?

Hi Gary,

I’m not familliar with either of those lenses, but basically macro lenses have an ability to focus on a subject much closer than standard lenses, meaning you can get in nice and close to small subjects like insects, flowers’ etc. 🙂

Paul