70300G First play

[Dr. Harout]

I agree with Don. But not only change it if you have doubts. Change it one way or another, you don't loose anything.

[aster]

Hi ellisn,

Sad to hear that the lens gave you hard and frustrating time of shooting and focus. I'd agree with the rest who suggests an exchange for a brand new/sealed lens that hasn't been used/tried or bear the signs of been-opened somehow. A brand new one will make you feel better and will also give you a chance of testing with newly-acquired experience with the possible faults of this kind of lens...

Hopefully all will be resolved for the best,
Good luck

Yildiz

[picman]

[quote="Sonolta"
While the jury is still out, allow me to make an observation.

WOW! Does SONY have a QC problem or what? It takes some of you people numerous Sony lens samples to get a good one? Weird.
Geesh...in a matter of only a few months my A100 somehow got specks in-between the LCD screens, and mega amounts of particulate inside the viewfinder, and then my Sony A700 auto-focus took a dump 11 months in! Many of you people have had a ton of problems getting a good Zeiss, and now it takes multiple copies of the G lens to get a good one? Wowza...Sony need to get it's QC act together!

-Sonolta[/quote]

I agree 100% here, my CZ 24-70 is OK optically but mechanically it is not what I am used to from CZ in the past (Contax).

[ellisn]

I agree, I wouldn't think of an exchange unless I was as sure as I can be that there is a fault. Hence all the posts and seeking advice. I will be giving it another trial before sending back but wouldn't take the risk of missing the 7 day exchange taking into account the feedback I have had so far. I just wish the weather wasn't so cr@p so I could get some tests done.

Neil

[kelvinyam]

I've just gone through these 5 pages of post regarding this lens. I agree with Sonolta that my Sigma APO 70-300mm can do better at f8 compares to the OP's assumed defective 70-300G. I'm expecting a lens at this price shall at least matches the picture quality of Sigma APO 70-300mm (f8) at wide opened. Construction quality is another story though...

Off the topic a little, I've recently came across post regarding comparison between 70-300G and Tamron 200-500mm. Will a crop photo from 70-300G (with and without 1.4x TC) matches photo from Tamron 200-500mm in term of quality?

[[SiC]]

Bummer for you! As you well know, the old Siggy 70-300's do not have the IQ that the APO DG version does on digital. What happened to your APO DG Macro? The APO DG is the first A-Mount lens I purchased for my KM5D, I used it on my A100 as well, and now the A700.

-Sonolta

Sorry for the late answer...
Not sure about the exact model name but it was a Sigma 70-300 APO macro with "gold" ring that was purchased around mid '99 I think. Seems my D7D did a similar thing to it that some A700 users are reporting about "stripped gears". It can be focused manually but the focus ring is very hard to move and it sounds really bad.

Since I then was in bad need of a telezoom I purchased the "non-APO" DG model, bummer Most of the time it's ok, but I find the CA quite disturbing.

Have a nice day!

BR,
/Zeb!

[[SiC]]

Hi, neither of your lenses are the 70-300m APO DG Macro. The APO DG Macro has a red ring, and a 200-300mm macro with a max 2:1 magnification ratio. The DG lenses have coatings optimized for digital...to combat sensor reflectiveness, giving better contrast, etc.

Nope, and I didn't really say I had the DG APO either... I sorta' left out the model info:

Very nice. Unfortunately the Siggy 70-300 "took a dump" on me and now I'm stuck with the non APO DG version
Most of the time it performs ok but the CA can be disturbing...

See here, this is my lens.



http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses ... avigator=3

Figured that was the one you had, and the one I should have bought...

You may have had this one? (thanks Dyxum)

Yep... And now I'm stuck with this one:

I guess it's almost the exact model you have, take the APO-glass.

BR,
/Zeb!