Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG IF Macro Aspherical Lens for Minolta and Sony SLR Cameras

Love taking pictures with this lens

Cheap glass, don't buy it

I was not happy with qurlity of the it produce. The Sony 75-300mm is much better.

When I purchased this lens, I overlooked the fact that it was made for macro shooting. In that regard, the lens works fine with perhaps a little softness when fully zoomed. However, I was hoping to find a lens that worked as well as the 75-300mm lens that came with my a100. Unfortunately, this lens fails to clearly capture objects at distances, which may have been asking too much of it on my part.

This is a low cost and very versatile lens so long as one does not expect perfection. Not as sharp as lenses costing 3-4 times more (big surprise there), it is nonetheless good enough for most hobbyists. I bought it as a one lens choice for vacations and travel. I dislike carrying a bag and multiple lenses while traveling, but I wanted a wide zoom range at a low price. This fills the bill nicely. I am a bit disappointed in the telephoto end of this lens. My Tamron 75-300 brings things a good deal closer than does this lens's 300mm setting. I have tested them both at the maximum focal length on the same subjects, and the Tamron definitely renders subjects as substantially larger. I am not convinced we are getting the full 300mm focal length here. I think it's really somewhere around 250mm (either that or the Tamron is really more than 300mm). That being said, I am still happy with the lens over all. It's relatively light and compact and has a big zoom ratio even if its not quite as big as advertised. Macro works well. I have not been disappointed with image quality, although if I were shooting professionally I would want something a bit sharper.I would like to edit my review to add that the autofocus jammed during a recent trip to a zoo (early 2011) rendering the lens unusable. Since it was still under warranty I contacted Sigma. They instructed me where to send it for repairs. It is now as good as new. It's nice to see that Sigma stands behind their products.

Nice all purpose lense. Has some auto-focusing issues at the high and low end though.

It came in perfect conditions and timing. Since I connect it to the body of my Alpha 100 I have never had the need to change it. The photos are very good and it gives the camera a very look alike of professional style. Performance in all conditions that I have tested (day, night indoors) have been great! It is the best lens for some who has too much to do in a littler time. It adapts to every situation.

I use this on on my Sony a300 as my default lens, and it's head and shoulders above the kit lenses that come with the camera; it seem much more solidly built, and the photos are sharper. I've taken literally thousands of photos with this lens. I personally have not had any of the autofocus issues reported by others. My one minor complaint is that the zoom lock button really doesn't work all that well; the weight of the lens itself seems to disengage the lock, so it tends to extend itself when you're carrying the camera with the power off. And it sticks out there a ways too: fully extended with lens hood you're talking about 8 inches. I suppose the flip side of this is that if you turn the camera on with the lock engaged (as I've done), you won't damage any internal parts when the lens starts moving. If this issue was somehow solved, I'd give this lens a solid 5 stars. One other geeky point: this lens does not provide ADI flash info to my Sony DSLR, so the camera defaults to TTL flash metering, but I was aware of this before purchase. A lens that does provide this info would cost more than I'm willing to pay at this point.