Compact High Performance Zoom Lens with a 10.7:1 High Zoom Ratio
28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG MACRO lens covers all the focal lengths from 28mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto with 10.7:1 high zoom ratio as well as macro capability. 28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG MACRO packs a lot of performance in a compact package with ultra compact dimensions that make this lens the ultimate traveling companion.
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Optimised for digital photography
The new multi layer lens Coating and lens design reduce flare and ghosting, a common problem with digital cameras and also creates an optimum Color balance through the entire zoom range.
2pcs Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and 4pcs Aspherical Lenses, produce a high level of optical performance
The 28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG MACRO lens features 2 Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and 4 Aspherical lenses to produce a high level of optical performance. Aspherical lenses provide excellent correction for all types of Aberration while making a very compact construction possible.
Macro photography with a 1:3 maximum magnification ratio
The 28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG MACRO lens has a minimum focusing distance of 50cm at all focal lengths and is equipped with a macro mechanism for close-up photography at 300mm telephoto. This allows for a reproduction ratio of 1:3.
Inner Focus System
This design allows for stability and compactness as changes in focus are made in an internal lens grouping. This also gives the advantage of a non rotating front lens assembly which is of great benefit when using polarizing filters and a petal-type hood.
The "Zoom Lock" device prevents the zoom setting from being changed inadvertently
28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG MACRO lens is equipped with a zoom lock to prevent the lens from creeping due to its own weight. This also offers protection whilst the lens is being carried.
At the wide end of the lens the performance for a lens of this nature can't be faulted. Resolution is good and Chromatic aberration is well controlled across the frame. Both the Contrast and colour performance were quite good and levels of distortion were impressively low throughout. Having had extensive experience of the pre-DG coating model of this optic, the coating has again impressed with it's improvement in contrast and general picture quality. The lens is well stocked with aspherical elements, numbering four in total, and there's also the inclusion of two of those low-dispersion SLD elements in the design.
Why should you care what I think?
My relationship with this item: Editor review
Conclusions at a glance
Would you recommend this Item: Undecided Pros: Long focal range, good a short end Cons: Some Chromatic abberations
Last updated: Thursday, 07 February 2008
User Lens Reviews
Average user rating from: 25 user(s)
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.9
Value for Money
4.0
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Sigma lens, Saturday, 29 November 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Very satisfied with the purchase. A good lens to learn and use all the time until you learn more and know what you are looking for specifically.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
AMAZING!! LOVE this lens!, Sunday, 19 October 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
I love this lens. The pictures are crisp and the price was perfect. The only complaints I have is that it's a little slower than the canon lens I have with zooming.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Sigma 28-300mm, Friday, 15 August 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG IF Macro Aspherical lens for Canon SLR Camerasgreat lense great price , excellent for single lense typically used
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
great lens for the price, Thursday, 07 August 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
I have been using it for a month. It works great. Even at 300 zoom, I could take pictures without shake outside without a tripod. I take atleast 2 shots to make sure the focusing is perfect. Cant beat this lens for the price. I am very pleased
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Poor Image quality, Thursday, 01 May 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
1.3
Sharpness
1.0
Build Quality
2.0
AF Speed
1.0
Value for Money
1.0
You get what you pay for....this lens is not even as good as the 18-55mm lens that comes with the Rebel Xti camera. I took over 100 pictures and 2 of them were usable. I tried it on every setting and speed I could find. And the image quality was still poor. In my opinion you are being foolishly optimistic if you expect to pay $260.00 for a 28-300 zoom lens and get high quality images. I will go back to Canon now.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great 28-300mm zoom lens for under $200, Sunday, 20 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
I tested out my lens by taking non-flash photography at a table tennis event. The pictures turned out very well. Only a few shots were blurred but that may have been due to Camera shake (I didn't even use a tripod).
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Good lens, Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Lens is sturdy (made in Japan). A good lens for those who like to use manual mode on their cameras. I have taken some pictures in auto mode with somewhat poor results but when switching to manual and setting the AV correctly I don't have problems. Photos can be a little blurry at full zoom, but I suspect most lenses have this problem.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Great Product for the Price, Monday, 25 February 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
3.0
I purchased this lens to go with my Canon Rebel Xti Digital SLR camera for a long trip in fall of 2007. I was looking for something with a little more zoom than the standard lens for wildlife and scenery shots. This lens really does the job for the price, but of course not as great as the higher priced larger lenses.
I used it for every photo on my trip and they turned out amazing. A couple little problems, if the lens is extended to it's fullest the image can get a little fuzzy seeming out of focus. Also there isn't a stablizer and if it's too dark outside, it tends to trigger the flash earlier than it would with the standard lens that normally comes with the camera. But you can work around that. Instead of setting at it's fullest length at the 1:3 setting, I only extend it to 1:3.3 which is just a tad less than the fullest and the images are still crisp at this length.
The zoom is nice. The lens does tend to extend or shrink on it's own if you are looking down or up while taking a photo, but there is a lock on the lens to prevent this. Just remember that when attaching it to your camera or adding a filter to the lens, be sure that it's in manual mode so that you're not forcing the auto focal part of the lens, this can break it. Once it's in place you can put it back to auto focus.
It came with a hood for free which was nice. You just can't use it when you're really close to the subject sometimes. It casts a shadow when using the flash, well at least with my camera sometimes. Overall this product is really great for the price.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Excellent value and versatility, Tuesday, 01 January 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
I purchased this lens as a "tourist lens" to give me a little more reach than my Canon 28-200 zoom. I have taken over 3,000 pictures with it, and I am very satisfied. Picture quality is as good as the Canon lens, it is slightly smaller than the Canon lens, and it is less expensive. "Zoom creep" is an annoyance, as is fumbling with the zoom lock switch which will lock the lens only in the 28 mm position. Still, the lens is very versatile, allowing me to go from pretty wide to very zoomed on my Canon EOS 5D full frame camera. This is an excellent lens when you know you'll be taking lots of pictures from varying vantage points with little time for changing lenses.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Not realy something you can call great lense, Saturday, 29 December 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
1.3
Sharpness
1.0
Build Quality
1.0
AF Speed
1.0
Value for Money
2.0
I am amateur photographer with just a passion for god clean nice nature photography. I kind of decided to spend few dollars and purchase this lens because that was the best lens for the price. Reviews were mixed up, but... Unfortunately there is almost nothing in between this one and Canon 28-300. After several days of playing I decided to go and really test lens in two different conditions. First condition was night shooting. From distance I tried to get gloving skyline of San Diego downtown. And results are way too disappointed. Pictures with full 300mm are very blurry and not clean at all, just when you go Bit inside on 280 and below images may be relatively OK. Night shouting from moving car was absolutely impossible, under any conditions and any settings, except if you like to get something that looks like early days Picasso. This lens is incredibly SLOW. I went around of my neighborhood and pictured some houses with Christmas lights on, and it did not work out. Imagine line of lights ... light then space then again light then again space and so on, right? Well this lens did not see it that way. It looks on the picture as a single neon light with out spaces in between lights. Obviously night photography with my Canon EOS30, very stable tripod and Sigma 28-300 did not work out. Of lets say 150 pictures taken, I will keep only 3, other ones I can surely rate way below ZERO. Day test was little different. Skyline of the San Diego was OK on about 250mm and tripod. I went close to the airport to catch landing planes. It did work out but you can see that something is missing, (color, deepness, sharpness...just something was not right) all pictures are bit darker than I expected. Let me give you example; It was perfectly cool sunny San Diego day, sun was hitting my back and planes were in front of me about 150 to 250 yards. All planes were perfectly visible to the naked eye, but not to the Sigma lens, pictures were blurry and if plane was smaller it will just catch silhouette on the sky nothing was really recognizable. Then I switch to Canon lens ...worked just fine. After that I vent in to the park under the tree shades, images are just way to dark to be acceptable. The only way that this lens will work god is on the very stable tripod set on about 250mm and very very sunny day or room with extremely lot of light. And just another remark; If you picturing anything below you, gravity will pull lens and open it all the way, same thing if you lets say picturing landing planes and your lens is pointed in to the sky, lens will scroll in, so you have constantly to hold it with your hand. Yes there is a lock button but it does work only if lens is all the way in, or all the way extended. I think many people who rated this lens are amateurs just like me and they are afraid that someone will judge them on they language and basic photo knowledge, so they will complain about how lens is so noisy and so on, which is really not true, this lens is really badly engineered and manufactured, and simply when you are taking picture with this lens, you will get that filling like it is very difficult to take decent picture and just accidentally you may get great one.
Final thoughts; for the money and if you don't do serious photography you may be happy, other than that this lens is extremely low quality lens.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Good overall budget lens for rough usage and backu, Friday, 16 November 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
I have a Canon IS lens but needed another lens for rough usage. I take pictures for the animal shelter and needed a lens that is tough, delivers good images (no time for Photoshop) and has a wide zooming range. This lens delivers and I have been happy with the results. It is a bit slow and the creeping of the lens can be annoying. But for the low price, you can't find a better deal. I take it to places that I do not want my IS lens exposed to, since I do some paid photography on the side. I have had Tamron lenses but the Sigma produces much better pictures.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great Lens for the Money, Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
3.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
4.0
- I use it on a Canon XTi (400D) - Great Range 28-300mm - Soft at 300, also a little slow, if it's a little dark and there's action, I need to set my ASA setting to 400 or higher but for $240, I'll live with it. - Great bokeh at the high end. - Happy they include the lens shade. While this is moderately helpful, the vanity of it is it makes my $240 lens look like $600. (I know, that's stupid, but still.) - I took the lens to a wedding and had fantastic shots with it. - For $240, buy this lens. It's worth it.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Good travel lens!, Saturday, 25 August 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
I really like the range of this lens on my XT(350D) and 30D. Also this lens is so light.Good travel lens. Get a monopod to prevent camera shake so you can use it up to 300mm.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Good overall lens, Wednesday, 01 August 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Bought it for Canon Rebel XT and coming trip to Paris. Great lens for the money. Good picture through 200mm. Sharp picture with good color. At 300mm, better hold still. Played with it for 1 day and so far very happy with it.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Sigma 28-300mm Review., Saturday, 09 June 2007
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
This lens does a fair job at taking photos. What some of the other reviewers have said about photos becoming blurry after 6x zoom is true. I've found that chromatic abberation(purple fringing) becomes an issue after 10x zoom. There is no image stabilization for this lens, so be sure to keep the camera as still as possible when shooting. The macro lens is okay, but it doesn't get as close as I would like. I thought I would be able to put the camera a few millimeters from an object, but it doesn't work like that. The closest you can come to an object is about ten inches to a foot with the zoom at maximum(11x). You will almost always need to use a tripod for this process, if you want a sharp image. Overall, this is a nice camera for the money. But if you want to specialize in macro photography, buy a different lens.
