Sigma 70-300, Tamron 70-300 or Tamron 18-200?

George7

George7

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I am getting a new lens for my birthday which is coming up soon and I don't know what lens to buy! I've been looking at the 18-200 for a while now but a lot of people have said about it being a jack of all trades and a master of none, which somewhat worries me as I don't want the performance from 18-70 to be worse than my kit lens which is what I am using currently. Here is a link to the 18-200.

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1009919

Now here's the thing, this lens appeals to me as I would like to have a lens which does everything as I don't like the idea of carrying multiple lenses around with me and having to change the lens all the time, this is why this appeals to me but since I've been hearing about the distortion and stuff, I don't know anymore.

On the other hand, I've been looking at 70-300mm lenses. These seem to be a good choice. They seem reasonably good at macro, have an extra 100mm of range on top of the 18-200 and are generally cheaper as well. However, 70 is a bit much for normal use and I'd therefore have to change lenses quite often. I really don't know what to go for! Here are the two 70-300s I've been looking at. Which one is better as they're about the same price?

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1011620

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1013819

Now here comes the question :p Which one would you personally go for out of the 18-200 and the 70-300? In addition to this, which 70-300 is better? Sigma or Tamron?

Thanks! :)
 
Hi,

I've owned both the Sigma & Tamron 70-300s in the past....

The Tamron was very sharp, but produced quite bad purple fringing which wasn't always possible to remove in processing

The Sigma handled PF much better but I found it produced softer images from around 240mm +

If I were choosing between these 2 then I'd go for the Tamron as you have a better chance of removing PF than you do have finding extra sharpness

I don't have any experience with the "superzooms"

Simon
 
I have the Tamron in the pentax fit and I love it. My most use lens.

Like you I couldn't decide which to go for sigma or tamron, and opinions I got made it no easier to choose as each got rated strongly. The deciding factor for me was stubling over the tamron in jessops for £65.

Its a great lens to use, and I would recommend it.

If your concerned at changing lenses a lot, have you thought about the Tamron 28-300. I have never used it and it costs more, but maybe that's worth having a play with first.

My advice really would be to get into a shop with your camera, have a play with the ones your considering and see which you like the best. I'm not sure between the two 70-300's that you'll see a huge difference in IQ.

Rob
 
Thanks for the input. The Tamron seems quite a good deal :) Another lens I'm also considering is the 70-210 Minolta 'Beercan' lens. However These go for 130-150 easily on ebay and I don't know if they're really worth that much? I mean, are they really THAT much better than the Tamron 70-300 for example?

BTW some lovely pictures on your landscape photography website Simon :)

I Looked at the 28-300 but it was 300 pounds :( That's more than my entire camera + accessories cost and way out of my budget unfortunately :( I may go have a look in jessops at some point :)
 
Anymore input on which one to go for? I think I may have decided on the Tamron 70-300 rather than the Sigma. However, I still don't know whether to go for that or the 18-200 :( I need to decide fairly quickly as I want the lens before I go to spain on the 23rd.

I have just been thinking that maybe I'd be happier with a 50mm prime instead.. I like landscape photography and stuff like that and I'd like a lens which is really good for that. Now I'm even more confused :p

Something like this? Would this be good for landscapes and stuff?

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1032084

Forgive my lack of knowledge! I really don't know what to go for now :(
 
George7 said:
I have just been thinking that maybe I'd be happier with a 50mm prime instead.. I like landscape photography and stuff like that and I'd like a lens which is really good for that. Now I'm even more confused :p

Something like this? Would this be good for landscapes and stuff?


Forgive my lack of knowledge! I really don't know what to go for now :(
Click to expand...

As a coincidence I've just bought a 50mm prime, one of the old Pentax A series lenses - great IQ, works with manual focus. What I would say though is that I've bought this primarily to have a go at Panos as the lens has pretty much no distortion (unlike zooms). 50mm for landscapes in general is quite limiting, I'd say 75% of my shots are taken between 17 & 25mm, although it obviously differs from person to person depending on their "style"

I'm not 100% sure but don't you have access to all those old Minolta lenses using the A200, I'm guessing there are some very good options around for relatively little cost - maybe a Sony owner will be able to give a bit more info on this ?

Simon
 
I just bought a 28mm Minolta prime off of ebay for 81 quid :D Looking forward to recieving it! I think I'll also still buy the 18-200 Tamron or the 70-300 Tamron at some point but probably not before my holiday. I wasn't planning on really doing any telephoto stuff in spain anyway :)
 
If you want a 70-300mm then the Sigma APO is the one to go for. I'm trying to find one myself atm but I'm struggling to find one cheap enough!

If your budget stretches any further, then the Tamron 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 Di is supposed to be much better than the Tamron 18-200mm, but it is more than twice the price!!
 
the tamron 70-300 has one HUGE problem, its so damn slow with its auto focus, it tends to seek around alot and can take about 15 seconds to actual focus, yes its tac sharp but dont expect your subject to still be there if its moving faster than a snail
 
The Sigma APO is 180 and the Tamron is 123 and I want to spend as little as possible and from what I've read, the Tamron is still pretty good :) Not sure about the autofocus on the Tamron though, however it can't be THAT slow? Can it? I also heard the Sigma has some sharpness issues.
 
I have one in the for sale section, i bought it and i thought the same but it honestly really is terrible, coming from infinity to say 6ft can take 15-20 seconds as it seems to search from infinity to 15 to infinity back to 15 before then juttering back and forth before finnaly going meh that will do
 
I have the Sigma 70-300mm APO DG macro and it's been very nice for the money so far, it might hunt a little if it doesn't nail the focus the first time it tries to AF, but sharpness that lens of mine if pretty good as well as CA.

Here's a mini review I did of the Sigma I mention above:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=48519
 
bear in mind that the Sigma 70-300 seems to be the #1 lens for AF gear failure on Sony Alphas (due to their high torque motors).
Sure Sigma will fix it for free within warranty but that may take a couple of weeks & several people have had it happen to them several times on the same lens ...
 
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