new to buying lenses

[maek]

Hello,
I am looking into buying a lens for Canon Digital Rebel XT. I bought it in January, and I have yet to buy another lens. I am looking into possibly buying the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD 1:2 Auto Focus Macro Zoom Lens or the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III Autofocus Telephoto Zoom Lens. Does anyone have either lens or have any information to share about either? Thanks.

[bob_r]

Maek,

I don't have either of those, but here's a site that does have a lot of in-depth reviews.

Bob R

Forgot to include the link:


http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html

[PentaxNewbie]

I am new to this forum, but wanted to say that I just got my 70-300mm sigma today for my Pentax K100D and I LOVE it. I got it at B&H for $219us. I can't wait for warmer weather and Baseball to start so I can really try it out.

[Walczak Photo]

Hey Maek,
I don't have either of those lenses either...in fact I just ordered my XT this last week, but with that said, I've also been doing my homework trying to decide what to get for the new camera. From most of the reviews I've read, the performance between those two lenses is pretty similar. The "budget super-zooms" as they call them tend to be a trade off (quality vs. price) and certainly seem to have their issues regardless of which brand your talking about. I'm probably going to end up with a Sigma in that same range myself until I can afford something better.

Now please keep in mind that I'm not saying that either or any of these lenses are "bad" by any means...for the price I understand they're actually pretty good in fact and all the sample pics I've seen over the last week seem to support that. However, do NOT expect any of them to perform like a $4000 300mm Canon prime. From a technical standpoint, both of the lenses you mention are probably going to be subject to at least a small degree of distortions (such as barrel distortion on the tele end and/or pincusioning, etc.). I haven't really seen much of a problem with "chromatic abberation" with the inexpensive lenses like I used to in the old days, but it's certainly possible too. Like most inexpensive lenses, any problems you encounter will probably be at one end of the lens or the other (extreme tele or extreme wide angle). If you check the internet as well as some of the photo mags, you should be able to find some fair and honest reviews on both lenses.

Now I should mention that a lot may also depend on how you choose to use the given lens. For example, in another recent thread here on OP, we were discussing the Sigma 70-300's and it was mentioned that this lens tends to be "a little soft around the edges". For some people, that could be a serious issue, but for me since I shoot mostly animal/critter portraits with a pretty shallow DOF anyways, softness around the edges wouldn't really bother me at all! LOL!!!

If your expectations are realistic, you should be pretty pleased with either lens really but if your looking for "champain on a beer budget", you probably won't find it here .

Alrighty, good luck and I hope this helps you some! Let us know which lens you decide on and how you like it once you get it!

Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim

[BPK]

of all the 70-300 lenses. the sigma 70-300 apo is the best. and at $219 for a price its not steep in the wallet. because you are using a crop digital camera, you should not see softness in the corners. non of these lenses are fast so you will suffer motion blur at low iso and slow shutter speeds.

the tamron 70-300 is a notch below the sigma apo, but better than the regular sigma 70-300.

the next progression upgrade from these lenses are the 70-200 f2.8's. tamron has just released a new version of this lens. so you will have 3 models to pick from, canon, sigma, and tamron. these are not cheap.