Sigma 300mm vs Nikon 300mm

[dhilberg]

Not jut optically, but mechanically. It can't be good at that price. $200 buys a good filter.

Price isn't the be-all-end-all indication of quality. I understand your skepticism, but there are some third party lenses that perform better optically than the OEM counterparts they're designed to compete with. But there are lots of lemons in third party gear. You just need to know how to weed them out, and take the time to do it.

Buying on price alone is either going to give you a bunch of crap gear or needlessly empty your pocketbook much quicker--or maybe a combination of both.

 

[Lipoly]

I got the lens today and took a few test shots. I have nothing to complain about so far, but one thing I am totally surprised about is how amazing the vibration reduction works. On my 18-55 small vibrations were easier to keep under control, so I rarely noticed hand shake. At 300mm extremely small movements are very pronounced...when I depress the shutter button though and VR kicks in, its like someone hit the slow motion switch...movements slow to a crawl; I'm impressed! In light of this, I'm very glad I went w/the Nikon as 300mm w/the Sigma (w/no VR) would likely cause considerably more blurred shots w/o a tripod.