Sigma lens advice

[944gav]

I was recently given some vouchers for Jessops so was having a browse and saw that they had a Sigma 70-300 lens which would now auto focus on my Nikon D40. I sometimes feel that I want more reach than the 55-200 I have at the moment gives so thought this would be ideal and at only £100 would be worth a try. The Jessops I was in did not have any in stock so my wife went into the one in Edinburgh to collect one for me. I was quite surprised that the salesman there told her the one for the D40 was an extra £50 though!

Tried it on the camera and it does auto focus but the motor is very noisy. My Nikon lenses are almost silent when focussing. I believe most of the lenses suitable for the D40 have HSM but this one is labelled DG. It is a 70-300 F4-5.6 DG Macro. Are all Sigma lenses with focus motors this loud or is it likely that this is because it is a budget version?

I tried taking a couple of shots with it too and was not very impressed with the results compared to the Nikon lense. I am wondering now if I would be better returning this one and spending a bit more on the Nikon equivalent.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

[VxDuncan]

There's typically two types of motor, the traditional type DC motor built into the lens (or body in other DSLR's), then there's the "ultrasonic" ring type motors, such as Canons USM, Nikons AF-S and Sigmas HSM. The ultrasonic motors are significantly quicker at focusing, quieter and can be over-ridden (that is you can adjust the focus without having to switch to manual). Sounds like yours is the older type. That isn't always a problem, half of my lenses aren't USM type, and it isn't usually a problem, but I have had one sigma DG that was REALLY noisy. If it bothers you, swap it, but bare in mind the cost of a equivilent Nikon with AF-S will be considerably more, and you'll likely loose the nifty 1:2 "macro" function.

[Simpo Two]

944gav said:

I am wondering now if I would be better returning this one and spending a bit more on the Nikon equivalent. I would appreciate your thoughts.

I think 'yes'.

My Nikon 70-300 ED is still available but won't autofocus on a D40, unfortunately.

[andy-xr]

I've got the Nikkor F4.5-5.6G 70-300 AF-S VR IF-ED (I had to copy and paste that), and thats noisy as well with auto focus.

Not that it would upset the wildlife, but at big zoom it makes a bit of a racket if you give it too much to think about

I havent tried the Sigma one so I dont know if it's louder or quieter in comparison so I guess it would come down to shot quality. I'm pretty pleased with the Nikkor one, I dont use it often (more if I'm at a motorsport event than anything) but it handles it pretty well