Zuiko 70-300 or Sigma 120-400

[Osprey]

Hi all,

I've got an Oly 4/3 kit and would like to increase my zoom options for things like motorsport and wildlife photos. My current lenses are the 14-42 & 50-150 kit lenses.

I only have a [reasonably] small budget and have narrowed the search to the Oly 70-300 or the now discountinued (but i've got a source!) Sigma 120-400.

Can someone give me some help / guidance ideally with some experience of one or both of the lenses.

Thank you and please be gentle on the new-boy

[pauljolee]

If your source has more than one Osprey could you let me know Tough call though with choice but I use the Sigma 50-500 for airshows and love it although I find myself hovering around the 400mm mark when getting best results.I would love to have a go of the 70-300 for comparison

[Learning]

Just a thought.(I don't really know). Sigma design their lenses for C size or full frame at a push. Central performance may suffer as a result. Oly design to give optimum image quality for four thirds.

[El_Sid]

Just a thought.(I don't really know). Sigma design their lenses for C size or full frame at a push. Central performance may suffer as a result. Oly design to give optimum image quality for four thirds.

Generally lenses give their best performance in the central area. Since the 4/3rds format is cropping a much smaller portion from the centre of the image circle Oly users are very unlikely to see much, if any, loss in IQ at the corners/edges when using an full frame or even a APS format Sigma. The Oly may be optimised for 4/3rds but the frame is using most of the image circle and I'd expect slightly more drop off in quality at the corners than you'd get from the Sigma lenses.