Need advice about 300mm 2.8 (I'm a lucky dog)

[Mark Roberts]

Francis wrote:

> Yesterday I turned 5.
> And my mommy and daddy gave me a card that said:  300mm F2.8
> 
> I just about exploded! I've taken tens of thousands of bird photos over 
> the last few years, all with a good but not quite well suited K200mm 2.5.
> 
> So now the question is which one should I get? Have any of you used one 
> of the old Tamron 300mm f2.8? Are they A enabled or is it green button 
> material? And when they say "for canon FD" or for something else, does 
> that just mean it has that adapter on it? Or are they mount specific? 
> how about the older Tokina telephotos? Are they good (and cheapish)?
> 
> Any suggestions on this would be muchly appreciated!

First suggestion: Find an FA*300/2.8 somewhere! They're still out there 
on the second-hand market.

I'm very happy with my Sigma EX 300/2.8 APO and the latest version is 
supposedly "optimized for digital" (though I've always been a bit 
skeptical of that designation). And I've heard that Sigma's 120-300 
f/2.8 zoom is *really* good.