Reassurance needed over cheap lens purchase!

[rockabillyrebel]

Have only had my 300D for a week or so now & my first impressions are that it's a wonderful camera. I bought it as a kit with the
18-55 lens which I'm sure will take care of most of my needs? Now I wasn't intending to purchase a second lens but I was in
London today & saw on offer a Sigma lens '70-300mm f4-5.6 II Macro Super' for under a £100 ($185) which I thought might come in useful for
when a bit of zoom is required, so after a demonstration on my camera in which it seemed to do what was asked I bought it!! Have I
purchased a naff lens or did I make an ok decision?

I've always loved photography but never really got around to putting into practise the actual producing of it! So after receiving this beautiful camera
for a special present (lucky me!) I'm now diving in headfirst, albeit with a tight budget! This forum is great reading & for a beginner like me it's a great source of information, so thank you for that & also for any advise/answers in advance.

Paul.

[Pekka]

All lenses have their place. Even the lousiest one (on paper) may have very nice sweet spots or distinctive image on some situations which make it worthwhile to have. Vignetting can be art. Off-color can make distinctive look.

For extralow budget 50/1.8 is also a must. 35/2 is really great and there are many more.

There is no need to make photography a gear-competition.

[IndyJeff]

The best way to judge a lens or camera is to take a few shots and look at what you have. Is it good to you? If so the that is all that matters.

[ron chappel]

As far as i remember rightly....that model is quite well regarded for a consumer zoom.I've seen several examples of pics from that lens and must say they are damn good.

For a little while i had the cheapest sigma telezoom model (which most people despise ,the 100-300 DL).Even it could get some reasonably good shots.From what i've seen of the several different grade telezooms i've used is that you have a very good one to be going on with.
Where you may have got dissolusioned with a cheap zoom very quickly,that one should keep you going for quite a while-it might even be all you ever want. :)