Cheap long lenses?

Thanks for the help.
Looks like I need keep my eyes out for a takumar or a fur hatted man with a big suitcase!

I have the Sigma 70-300mm non APO lens, and whilst good, and a bargain at the time of £89, it is not the most reliable lens I have by any means. It is now causing issues with whatever body I put on it. mainly not talking to that body, and being troublesome when I go into Fn menus (flashing off not letting me do changes etc ) but no all the time. When it works then it is good, when not, it is a pain!
Personally go for the Tamron instead, or the 55-300 DA (but this does not give you the option to put the lens on film bodies, where the Sigma and Tamron does.

If you can stretch your budget, go for the 120-400mm instead. It is getting great reviews, winning group tests (Practical Photography) and reasonably priced (less than £600)
Personally, I am going to dump the 70-300 and maybe sell the 170-500 to buy the 120-400 instead.

If you insert the word "good" after the word "ANY", the answer is no.

That said, keep your eyes peeled for a manual focus Pentax 400m, either A or M. I have an M and almost always use it wide-open in order to be able to use a high shutter speed and lowish ISO. It's pretty good, and cost an embarrassingly modest amount.

G

If the wildlife is not moving rapidly, consider a good mirror lens - the Tamron 500mm is probably the one to get, or even the very highly sought after 350mm. Sharp and portable with few lens aberrations.

Mirror lenses come with their issues, but used carefully by people who are prepared to learn and know how to work around their foibles, good ones can turn out stunning results.

I've got an old Tamron 200/500 F6.9 if you are interested,manual focus and weighs a ton.......a monster of a lens...Ken