Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 EX/HSM/APO

[Canuck]

Hi all,
Here's the first pic from the aforementioned lens, as taken, other than the real one being 3072x2048. I have cropped it so that only the important bit shows!
G:\DCIM\110CANON\Da Moon 1032.jpg
This was taken 6 Sept 03, 2130 local, just North of Cambridge, England.

That's all I have time to post for now, will post more in the future...

Cheers!

PS: Having problems posting pic using the help screen...any ideas I'm using it as specified.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Unfortunately,. this forum won't "host" the image. It has to be uploaded to another website and then you can embed the image hosted on the other site into a post here.

You can get access to free gallery space to upload images at a number of places including fotopic.net but be aware that some wil not let you imbed the images at other sites (fotopic will)

If this is a big pain,. you could email me a pic,. and I could post it for you,.. as I am as you know ,. waiting with baited breath to see this lens in action! :D

[Canuck]

I'd be more than happy to e-mail you the pic. It was of the moon as mentioned. I just need an e-mail address...
Cheers!

[CyberDyneSystems]

lol,

Try

jaketec.detsl@verizon.net

[photography By Evangelos]

Canuck,

So how sharp is this lens. It is a very interesting lens. It seems to me it would be very useful focal range. But the price is a bit high at $1600.00. But if it is tack sharp form 120 to 300 mm it is worth the money.

[CyberDyneSystems]

It is pricey,. but in fact it is relatively inexpensive when compared to any 300mm f/2.8 In fact it is even a tad less pricey than Sigma's own 300mm f/2.8 prime. And it gives you the same f/2.8 while adding the zoom down to 120mm

Not a bad deal at all! Needless to say I am quite interested in the lens. I would love to have the chance to compare it side by side with a 300mm f/2.8 prime!

[Canuck]

Hi!
I regards to your question, I recon it is razor sharp and can proove it, just gotta send the pic to CDS :) I think the results speak for themselves. The other pics I took in Wales w/ that lens are great, at about 25-50% and at 100% it isn't worth much. I had been using F2.8 for a lot of those pics and forgot what that does to a pic. I had not shot w/ a lens capable of that, ever. Thinking wide opening and short exposure time was the way to go. Not quite. Nevertheless, I have learned and the next time I go have an outing w/ that lens I have that to bear in mind. Next purchase will be a wide angle L series lens. Any suggestions? I'm looking to go 16ish to whatever and then from there to 120 and have a complete package thru 300mm. Now I am really busy, working and taking classes to get an AAS to start and BS later, for whatever it is worth (not much by the classes I'm taking right now). I could easily go off on a tangent about how worthless college education is (at this date/time) but this has nothing to do with photography at all. Back to the lens bit, I recon I will send the pic to CDS tomorrow, or Friday. CDS, do you want both the crop and noncrop? There are possibly some stars in that pic, but you will need to lighten it up to see, and then the pic looks like junk overall. Just FYI.
CDS has a good point, how much is an equivilant Canon L series 300 F2.8? That is a prime and this is a zoom! Yes, it isn't cheap, but heck, it's only money and if you can make back what you paid for the lens, or part of it, you're better off the end of the day! The moon pic (the one that I couldn't post was shot at 300mm and I have forgotten exactly the F-Stop (maybe 11??) and time (maybe 1/300??). They aren't too far off that any which way you put it.

Cheers,
Canuck

[photography By Evangelos]

I guess my questions is can it be as good as a prime lens. I think I will order one from my local Ritz camera I will have 30 days to test it and see if I like it. The canon 300 IS L is the second choice. I have this lens now from CPS and am testing it and think it's a wonderful lens and very sharp and heavy is the sigma heavy? But fixed at 300 mm it is not as useful to me I like the 120-300 mm range of the sigma.

[Canuck]

HI!
PBE, this lens like any other pro series lens isn't lightweight. This one is about 6 lbs! Plunk that on your
10D w/ BG-ED3 and you are talking near a 10 lb lunker (excuse the fishing slang pun). For that matter I've caught fish that weight as much as that lens alone! Now I start to worry when they get to be the size of the 36" Northern Pike I caught in summer, '97. Back to photography, at hand. I highly reccommend a quality tripod as I had a cheap one and broke it taking the pic I tried to post. Yes, that one didn't like the monster camera (the 10D, BG-ED3 and 120-300mm Sigma lens). I personally like the fact that it acts like a prime to some extent, but is a zoom. That in and of itself makes it a ton more usable. I'm just wishing Canon made an L series 100-400mm F2.8 lens. Now that would rock! Sigma has the 50-500mm that CDS has and he loves it. What is Canon waiting for??? I'm also wondering what the revamped 10D will be and have for specs.

Again, any ideas on a F2.8ish L series lens, wide angle??
This lens could very possibly be used for portraits, so the F2.8 could help immensly in outdoor shots!

Cheers,
Canuck

[ron chappel]

Can you upload a pic to photo.net ,photo.sig or similar site and post the link for us?
I too am very keen to see how good it is.
Interesting to compare it with an L series prime.
I suspect the sigma would be as sharp as i'd ever want out of a lens but......

If one could allternatively have optically one of the best lenses ever made (the EF300/2.8)...it is a tough choice after all.!!

[lightandlife]

Canuck wrote:
I'm just wishing Canon made an L series 100-400mm F2.8 lens. Now that would rock! Sigma has the 50-500mm that CDS has and he loves it. What is Canon waiting for???

Again, any ideas on a F2.8ish L series lens, wide angle??
This lens could very possibly be used for portraits, so the F2.8 could help immensly in outdoor shots!

Cheers,
Canuck

Let's see, 50mm f1.4 costs about $300, and 50mm 1.0 L cost increases 8 fold.

100-400mm L f ?--5.6 would cost about $1500. I am sure Canon can make 100-400mm f2.8 L, but the cost would increase 4 fold, to at least $5000, maybe $10,000. Is there a market for it? I hear Canon lost money on 50mm f1.0 L.

16-35mm f2.8 L is available.

[Canuck]

lightandlife,
I was thinking that Sigma did it for $1800, I thought
surely Canon could keep up with it. Maybe there isn't the demand??? Who knows. I'm sure Canon has their reasons. Just a thought...
As for the pics I have taken, I'm sending them to CDS to look at and see what he thinks. He will post them somewhere and then we can go from there.

CDS,
If you haven't checked already, I e-mailed you the moon pic I tried to post to this site, both pics as taken and only one was modded, and that was merely a crop. I also took a quick peek at your website hosted by fototopic.net. Cool stuff! I can see why you went for the 50-500 lens and not to mention that 500mm is like an 800mm equivilent in 35mm on the 10D!

Off to sleep I go...ZZZZZZzzzzz...

Cheers,
Canuck

[Slow]

Canuk..... Hi... Where are you based in the UK? Wales one week, Cambridge the next... You certainly get about our little Isle! ;-)

[Canuck]

Hi Slow,
LOL!!! Well, I'll say East Anglia.
What about you?
I've been to parts of Nhants, Warwickshire, Cotswolds, Shropshire, Dyfed, Pembrokeshire, of course, Cambs, and Suffolk, Norfolk, London, Kent, and the list goes on and on! I must say that the Fens are my least favourite area; the Cotswolds, heck anywere non flat are my favourite. Wales has some awesome coastline! I can only begin to tell you about it. This is the sort of thing everyone should see. I have to say this (at great risk to my American friends), but I like it here better than the US!

I guarantee, you will not find anything like I did one time, by accident. I was on my way back from the Cotswolds and in in Nhants, there is on the A508 in Brixworth there is a Saxon Church, from 680 AD. Take the A14 to the A508 and head South. That's the easiest way I can think of to get there. It is signposted once you get to Brixworth. This is only the beginning of what I have seen!

Cheers,
Canuck

[Slow]

Canuck... South Shropshire's where I call home & totally agee about the Welsh Coastline!

[Canuck]

Hi Slow,
Have a laugh on me...I'm looking up the whole name to the Welsh town of Llanfair PG in Anglesey. You know, the one it takes about 5 min to say! Anyway, I'm not looking forward to leaving England, and vow to come back sometime. This place is far too cool not to return to, especially considering I'm you British a Yank. Here's the best I've come up with yet, for the town aforementioned: http://multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&gride=252566&gridn=371643&coordsys=gb&scale=25000. Man this dial-up connection is slow as Molasses in January in the Northeastern US! Scratch that, here's the www site!!! http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantys iliogogogoch.co.uk/index.pl Tell me that isn't a mouthfull! Just incase you missed it here's the town name...

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch

That's too cool! Leave it to the Welsh! Anyway, it's 0315 here and time for me to go to sleep. This place is so cool!

Cheers,
Canuck