Sigma 50-500, D30 and wildlife

pigasus · 30th of September 2002 (Mon)

A friend loaned me his Sigma 50-500 lens and his tripod to have a play with. So I went out into the back garden, set it all up and shot some local wildlife.

The above was taken at 500mm, 400 ISO, 1/350 at f5.6. I find the results slightly soft. Not sure if it's the focus or a less than perfectly solid tripod (the plates were slightly wobbly) or just the nature of the beast. What's interesting, though, is that I threw my 1.4x TC (Kenko) on it and the results were nearly the same quality as without. And that's with manually focussing.

But the 50-500 is a beast (for me) at 1850g. I know if I owned it I would probably drop it on more than one occassion. I really like the reach - effectively 800mm without a TC and 1120 with the 1.4x! Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Sniper · 30th of September 2002 (Mon)

Scary animals!!

Nice picture, really. You think it's soft? I'll say it's knife-sharp compared to my bad G2. I am dreaming of a D60 (and will do so for at least 6 more month).

Anders

Roger_Cavanagh · 1st of October 2002 (Tue)

Sally,

I'm sure any lack of sharpness was due to the subjects' quivering with excitement at the thought of the international exposure they were about to receive.

With wobbly mounts did you use the timer/remote cable/mirror lockup?

Regards,

pigasus · 1st of October 2002 (Tue)

Quote:

sniper wrote:
I am dreaming of a D60 (and will do so for at least 6 more month).

Hey Anders! Why not dream about a D30 instead? Then you might not have to wait 6 months. The main advantage of the D60 (more pixels) isn't all that critical unless you like to print really big pictures. And it seems there's still a lot of unresolved problems with losing files on the D60.

Quote:

Roger_Cavanagh wrote:
I'm sure any lack of sharpness was due to the subjects' quivering with excitement at the thought of the international exposure they were about to receive.

What you can't see is Cubie (my dog) standing just off camera waiting to retrieve HIS toys.

Quote:

With wobbly mounts did you use the timer/remote cable/mirror lockup?

Ah - nope. Probably should have used timer (no worry about the beasts moving off

). I used the old drape-arm-over-the-lens-to steady-it routine (as per Arthur Morris).

Regards,

Sniper · 1st of October 2002 (Tue)

Can't buy a D30 in Sweden anymore. It disappeared when the D60 came out on the market. I can buy a used D30 maybe, but I don't think I want to do that.

Anders

30th of September 2002 (Mon)	#1
pigasus Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cambridgeshire, UK Posts: 219	Sigma 50-500, D30 and wildlife A friend loaned me his Sigma 50-500 lens and his tripod to have a play with. So I went out into the back garden, set it all up and shot some local wildlife. The above was taken at 500mm, 400 ISO, 1/350 at f5.6. I find the results slightly soft. Not sure if it's the focus or a less than perfectly solid tripod (the plates were slightly wobbly) or just the nature of the beast. What's interesting, though, is that I threw my 1.4x TC (Kenko) on it and the results were nearly the same quality as without. And that's with manually focussing. But the 50-500 is a beast (for me) at 1850g. I know if I owned it I would probably drop it on more than one occassion. I really like the reach - effectively 800mm without a TC and 1120 with the 1.4x! Oh well, back to the drawing board. __________________ Sally "I'm the only 'bent in the village"

30th of September 2002 (Mon)	#2
Sniper Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 217 IMAGE EDITING OK	Re: Sigma 50-500, D30 and wildlife Scary animals!! Nice picture, really. You think it's soft? I'll say it's knife-sharp compared to my bad G2. I am dreaming of a D60 (and will do so for at least 6 more month). Anders __________________ Sniper

1st of October 2002 (Tue)	#3
Roger_Cavanagh Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 1,394	Re: Sigma 50-500, D30 and wildlife Sally, I'm sure any lack of sharpness was due to the subjects' quivering with excitement at the thought of the international exposure they were about to receive. With wobbly mounts did you use the timer/remote cable/mirror lockup? Regards, __________________ ============= Roger Cavanagh www.rogercavanagh.com

1st of October 2002 (Tue)	#5
Sniper Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 217 IMAGE EDITING OK	Re: Sigma 50-500, D30 and wildlife Can't buy a D30 in Sweden anymore. It disappeared when the D60 came out on the market. I can buy a used D30 maybe, but I don't think I want to do that. Anders __________________ Sniper

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