Camera Labs

Hi all, been lurking for a while and have now joined, I am retired but have a great love of photography. Here is a quick shot of a local feeding in my garden, shot as the light was fading, so 1600 iso, D300 Bigma @ 500mm hand held, leaning on the door post, 640th @ f8 ......

Hi BP and welcome, I am impressed with your website, I am going to spend a couple of hours looking at your photo's they are very good and you must be very proud of them. I am sure the rest of the members will get a lot of delight from your pics.

...... thanks Geoff....... here is another of the locals in for a late feed. Shot this about 3 days after I had received my D300. As you can guess my favourite lens is the Bigma, this one shot @ 320ISO { before I had a chance to play with high ISO on the D300 }, and leaning on a post 60th @ 6.3, @ 500mm hand held......

Hi Big Pix, those are really nice shots and knock my feeble Bigma Birdies into touch! (see http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2900)

It's good to see the Bigma on another body - I hadn't heard about it for a while, which is why I posted some pics with it...

How do you find the AF on this lens when zoomed-in?

Gordon

Gordon thanks...... just love the Bigma..... but I did have a few issues when first purchased. Let me just say, for the money, the Bigma has got to be great value. Now back to the issues, which were not a lot, as I tend to shoot wide open a lot, pre D300, back focus came into play, D2Xs was re calibrated, minor adjustment, re test lens same issue, send lens in for re calibration and it came back with the report of update chip, firmware, and calibrate. Most of what I shoot is in close so any softness will show, more so if you use a 1.4 TC or 2X TC, although the Bigma then becomes manual focus. With out the TC's the Bigma does focus quite quickly and a joy to use

I do not shoot as much as I used to, but do like to have my gear working well and sharp.

Had a look at your birds pixs, which are good, but I would send the lens back for a calibration as it does look a tad soft. I always send a CD of images, RAW, TIFF, & JPG, all the same shots, so the agent can see what is the problem, but shot on a tripod. There is no reason why the Bigma should not be sharp, even wide open.

At the moment I am also testing a 120-300mm 2.8 Sigma, along with both TC, but more about this lens later, after I have put it through its paces.

With the D300 and D3 and higher ISO usable pix's do we need fast lens. I am having a re-think

Hi Big Pix, I agree, maybe the lens was a bit off there, although there's some lack of ultimate 'punch' due to very dim lighting and also the E510's sensitivity being higher than I'd like.

Be great to hear more of your thoughts on this lens, and also the 120-300mm in the Sigma forum...

I hear what you're saying about decent high ISO bodies, but I still think there's room for optically fast lenses due to smaller depths of fields and generally better focusing in low light!

Hi Gordon and Big Pix,

Not sure if you'll get a message on this old thread, but I was wondering:

1) Gordon, are you still planning on doing a review of the Bigma with a Canon or Nikon body?

2) Big Pix, how are you getting on with the Bigma and the D300 at higher ISOs?

I'm really interesting in the Sigma 50-500mm and also in the new 150-500 that's coming out.

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

Hi Chinamark, yes I would like to do this in the future, but it may be some time yet...

my uncle has the sigma 50-500, i can use it for the weekend, maybe i can post some images later on.

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Nikon D700/D50, Tokina 28-70,
Nikkor 70-300 VR, Nikkor 28mm 2.8,Nikkor 50mm 1.4

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23447671@N04/