Sigma 135-400 : animal photos with a hardly known lens

I thought I'd give some info on one of the few (and not very well known, by now discontinued) third party lenses for Four Thirds.

One of the first lenses I bought after the kit lenses, was this Sigma 135-400 in FT mount. Any new photographer probably thinks that a lot of telephoto reach is the holy grail.

The Bigma (Sigma 50-500) has even more reach of course, but it is so much bigger and heavier, and besides : I made the reasoning that my kit lenses (14-45 and 40-150 MkI) both already had me covered up to 150mm, so the Bigma would just mean overlap. The Sigma 135-400's price tag was also much less steep than the Bigma's.

Since that time, I have of course come to appreciate the quality of the HG and SHG Zuikos and have also come to the realisation that reach is not everything : my most recent lens purchases have been more inspired by aperture speed than by reach.

The Sigma sees not that much use, I must confess. It is not the sharpest lens (and stopped down, it needs a LOT of light), it suffers from lens creep, etc.

But once in a while I do take it out of the cupboard and give it some exercize.

Here are a few shots from an outing to the Zoo last weekend :

Shot through glass at 135mm:

400mm:

400mm at F5.6 and ISO1000 (animal standing in the shadow):

281mm at 1/60 and F6.3:

Anybody else using this lens??
(Come on, Mathias!)

--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html