Sigma 50-500

There's a 3 legged fold-up stool in the car so I sit on that, the tripods got all the joints loosened and I'm hlding the 50-200 (+TC14) with left hand (you can really turn that MF ring withh your outside fingers, y'know!] while my right grabs the camera.

So think of the tripod as something of a more steady monopod?

Using 1/500th on a FL of 566mm? I'd have thought that would have swung it? And as the saying goes, an image paints... I've put some samples in the next post. There's 7 small images and a few 1000 x 800 pixel 100% crops.

The swan crop is 1000 by 800: just look at it. That's supposed to be in-focus! It was broad side on to me, S-AF and I re-did the half press to make sure focus was correct. [when i came home from this session, I shot some rulers testing for front and back focus. I then re-clipped the focus screen back home in case it was that? There's something wrong with that! That's a swan drifting @ 1/500th from a camera on a tripod! Now I know it needs sharpening but come on... ]

Anyway... the pix.

I want to hone my technique on shooting fast things with a long lens. It's a learning thing! So I go a local lake and sit there and blast away. It keeps me out of mischief for the odd spare hour.

So I'm sitting, the tripod is not at it's full height, it's using 1 telescoped length so i's not that high. All the adjustments are loosened so it can pan and tilt easily.

The 50-200 (& 1.4 convertor) is on the lens tripod mount. It's an E-1 on HQ files. ISO 400, ESP, +1 sharpness, -1 contrast. C-AF on probably the central point. The images start at 1/320th @ f4.9, 566mm. 'M' mode. (In fact, the complete exif is in the small versions.)

The whole image:



and then the crop:



Then I went to sequential drive mode.
The whole image:



and then the crop:



More images like this:



The 1/500th start here: the drive mode is back to single frame mode.

The whole image:



'S' priority, 1/500th. MF. single frame
The whole image:



and then the crop:



Back to C-AF and sequential drive mode.
The whole image:



and then the crop:



The whole image:



and then the crop:



1/500th @ f5 @ ISO 400. C-AF, single frame mode, 566mm.

Look at the (lack of) detail in the swans feathers! Is it distance? or is the convertor adding burryness to the image?

I think the birds lack detail in the feathers. I'm not sure why? too dim conditions? using a convertor on a long FL lens that is wide open? camera shake? subject movment (too fast for the shutter speed?) subject too far away for the lens and or light? not enough resolving power of the lenses? A combination of some of them?

The seaguls were about 40 ft away as was the swan. I even took shots of a goose that was some 10 ft away but even these held no more detail in the feathers. So I tried flash on the geese but with the shutter speed slowing to 1/160th, that too wasn't that successful.

As I say, I came home and re-seated the focus screen as I haven't been that happy with things recently (focus wise) The focus in the VF seems to focus (and I hear the beep) and then my eyes register a final 'settling in' as the VF image takes on extra sharpness. This is different than when it was new when the beep would signal final sharp focus. This is different... and it may even be my eyes? Y'know, my eye adjusting to what it is seeing in the VF? It's milliseconds long but I do register something move.

So I'm asking what others think? What am I doing wrong? Is it the light? or lack of it? or my technique? : Or am I asking too much from the camera? Expecting detail in feathers from a bird quite far away that barely fills the frame? Ah, but what about the swan?

Muster Mark said:

Hello,
I was just wondering, it apears to be that Sigma lenses are
consistantly cheaper
then Oly lenses, is this because of a quality diference or is it
just that people like to
buy lenses made by the same people that made there camera?

Click to expand...

Some of both. Optically, many of the Sigma's are excellent and very comparable, but the actuall physical construction is not quite as smooth. The other issue is the speed. The faster a lens, the more glass needed, the larger the size and the higher the cost. Something like the Sigma 50-500 can be affordable because it sacrifices speed, especially at the long end, allowing it to be smaller and cheaper.

Manufacturer branded lenses (Oly, Nikon, Canon, etc) have classically commanded a price premium for the name. Been that way for years. However, lower cost third party lenses (Sigma, Tamron, Tokina), will often have compromises in fine detail finish of physical construction or a lower cost optical construction that may impact the smoothness of the user experience. This isn't true all the time, but some of the time. Third factor is volume of production. A lens that can be produced to work on multiple brands of cameras, can sell in higher volume which further lowers cost.

The final factor in cost is also the "little things". High end Oly lenses for instance are often "weatherized" to allow their use under a wider extreme of environmental conditions. This has long been a typical difference, with high end manufactuerer lenses being more robust under certain environmental extremes (where most of us would never shoot).

In the end, there is no hard and fast rule. A few of the third party lenses rival that of the top end camera manufacturer named lenses at lower cost. That 50-500 is an exceptional value for the quality, the Sigma that has my eye though is the 150mm F2.8 macro.

--
David
Photo galleries at: http://homepage.mac.com/brdavid/

rick decker said:

Teh 55-200 performs extremely well (for the money) on the Sigma.
What are the problems with it on 4/3?

Click to expand...

It is not a bad performer, but it not a great performer. Problems are the same, but often in the eye of the beholder. It is "softer" at the long telephoto, has reduced contrast, the focus is slower and the overall operation is stiffer. Even the lens hood is harder to put on and remove. On the four thirds system, it goes up against the Olympus 40-150mm kit lens which performs better acrosss the board, and so side by side, the Olympus kit lens wins out all the time optically. The 40-150mm though is probably the best "kit" lens in its class by any manufacturer, so the competition is tough on the 4/3 platform.

Now before someone goes off the deep edge on me, the Sigma 55-200 is a "good performer for the money" on any of the systems, with a very good price to performance ratio. It is not a "great" performer though on any, and on the 4/3 system the very good 40-150mm kit lens that it matches up against, simply outperforms it in every category of image quality. It should also be noted that the 55-200 is a "bottom line" lens for Sigma, and is marketed as such. The 50-500 is an upper range lens and has the "features" and refinement sets that make it a better lens at a higher price.

--
David
Photo galleries at: http://homepage.mac.com/brdavid/

ASR45 said:

Shirley, hi i am very interested in this lens, i have the 1.4TC but
to be honest i am not that impressed by it on my 50-200 lens mixed
results but i only blame myself for that.

Click to expand...

In my experience street shooting with the 50-200 + EC-14 combo is that it misses focus a LOT. I don't mean AF doesn't lock but it will often lock and the image will not be in focus. When AF hits it is a beautiful thing, but the misses are often and infuriating. I blamed myself at first but after struggling with this for months, I'm convinced that I'm doing everything I should be doing.

Kyle Jones said:

In my experience street shooting with the 50-200 + EC-14 combo is
that it misses focus a LOT. I don't mean AF doesn't lock but it
will often lock and the image will not be in focus.

Click to expand...

Set the release priortity to 'On' for that focus mode (S-AF or C-AF)

Or

You have S-AF + MF 'enabled'. Both will fire the shutter without a focus.

The RP setting is self explanatory. 'On' gives the camera permission to fire the shutter whenever you press the button.

S-AF + MF overrides the 'release priority' for S-AF.

Think about it! You'll probably have the S-AF RP to off (meaning it won't fire until it has a focus confirmation)

If you set S-AF + MF to 'On', you are telling the camera to AF and that YOU are then gonna change that focus yourself! So you half press and the AF gets a focus (green dot in VF and 'beep') and then you move that focus off-focus (NO green dot anymore!!) and the camera STILL FIRES!

So S-AF + MF 'greys out' the RP setting. Hence, the camera will fire when it doesn't have a focus.

So it depends on how you set the camera up.
HIHs

It's the Bigma and birdies. I found it in one of the other forums.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=17764393

--
Regards,
Taffy.
I loved my six oh two, now loving seven thousand.

Thanks Boyo, very nice shots regards Alan.

EMale said:

As I say, I came home and re-seated the focus screen as I haven't
been that happy with things recently (focus wise) The focus in the
VF seems to focus (and I hear the beep) and then my eyes register a
final 'settling in' as the VF image takes on extra sharpness. This
is different than when it was new when the beep would signal final
sharp focus. This is different... and it may even be my eyes?
Y'know, my eye adjusting to what it is seeing in the VF? It's
milliseconds long but I do register something move.

Click to expand...

This was an incorrect eyepiece/viewfinder dioptre setting!

At 1840g (over 4 pounds) it's not something you want to lug around.

Personally though I own an 80-200mm f/4.5 OM lens with a 2x teleconverter which gives me a full range of 160-800mm that I easily use handheld.