Listening to the Voices in My Head

A few weeks ago, I got a Sigma 150-600 Sports.  Unfortunately, circumstances kept me from giving this lens the test run I wanted.  Well, today, I got to mount it on my 7DmkII.

First off; the Sigma 150-600 is a beast of a lens. It’s heavy. And unless you’re used to curling 20lb dumbbells on a daily basis, you will need to use a monopod when using it it to photograph birds or anything else you will be walking around to do.  If you’re going to be standing in one spot, you will need a tripod.

Onto image quality.  Wow… just wow.

The lens is very quick to focus, and the images are sharp, without any distortion, even when shooting multiple subjects.

This Sigma is a great piece of glass. I wouldn’t use it every day, but for specific birding or sporting events, it’s a winner.

A guy made an announcement on an Olympus users page, to not use the Panasonic 100-400 lens, as it would grind and cause metal shavings. I told him we had tried that very lens on 3 different Olympus M43 cameras without any problems. I even got one for my birthday.

I told him I even bought the ex demo, showed him photos as proof that there was no problem metal shavings when mounting the lens.

He then said he tried several of them, and they all did the same thing.

I replied that if the same thing happened with several of the same make and model lens, the problem is more than likely the mount on his camera body, NOT the Panasonic lenses.

He was not happy with that.

Attended the #PhotoLiveExpo2017 at Novatel, in Perth, yesterday. Bought a new lens at a discounted price. Wing had a bit of a snit about it until I told him I was selling my Tamron 24-70 to fund the purchase.

Went to #CameraElectronic to pick up the new camera batteries we bought at the event discount prices. Got a small bag to carry a 50mm lens that's large enough to hold the 24-105mkII when I want to swap. Told Sam I was selling the Tamron (which I just picked up after a scheduled thorough cleaning). I had a price in mind, and Sam's offer was right in that ballpark. So, instead of the hassle and problems of having to deal with idiots trying to lowball me on the price, or mansplain as to why I should sell it to them for less, I got a CE store credit.

Problem solved.

I am selling a not quite 2yr old Lumix 100-300 lens, that is in mint condition, because I have Kipon EF to MFT adapter and now use my canon 70-300 L on my Olympus EM1. I might have used the lens 3 or 4 times, has $110 high end UV guaranteed no scratch filter. I checked all the places that are selling this lens used, sometimes without the filters, and priced mine $50 less at $450. For 'mates rates' I was willing to sell them as a package for $400

Yesterday, someone insultingly offered me $300, maybe $400 if I included a $170 scratch proof high end CPL filter and the $110 UV filter.

Read post title for my opinion of that.

There has been much ado and hype about the mega megapixel Canon DS and Canon DSR. I am comparing it to my 5D3 and 7D2.

To use the DS was easy enough. Same set up as my 5D3 and 7D2. Are the photos taken good? Oh hell yes. Higher ISO shots are no problem. However, I have found the FPS very slow (compared to 5D3 and 7D2) and I did miss shots because of this. That being typed, the 5DS isn't made for sports photography. Planned shots, and carefully composed shots, not a problem. Tracking surfers, birds or anything in motion, I found it lacking in performance.

Images: HUGE, but bigger isn't always better. I took these shots, one using the 5DS and one with my 5D3, both using the 11-24mm wide angle.

5D3, 11-24mm Wide Angle



5DS, 11-24mm Wide Angle



I know it would have been better to do both photos at the same time of day, but that wasn't an option, but this does well enough to demonstrate.

Both images are sharp, clear and have good colors and tones. For me, there is no real difference, except if you wanted to you could closely crop in on the 5DS image and because it’s 50+ megabyte 50 megapixel image, you would still end up with a large image, sharp image.

Same 5DS photo as above, but cropped in.



My conclusion: to quote a friend, ‘Horses for Courses’. Great camera, but not for me. It would not supplant my current cameras, and if I really want a huge 50mp image, I will stick with photo stacking and merging.


Onto the 11-24mm Wide Angle lens – Omygoodness was a luscious piece of glass. Bulbous Goodness! Even with the distortion you get using such a wide angle lens, it was crisp and sharp even to the corners. Landscape shots are a dream with this lens. Especially compared to my older 17-35mm wide angle. If I was going to save my shekels for another lens, this would be the one.