Thanks, Kerry. I've heard great things about that lens, and as a Sigma owner, I agree their OS is pretty good. Looks like that one is sharp right out to 500mm. :)
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Thanks, Kerry. I've heard great things about that lens, and as a Sigma owner, I agree their OS is pretty good. Looks like that one is sharp right out to 500mm. :)
Test: This just a test to see if I can remember how...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...1-R1-18-3A.jpg
Yep works, thanks for the thread and the re tip John...;)
I had forgotten how, been so long since I posted a pic.
Nice one, Grubb. I used to visit a stream like that when I was a kid.
REE
Last fall I damaged one of my very favorite lenses. It was a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro Telephoto Zoom for Pentax/Samsung like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70-300mm.../dp/B000B8T6E2
This was my go to lens for long range shooting or really neat macro photography. Fortunately I had purchased the extended warranty through SquareTrade Warrant. Somewhere along the way the lens received some type of shock sufficient to break loose and aperture blade. I believe I bumped into a tree, rather hard, while hiking as the lens had bark on the barrel.
Well the folks at SquareTrade were great! They had me return ship the lens at their expense via UPS. Within 5 days they deposited the entire amount I paid for the lens into my paypal account. They really worked hard and fast to make my experience a good one all of this a year after the initial purchase. Can't say enough good about SquareTrade and I now buy all of my extended warranties through them.
Back to the lens. These lenses are available for Pentax between about $125-$200 dollars. I think I paid $145 for my new lens. Don't let the lower price or the fact that this lens is not an APO lens fool you because this baby is on a par and in some ways even better than my more expensive Pentax lenses. The Sigma shows very little, if any, purple fringing, provides sharp clear photos, fast quiet auto focus and a 200-300mm macro focus that actually works quiet well. The only draw back to this lens is that it does require a good deal of light and the length of the barrel with attached hood can interfere with the camera on-board flash when at the 30mm length. Easily cured by an inexpensive hot shoe or external flash.
Okay enough blah-blah. Here are a few shots with this lens. Click on the thumb nails for larger views:
Attachment 7445
Attachment 7448
Attachment 7446
Attachment 7449
I used ACDSEE Photo Manager 10 and except for the last shot there was very little PP work done. Transferring photos to a website drives me nuts because so much of the quality is lost. Oh well.:D
Nighthawk,
Got any 100% crops from images from that lens? Any macro work? I've got the Nikkor 70-300 VR and while I fully admit that its me, not the lens, I've been very hit-or-miss with it. When it's sharp, its beautiful, but there's been no rhyme or reason that I can find that determines how I'm getting a great shot compared to a sort-of-okay shot.
Here are a few images for you. Click the photos for larger views. Very little PP on these:
Attachment 7451 Attachment 7454 Attachment 7455
Attachment 7452 Attachment 7453
couple of crops but no what I would call real macro work yet with this one. I am hoping to do that this spring once we get my back taken care of. these were shot on a windy day last spring with the first lens. the bridge and flower from a tripod cable remote control. the hen malard from a mono pod without shake reduction. matter of fact using a pod of any kind automatically disengages the shake reduction on the K-10D.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/i...isc/pencil.png
Not sure it it'll let me do this, but here's a good shot from my Nikkor:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6...2/DSC_1917.JPG
Cold,
Very nice shot. Nikon and Pentax just cannot be beat for their rich colors and contrast. Love the bokeh with that lens. silky smooth but not overpowering.
I was looking at my lens late yesterday and saw something funky about the circular polarizer I have on that Sigma 70-300 macro. Yep sure enough it is hazed. That would explain some of the soft issues I am having. It is a Hoya filter so they should replace it free of charge. One other thing you touched on in another post is the internal shake reduction that Pentax uses. While it does do a good job, makes the lenses much cheaper, it can also cause the photo to be a bit soft in lower light conditions. The folks on the Pentax forums board say to either use a flash or drop an f stop to slightly over expose the shot. The shake reduction is good for about two stops. the shot of the bridge sign is from a tripod with a remote shutter release, no shake reduction. The duck was from a mono pod without shake reduction. the shots of the new structure being built in the lake are hand held with shake reduction.
I shoot everything in RAW although the K-10D allows you to shoot in both RAW and JPEG simultaneously. I am also using Adobe RGB instead of sRBG setting in my camera's manual menu. The problem I found there is while Adobe lets the camera use a wider range of color not all PP programs accept Adobe RGB so it has to convert over to sRGB.
Which RGB setting do you use? I should say that my preferred shooting mode is Manual. Probably because I learned to shoot on a Pentax K-1000 that I still have.