Author Topic: Fall Photography Thread (Read 65899 times)

Triple Bob · « **Reply #40 on:** September 20, 2009, 09:33:44 am »

Sounds fantastic!

Sigma make some great lenses, it just depends on the lens. Their 10-20mm WA is very close to Nikon's WA in clarity but for half the price. For some of the zooms it's worth paying double for the Nikkor quality. The only downside to Sigma is that they can feel a bit plasticky, but it's the glass that counts right?

I am also saving up for a new lens, it's gonna take a while...

Dexer · « **Reply #41 on:** September 20, 2009, 12:40:21 pm »

One thing that finally pushed me off the fence about this lens is the exchange rate. In Canada, this lens in the 4/3 mount is about $669.00CDN at virtually all of the Canadian outlets (vistek, Henry's, Mcbain, Don's Photo). In the US, it's $419.00US at most places. Even with shipping costs, the total should be about $200.00CDN less than buying it here. Furthermore, the 4/3 mount is obviously not as common as the Nikon or Canon mount so it's a special order lens in Canada but bhphoto had it in stock.

Ironically, over the years, I've invested all of my lens money AROUND the "standard" range. I got the Olympus High Grade 11-22 wide zoom for car shows and museums. I got the High Grade 50mm F2 macro for table top work and the 70-300 for airplane and general telephoto work. But I've just kept the basic kits lens for general photography. A couple of weeks ago, after taking some photos near the construction site for the New airport terminal here, I thought the photos weren't as good as they could be. Olympus makes very good kit lenses but I thought the contrast was a bit flat and the sharpness could use some improvement.

Some of the very respected Oly photographers told me that the Sigma 18-50 was even sharper than the Oly 14-54 which is regarded as extremely sharp.

Where Oly has an advantage with this lens is in the sensor size and format. The 4/3 sensor is near in height to the average APS-C sensor but it's not quite as wide. The result is that vignetting is virtually nonexistent under any setting because the corners of the sensor are pulled tighter inside the image circle.

Dexer · « **Reply #42 on:** September 20, 2009, 06:33:32 pm »

I went out with my 50mm Macro to take another picture of that maturing pumpkin that was so green last week. It's not green anymore.

But, as soon as I went out the door, I heard geese overhead so I pointed my camera up and got a pretty good shot. It was a lucky accident. Normally, if I had PLANNED to take bird pictures, I would have put the telephoto on the camera. If I'd done that, I wouldn't have got the shot. I would have cut off the edges of the formation. The 50mm worked perfectly.

Railton · « **Reply #43 on:** September 20, 2009, 06:45:46 pm »

The original Drafting experts...

Railton

dr_spock · « **Reply #44 on:** September 20, 2009, 07:29:47 pm »

I think a macro lens would be nice for Lego.

Triple Bob · « **Reply #45 on:** September 20, 2009, 10:09:24 pm »

Quote from: Just Bob on September 19, 2009, 10:43:46 pm

Damn I forgot it was pirate day...

Anyway, off to bed to shoot sunrise tomorrow.

So, shot this morning...

dr_spock · « **Reply #46 on:** September 20, 2009, 10:33:41 pm »

Early bird catches the farm.

Nice rustic shot.

mwqa · « **Reply #47 on:** September 20, 2009, 11:50:52 pm »

Here are some pics from the weekend.

Dexer · « **Reply #48 on:** September 21, 2009, 09:17:46 pm »

Woo hoo! The new lens is here.

Of course, the UPS guys like to make you sweat so the thing arrived at 4:30 after I'd almost given up. And after a month of glorious sunshine, we had thick overcast and rain today. That limited me mostly to some macro tests (sunshine returns tomorrow). I didn't buy this lens for macro but I did some tabletop tests to check it out. It's performing extremely well.

The figure below is a small resin model of the Metaluna Mutant that I use for all of my macro tests (wouldn't be surprised if I've posted a picture of him here before...but this is more about the lens). He's about 2 3/4" tall. Well, the 50 cent piece indicates his size.

The top image is taken at 50mm, f8, 1/20sec. The bottom image is a 100% crop of part of the top image. For those not familiar with the term, a "100% crop" refers to a small portion of the image which is reproduced at full size since, obviously, the entire image is too big to post. I took a 600x600 pixel portion of the top image and posted it at 600x600 pixels...100% of the actual size.

I'm delighted with the result. Excellent sharpness, contrast and color. Full marks.

And here's a note about cost:

When the lens arrived, I owed PST, GST and a small duty charge of $8.94. When it's all converted to Canadian dollars, the grand total inclusive of everything (taxes, duty, UPS shipping) was 544.00CDN. I just checked Henry's in Canada and they show this lens in stock with the 4/3 mount for $669.00CDN. But they charge $9.95 shipping and you still pay the PST and GST so it works out to $760.00CDN to get the lens to me. So I'm still ahead by $215.00CDNby ordering from the US.

random006 · « **Reply #49 on:** September 21, 2009, 11:21:52 pm »

From this Sunday: A trip to Hudson.

Who knew the South of France was so close?

Triple Bob · « **Reply #50 on:** September 22, 2009, 12:07:59 am »

I put some pics of the British Car Day (car show) in the events section.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/topic,64062.0.html

My two faves of the day:

and

mwqa · « **Reply #51 on:** September 22, 2009, 12:29:57 am »

Wow. The quality of some of these photos is astonishing - beautiful pics, Just Bob.

I have to see 'This Island Earth' sometime...

Hey Random - what camera did you end up with? (Sorry if I missed it in another thread

)

Triple Bob · « **Reply #52 on:** September 22, 2009, 12:36:52 am »

Thank you!

What were yours above taken with, I especially like the bug one. It's weird, the thumbnails don't portray half the amount of detail, at full size they are way better. I don't think I've ever seen so many apples as in that first shot!

mwqa · « **Reply #53 on:** September 22, 2009, 11:16:59 am »

Quote from: Just Bob on September 22, 2009, 12:36:52 am

Thank you!

What were yours above taken with, I especially like the bug one. It's weird, the thumbnails don't portray half the amount of detail, at full size they are way better. I don't think I've ever seen so many apples as in that first shot!

I'm using my Ricoh GX100, RAW files processed with SilkyPix. Ricoh has a small camera division, and the cameras aren't well-distributed in North America, but they are very popular in Asia and Europe.

I'm going to have to think about web-hosting my pics.

That bug kept running, so I was happy to be able to get a clear shot of it. Ricoh's are known for their macro ability and ease of use and I haven't been disappointed on either count.

Dexer · « **Reply #54 on:** September 22, 2009, 06:03:36 pm »

Sunny weather has returned so I took the new Sigma out for a test drive at 17 Wing here in Winnipeg. I'm really liking this lens...very sharp and crazy high contrast.

blur911 · « **Reply #55 on:** September 22, 2009, 09:56:26 pm »

Couple of shots from the weekend.

dr_spock · « **Reply #56 on:** September 23, 2009, 04:04:10 pm »

The Center of the Universe at night.

Leviathan · « **Reply #57 on:** September 24, 2009, 12:56:45 am »

A friend took this one on Tuesday. I know, not mine but it looks pretty spiffy

dr_spock · « **Reply #58 on:** September 24, 2009, 07:27:47 pm »

Neat. How did he/she do that? A graduated natural density filter?

Dexer · « **Reply #59 on:** September 24, 2009, 08:33:17 pm »

Here's a moon shot:

Author Topic: Fall Photography Thread (Read 65899 times)

Leviathan