New lens aquisitions

Hi all,
Just want to let you all know, i am a very happy person right now.
This morning my DA 4.0/ 16-45 arrived from Down Under, and this evening I finally managed to snatch a Sigma 5.6/400mm AF APO from a local auction site for a steal.
I am feeling so lucky.
Martin.

Great, lets see the results.
The 16-45 is highly praised, how much better is it than the 18-55?

I can vouch for Martins 16-45 as i sold it to him and rate it very highly. The extra 2mm at the wide end does make a difference
It was my never leave home without it lens, along with my 90mm Tamron macro.

* Extra 2mm - it's the difference between 24mm and 28mm in film days
* Brighter. The constant f/4 makes for a lovely viewfinder image too.
* Bigger. Quite a lot longer actually (doesn't fit into the ER cases), and takes 67mm filters.

That said, the 18-55 stopped down to f/8 or so is really very sharp. Unless you are pixel peeping, or doing huge enlargements you may find it difficult to tell apart from the 16-45. But the 18-55 is mightily compact and hard to beat for portability!

I've used the 16-45 very seriously and have some great 18x12" enlargements from it. Used it with Cokin P size ND-grad filters.

So, to answer your question - it depends If you want wider, it's worth it. If you find the resolution of the 18-55 limiting, then it's probably worth upgrading.

Hope that helps!
Matt

What happened to your avatar Matt, you look like one of the Thunderbirds

It's actually Professor Matt "Matic" from Fireball XL5 A friend gave me the nickname because of the specs and the love of pure maths
Matt