New toys on test!

K5 with Sigma 400mm f/5.6 and Tamron-F 2X Pz-AF MC7; manual focus (1/50, f/8 at 1600 ASA).

The lens and tele-converter were part of a 'job lot' of items that I won on ebay for £127.00 from a seller who just happened to live within spitting distance of me and hence I was able to inspect the items before handing over the cash

The RAW file was processed and cropped in Lightroom 3.6 with the sharpening sliders set at 35 for amount, 0.5 for radius and 70 for detail before exporting to PSE9 and reducing background noise (mainly luma) using the Imagenomics Pro plug-in on the 'weaker noise' setting.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6687274225_fdb74ce8c6_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

New toys! by Dr 'B ', on Flickr[/img]

So far, so good, IMHO

Jon

Good work, maybe the noise reduction give an sensation of lost of detail?

Possibly but unlikely, IMO, as I have found Imagenomics Noiseware to be an incredibly versatile and effective tool. My hunch is that the lack of very fine detail is due to the nature of the shot, which, if you check the setting used, is very much 'worst case'. With better light, lower ISO, an higher shutter speed and smaller aperture it might have been a different story.

Used on its own, the Sigma 400mm is useable wide open, markedly improved by f/8 and at its best by f/11. Image contrast is on the low side when compared with modern telephotos of similar length but this is easily dealt with in PP if shooting RAW. For the money, however, and if you can find a good copy or, better still, the APO variant, it represents good value, IMHO.

Thanks for looking,

Jon