Well done Tim, I really like the Boatman.

It's probably because all the values in the land area are at the lower end of the scale, they look a bit grainy.

What's the cone type building?

I always have trouble viewing the PPG site That's why I rarely ever bother. Absolute disgrace for a major camera manufacturer. They need to change it to something along the lines of Smugmug

Seems to have coped well with the lighting. I expect the ultimate sharpness would be better than shown in this shot, which looks at a high ISO. Sharpness usually is OK on the wide end of zooms. I find with the 55-300mm that when I want a shot at the wide end 55mm isn't wide enough

The type of tripod I use isn't heavy, it's the Minolta version of this one. I just rest 2 legs on my shoulders and one on my chest to steady the camera if I'm using a 300mm + 1.7x or even 2x. I doubt that the Polaroid B&S would support the Bigma. The Minolta one might and Leica also do one, which would take any head. I also sometimes hold the tripod against a tree or wall.

Almost anything would be better than the Sigma 70-300mm at 300mm. I wouldn't personally bother with an M42 lens at this length. If you don't need f/4 the Pentax 55-300mm is excellent. If you need f/4 the Pentax A* 300mm f/4 is also very good.

Nice shot... we don't have any cute wild things
like that around where I live.... probably made
pies out of em' years ago

Mike's edit has improved it considerably, but I
wonder why it was so light in the first place?

The shutter speed of 1/25th sec. on the Exif
doesn't sound right?

Thanks Bob, I didn't think about the tripod collar
I normally use a small tripod as a shoulder/chestpod on
long lenses and even on the FA*300mm the tripod collar is
too far out. So I use it with the tripod on the body.
The Bigma might be too big for that? I'll have to go back
to the drawing board

Thanks Bob, certainly sharp enough looking at the eye, beak and front feather detail. I might get one next year, I'll manage with a 300mm plus converter for what's left of this year.

Thanks Paul some interesting shots. It would be a nice place to look around and come away with a few free samples

Nice shot Bob. I've also looked at the other Bigma shots you've put on Flickr. I didn't realize the light was so good today. Didn't even know there was a lighthouse at Hale They all look good, but we could do with seeing some 800 wide to get a better idea of the Bigma performance.