Richard

Sorry to hear about your inlaws ill health. Hope she recovers and gets back to her normal routine. I know at her age these things become very delicate, and need proper looking after.

About the 150-500 I will go and have a peek at the "snooked" gallery. And I know what you mean about patience, skill and frustration about wildlife photography . I have been experiencing them as i type this. I won't complain though because I risk hearing "We told you so" . But also because its all part of the fun. When I dived into the deep end I had an idea what it was going to take to get to a stage I could begin to even start feeling a little proud of my shots, time and patience being some of them, so I am here and will stay here. May be by next year I can hear you and the likes of you with your experience and skill finally say "Amin, good progress".

Best of luck and get well wishes for your mum in law

Thanks

Amin

Definitely fast. Silent, fast and great for focusing. But I dont really have any opinion of it, didn't play enough with it to form an opinion even within the limitations of my experience in the field. I am sorry.

Check with Kris (womble) he stayed there longer than I did as I wanted to get away from all the football traffic around the area before the game finished so I left early. If he played with it he will be able to give you a much more handson opinion and view about it, besides the fact that he is someone with a world of knowledge in the field . Well experienced guy.

Amin

Stunning shot , the woodpecker image looks well captured.

The flying owl is one that really leaves me absolutely mesmerised . I keep coming back to it times and times again . There is something about birds that when the image is captured while in their flight have a stunning effect for me . Fantastically well captured.

Losing SDM but still managing to have the converter focusing is not too bad, in fact it does work pretty well.

T/C, the trade off for increase in range is obviously the light. But then under certain circumstances the lighter weight of the DA*300 with the T/C compared to almost 2kg of weight of the Sigma 150-500 is a plus point. I got to look into the advantage points of the Sigma 150-500 regarding light as it benefits of a slightly bigger aperture on its own compared to the 300 with the T/C. So this is where Richard comes in .

Come on Richard, we want to see some of those cracking shots with the new toy you just got delivery of . We are all waiting

Thanks

Amin

Peter

Just out of curiosity, and on screen, how different do images taken with the DA*300 on its own, cropped, compare to the ones taken with the T/C attached? With the T/C you are getting a magnification of 510 mm if my calculations are correct. It would be interesting to see some images taken with it when you find them.

And I believe these AF1.7 T/C are not in production anymore isn't it? Do you still find them second hand or on e-bay?

And are you able to use SDM with the T/C attached?

Thanks

Amin

Kris

It was a pleasure meeting you at SRS by the way.

I had arrived there just about 15 minutes before you did so I might have run into Rob, but the shop was packed to the seams and I couldn't even get around to the counter where the toys were , And also as I had no idea how Rob looks I failed to recognise him. It would have been good to get to meet some more of the forum members as the chance was there. Perhaps we should have worn stickers with our forum names on our shirts huh .

So I decided to go out and needed to use the cashpoint and returned a few minutes later when I made my way around to the new toys section when you recognised me . Dare I ask how did you manage to spot that it was me? , let me guess, little one on the profile pic and the ones I had posted provided identification for the dad was it?

It was nice meeting you anyway and get to play together with the toys and share experiences. The ring flash seemed good but my oh my, its pretty pricey isn't it? I still have my eye on the DA*300 though

I can only tell you about my thoughts when I tried the 150-500 which has HSM. The impression that particular feature left me was immediate and astounding. It left me feeling that I really really would love such a feature (fast and silent focusing system) on my lenses. The moment I attached back my Pentax 55-300 and tried to focus again the sound and slowness of the lens suddenly was an impact again. Surprise surprise up until then I was living pretty comfortably with all that noise and sluggishness, , I had to experience the marvels of the speed and silence in order to really notice all that I was living with. .

But again I am a newbie into the field so many things leave me greatly impressed , or little things can change my perception of things dramatically anyway, so take my whole described experience above with a pinch of salt please. All I can say is if you have a chance you really got to try it yourself and come to the conclusion personally.

I am just lucky I live 15 minutes from SRS and with such friendly people there as staff and a great guy Chris I go there to play with various toys as often as I get time off .

By the way, one last thing, I am not sure which sigma lens with HSM you are looking for, but with the 150-500 in particular that I played around, as much as I was impressed with the HSM system, I didn't like the fact that the zoom is so tight and lacks smoothness. The lens is quite chunky and unless you have really big hands you can't expect to use it in the usual way you would be using a zoom in a lens with smoother mechanism. But again, this might be due to the fact these lenses are big and they really come this way. Just my own personal conclusion, that's all.

More experienced people here with a huge amount of impressive knowledge will be able to give you a far better understanding and enlightenment.

Thanks

Amin

I had to read the last sentence a few times to really believe what it is written there " It may be swallowed or stowed as a suppository to avoid detection" h ehehhee.

Foxycce,

What RR is saying is absolutely correct. I am a newbie and what he says is true to the word. You really need to experiment. In the beginning all these seem confusing and so much information about lenses and its all theoretical. You really got to start using the camera and start shooting so you realise what you want to do. I have learnt it precisely the same way. I have bought some lenses and although I definitely do not want to part from them but quite a few of them are not being used as much as I thought I would when I bought them. I will eventually start making full use of them but if I was going to just buy one lens I would want to be sure what I want to get into first.

And yup, they are right, you can get a jack of most trades like they mentioned, the 18-250 but its a master of none, so there is a trade off. Evaluate what your priorities are, you want a fantastic picture, or you want a faster zoom, or you want something that will cover most areas but sacrifice some aspects in image quality etc. Best way really is getting the kit lens which is a budget one 18-55 and start trying, soon you will realise what it is lacking and then you will know, or you might find that the range is great and covers what you want and in that case you can just upgrade for a lens that will have the same range but a much better quality.

By the way, I am no expert in this, I just started recently in this field, so please take my advice with a pinch of salt and seek and listen to the recommendations and advice from these very experienced and kind people around. They are truly great in the field and are very helpful. I have learnt a lot since I came around here and they have really helped me a lot.

Good luck in your quest

Amin

Mike

These images look stunning. I love the vibrant colours.
Fantastic scenes. I like all of them the numbers 2 & 3 being my favourites .

You should do more of these , you seem to have a natural gift and a great eye for it . Well done

I thought so .
So it wasn't just my impression, the DA*300 is that much better isn't it?

And I must say, once someone has a go at that fantastic focusing mechanism, fast and silent, that's when one starts evaluating really the marvels of the lens .

I did have a go at the Sigma 150-500 a few days ago comparing with the DA*300 at the same time, but I must say, the DA*300 just left me stunned with great impression.
Unless something new that I have overlooked comes up about the Sigma then in my view the DA*300 is definitely the winner in my eyes, personally of course.