Hi Peter - I have ^almost^ this lens. I have the 70-200 HSM but it does not have the in-lens OS. I assume that the optics are the same although I imagine the OS system will have an effect on the overall output if it is on. My personal views on the version I have are that it is very good and excellent VFM. I obtained mine second-hand although it looked brand new.

Not long after I got it I posted a thread of some pics I took with it (link: link)

The image quality is good to my eye - the lens is very sharp, although I found with my copy I did have to tweak the AF in-camera, although it was within the adjustment range of the camera so no great shakes. As someone has already mentioned, the AF is very fast (I was pleasantly surprised!) and very quiet. The lens is described as 'macro' although in practice it focusses pretty close but not what I would consider 'macro'

I don't much like the finish on some older sigma lenses as it tends to discolour and go a sort of patchy matt grey, but this lens (being newer I guess) has a smoother satin-ish flat finish which seems more pleasing to me and looks like it will last better.

Being HSM it doesn't work with the sigma teleconverters for AF, which is a shame being as it's f2.8 and ought to otherwise work well with a TC to give some longer reach. In fact I have experimented with using the sigma 1.4x and 2x TCs and it causes some very strange effects - basically it caused the camera to endlessly scroll through aperture values for some reason - at least on my camera (K5) anyway. I have no idea why: That said, I managed to take a test pic with one anyway and it was very sharp even with the 2x TC.

If you are looking for a high quality zoom in this range and speed then I would have no hesitation in recommending the sigma, the only caveat I would add is that I have tended to find with the sigma lenses that I have to tweak the AF - so far i have not bought one which is beyond the adjustment scope of the camera but if there is any way of testing before you buy I would advise that.

Hope that helps

Mat W

You might get more views (and maybe therefore more comments) if you add lots of tags to your pictures; that way perhaps the pic gets picked up more in searches; also you'll probably get more if you have more contacts, as then some of your new uploads will appear in their homepage. But in general I agree with Shaun and Stub. I find that the number of views of my pics goes up a lot (normally about 50-fold) if/when someone (almost always my sister) links to one of my pictures through facebook or similar... but she's much more tech-savvy than I am and has LOADS of contacts on her various social media sites.

These are great! I especially like the second - he's certainly rumbled something...

Nice shots. I rather like the bunny - get plenty of them round my way but never seen any carrying a bundle of twigs like that

Yes when you take a long exposure shot (anything more than a second) I think Pentax DSLR cameras then take a second exposure of the same duration with the shutter closed (i.e. a dark frame) and then use that in reducing the noise inherent in the long exposure. Hence the long processing time. It is possible to turn the feature off in the camera menu on the K7/K5 I think by scrolling to 'slow shutter speed NR', but I am not sure whether that is possible in a K20D... suspect not Do you have a manual for the K20D? - the details will be in there; if not then it is probably possible to find a pdf of the manual on the Pentax website.

Cheers

Hello again all, Having posted a couple of threads already from my day out at the Falconry centre, here's a final instalment of a few randoms. I ended up with hundreds of pics from the day a couple of weeks ago, with a fair bit of processing to be done, but helpfully the weather has been dire ever since so have not taken too many more pics and added to my backlog...

1. Fluffy... (K5 with DA* 300)




2. Hunkered... (K5 with DA* 300)




3. On final approach (K7 and 16-50 at about 35mm I think)




4. Bald Eagle outbound...




5. ...and inbound (with Talons!)




6. Bald Eagle portrait




7. Eagle Owl in blue




8. Great Grey incoming...




9. Chilean Blue Eagle




10. Ferruginous Buzzard (proper mean looking...)




Hope you like these. Any C&C welcome, and as ever there are more pics on my flickr stream. Except where I have specifically noted it, these were taken with the K5 and the sigma 100-300 f4 (from memory). As luck would have it I got a gift of an 'experience' day this week too - falconry!

Cheers

To get a thicker DOF you'll need a smaller aperture (although you can get some very dreamy bokeh effects with bigger apertures), so I suggest that you try maybe f16, and use the on board flash. The flash synchro speed should be fast enough to give a sharp shot. However, to avoid blowing the picture out with flash, and to stop the end result looking too flat, I find it necessary wind the flash intensity down to -1 or -2. You can then use the ISO to control the end result... worth playing around with. You may find it necessary to take off the lens hood to avoid it casting a shadow on the picture.

Hope that helps. Works better still with a flashgun + diffuser in the hotshoe, and if you have a flash cable to get a flashgun firing off-camera, then you can really get creative...

EDIT: Frogfish is much more succinct than I am!

Thanks Gizzerni and Stuey!

Great shots Mike, and excellently processed. Top stuff

A real beauty! both the bird and the pic