Hi Chris, (and everyone else)
Sorry about the cross posting, I sent the previous email before yours but
another email held it up from going. I went off to do something else and found
I'd flicked the same website advice to John as yourself after you had posted it.
Allan Richardson
On 03/04/2012, at 10:06 PM, Chris Ross wrote:
> John,
>
> more focal length is generally better for birds if it's sharp enough, the
> sigma lens is a touch soft at 400-500mm. Here's a comparison test for the
> two lenses featuring 100% crops from a test target:
>
> http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=113&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=7&API=2&LensComp=683&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=5&APIComp=0
>
> <http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=113&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=7&API=2&LensComp=683&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=5&APIComp=0>
>
> bear in mind this is a severe test and is pixel level view at 100% and an
> actual image won't look quite as bad, but the Canon lens is clearly much
> sharper and will also AF better, the Sigma is f6.3 at the long end and the AF
> is a bit slow because of that, in fact it lies to the camera as Canon bodies
> (except 1 series) do not allow AF at slower than f5.6. The quality of the
> Canon is such that you can crop the image down to the same framing as the
> sigma at 500mm and still be ahead on image quality.
>
> I shoot with a Canon 300mm f4 IS + 1.4x and it is also a lens I think you
> should consider, it will be 420mm FL with a 1.4x, and at that it focuses down
> to 1.5m for a magnification of 0.37x. Add a 25mm extension tube and if gives
> near 0.5x (half life size) at a distance of about 900mm, making it an
> excellent long macro suitable for dragonflies, butterflies, reptiles, larger
> wildflowers as well as being a good bird lens. The IS allows you to handhold
> under those conditions and still get very sharp results. I have had zooms
> in the past and I've found for nature work it's at max zoom and wanting more
> 99% of the time. You can select and compare image quality with other lenses
> from the drop down menus above, you can also look at the effect of stopping
> down and removing/adding tele converters.
>
> You can see some results from the 300mm f4/1.4x combo on my website, look
> mostly in the insect galleries at the butterflies/dragonflies, there's also a
> few bird images, though I mostly use a Canon 500mm f4 for birds, but that's
> an entirely different beast. Note that the smaller damselflies, skippers and
> grass blues and the like were taken with a 200mm macro lens as they are very
> much smaller insects. The 300mm f4 will also produce good images with the
> latest 2x converter, but AF ( a bit slow but usable) is only available when
> using a 1 series body. This image was with the 300mm f4 + 1.4x:
>
> http://www.aus-natural.com/Birds/Australia/Fairy%20Wrens/slides/Superb%20Fairy%20Wren%206.html
>
> My website is here: http://www.aus-natural.com/index_gallery.html
>
> regards,
>
> Chris Ross
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