Cameras-n- Stuff

Today was a beautiful day in our neck of the woods (Woodstock, GA). It was a bit cool at 38, but the sun was gloriously shining after a few days of hiding.
So, as I was making breakfast, I took a few pictures of the birds that were dining at my feeders. With my new Sigma 18-250 all purpose walk around lens, of course.
Shot at about 8:30 AM using f/6.3 at ISO 400… hope you think the lens is as good as I do.

Carolina Wren fluffing because of the cool air.

Female Cardinal with the stare down (she won)

A Rather Large Spider

Another Female Dining

More about this excellent lens at http://www.squidoo.com/sigma18-250

Just wanted to share that others are as satisfied with their new Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM IF Lens Digital SLR Cameras
as I have been. It looks like the all purpose walk around lens that will meet most of your photo needs.
Here are the first 20 comments from the B&H Photo 18-250 web page:

• Heavy, but lighter than 2 lenses – 5 stars
• Great Lens – 5 stars
• It’s okay – 3 stars
• small package–big performer – 5 stars
• Nice Easy To Use Lense….. – 3 stars
• Love this lens! – 5 stars
• Great lens great buy greAT price – 5 stars
• I’m Lovin’ it! – 4 stars
• I Love This Lens – 5 stars
• Frustration Ended – 5 stars
• Nice all around lens – 4 stars
• Simply Amazing! – 5 stars
• Great lens! Reasonable cost – 5 stars
• Solid, Quality Lens – 4 stars
• Very Good–for the price – 4 stars
• The Lens I Will Wear Out! – 5 stars
• Excellent Value All Around Performer – 5 stars
• Versatility and Vibration Compensation – 5 stars
• Good value for the money – 4 stars
• LOVE This Lens SO WORTH THE MONEY!!!!! – 5 stars

Not one negative (I didn’t go past the first page on this quick check) – you can check for yourself at B & H Photo.
More about the Sigma 18-250 on my Squdioo lens.

Lens Comparison for Sigma 18-250

I got my Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM Zoom Lens a few days ago, but it has been really raining here.

So I did a really crude lens test. I have what I consider to be some excellent lenses in my arsenal. My normal walk around lens is a Tamron 28-75 f2.8. I bought this lens when I got my first Digital Rebel 300D, and it has proven to be all that I hoped for. It gives me wonderful photos.

I also have a Canon 70-200mm f/4 L that I got for doing telephoto work. I am just an amateur, and I can’t afford the really expensive glass that professional photographers use, but these lenses, as I said, are very good.

So, I took some pictures in my house using all three lenses, hand-held, in a dimly lit room. As I mentioned, this is a crude test, but the results surprised me. I was hoping that the new Sigma lens would do as well as the other two, but the new lens was head and shoulders better than either of the other lenses as you can see from the image on the right.

I attribute the success of the new Sigma lens to the Optical Stabilization, which neither of the other lenses has. These photos were taken at 1/4 second exposure time.. a fairly impossible shutter speed for me to avoid blurry pictures due to my inability to hold the camera steady.

I have taken a few other photos – displayed below. They are not contest winners, but a quick selection of unedited images to demonstrate that the Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM Zoom Lens is fully capable of being your every day walk around lens. I am hoping to get some more comparison shots in the next few days to see how the Sigma matches up to my macro lens.

f16 1/10sec 18mm ISO 100

f10, 1/50sec ISO 200

I was hesitant about ordering this lens, thinking I might be sending it back, but it is a keeper. I highly recommend it as an excellent all purpose walk around lens.
More about the Sigma 18-250 at www.digital-photographic-resources.