Category Archives: Photography

I was extremely pleased to receive another Sigma lens for my camera this week. I have been enjoying using the telephoto 135-400 lens but it is way too long for most day-to-day photography. As a result I’ve been relying on a Nikkor 18-55, but I’ve found the results to be very ‘soft’. Don’t get me wrong – they are perfectly adequate, but lack a degree of sharpness that the Sigma lens has got.

So, how does it compare?

First off, the sigma lens has a metal case which the Nikkor lens doesn’t. The added weight is somewhat reassuring, actually, but it is considerably heavier. If you are thinking that a lighter lens is better, stop reading now
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I recently purchased a Sigma lens for my Nikon D50 so that I could take some extreme telephoto shots. This was a bit of an impulse buy, but I am fairly pleased I did.

The lens is a 135-400 telephoto which after factoring in the magnification results in a 600mm zoom. This is pretty good going, but what about the lens quality?

First off, the lens is heavy – weight is not an issue for me at the moment, but be warned that this puppy has a significant mass! If you use this lens without a tripod, beanbag or monopod then you’ll need a very steady grip – if the zoom factor doesn’t blur your images the fatigue of holding it up will!
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I have been trying to decide on a half decent digital camera for a long time now, and I narrowed the choice down to a Nikon D50 or a Canon EOS 350D. The original list also included Nikon D70s, Olympus E500 and a few others. By and large my budget was for about ��500, but for the right deal I’d have gone higher.

So what did I look for?

First and foremost I do not consider myself to be a ‘pro’ photographer – I am fairly experienced around cameras, but probably still have a great deal to learn. My major prior experience is with Canon video cameras such as the XL1 and GM2(both of which I love using, by the way), so I bring no preconceptions to this – except possibly that Canon cameras are great! What I wanted was a camera that would take different lenses and would take rock solid pictures time after time, with enough room for me to ‘grow’ into it.
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