ronfritz
Senior Member
...how does the Sigma 120-300mm lens work with teleconverters (1.4, 2.0 or both).
Between reading about Smokey's interest in a telephoto lens (one more time....I'm sorry Smokey about that misinformation I gave you on the accessory flash
), Deedly's interest in a camera to get some good deer shots and then Rips first shots with his repaired 600mm, Hoss' fun in the deerstand with his Bigma and I couldn't help getting out to play a little at lunch today.
I've been wanting to see how the Sigma 120-300mm worked with both the Sigma 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters installed at the same time. By my calculation that makes 840mm maximum zoom. As long as I was at it, I figured I'd take a series of shots at different zoom settings so that folks might have some idea of how 'close' they could get to one of those far off deer with various zoom settings. One thing I don't know is how to translate the 840mm focal length into the 10x or whatever optical zoom numbers usually quoted here for point and shoots. Maybe somebody's been down that path already and can lend their assistance in that regard. My guess is that my 840mm translates to almost 17x (assumes 50mm is 1x).
For the techies, one thing I didn't do is switch to manual metering mode to keep exposure consistent.... but it did occur to me on about the fourth picture though
I used autofocus for all the shots except for the one where I used both TC's together (i.e. the seventh and eighth pictures in this series)
I set up the camera on my big Bogen tripod and pan head. I used the mirror lockup and a cable release. I say that to make sure that folks understand that there is no way I could get pictures as sharp as these if I were hand holding the camera especially in dim light which is probably when most of those deer shots would be taken. All this is not to say that there's no point in trying, its just my way of giving credit to the gear required aside from a camera or lens. If I was going to shoot from a stand, I'd make sure I had a good place to rest the camera or take some shooting sticks and use them as a makeshift tripod. You'd still get more blur from camera movement than with a nice tripod and a cable release but if you take enough you're bound to get some good ones. By the way, the cable release is another relatively cheap item that more than pays for itself in terms of getting the sharpest pictures possible. If you don't have one or if your camera doesn't have a cable release option, you could use the camera's timer to trigger the shutter without touching the camera but that's probably not so practical when it comes to critter shots.
The only other thing I can think of saying is that these were all sharpened and de-noised in post processing using the exact same steps each time. The very last in the sequence has NO post processing so that you can get some sense for how much Photoshop helped in sharpening these up.
They're all taken with a Nikon D200 DSLR with a Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 zoom and teleconverters (TC).
First shot - no TC, zoom set to 120mm
Second shot - no TC, zoom set to 200mm
Third shot - no TC, zoom set to 300mm (35mm equivalent of 450mm)
Fourth shot - 1.4x TC, zoom set to 420mm
Fifth shot - 2.0x TC, zoom set to 500mm
Sixth shot - 2.0x TC, zoom set to 600mm
Seventh shot - 2.0x and 1.4x TC, zoom set to 840mm (no autofocus)
Seventh shot - same as seven but no 'post processing magic' applied
Distance to truck was 184 yards.
That's it. About the only thing I was really wanted to see is how the lens worked with both TC's installed at the same time. I'd say it worked better than I expected. Seems pretty sharp for that distance with all those TC's between the camera and the lens. Only thing was, it would try to focus but couldn't git er done. I guess I can muster up the energy turn that little focus ring if I have to
Now I just need to find something more interesting to photograph than my neighbor's truck.
Between reading about Smokey's interest in a telephoto lens (one more time....I'm sorry Smokey about that misinformation I gave you on the accessory flash
), Deedly's interest in a camera to get some good deer shots and then Rips first shots with his repaired 600mm, Hoss' fun in the deerstand with his Bigma and I couldn't help getting out to play a little at lunch today.I've been wanting to see how the Sigma 120-300mm worked with both the Sigma 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters installed at the same time. By my calculation that makes 840mm maximum zoom. As long as I was at it, I figured I'd take a series of shots at different zoom settings so that folks might have some idea of how 'close' they could get to one of those far off deer with various zoom settings. One thing I don't know is how to translate the 840mm focal length into the 10x or whatever optical zoom numbers usually quoted here for point and shoots. Maybe somebody's been down that path already and can lend their assistance in that regard. My guess is that my 840mm translates to almost 17x (assumes 50mm is 1x).
For the techies, one thing I didn't do is switch to manual metering mode to keep exposure consistent.... but it did occur to me on about the fourth picture though
I used autofocus for all the shots except for the one where I used both TC's together (i.e. the seventh and eighth pictures in this series)I set up the camera on my big Bogen tripod and pan head. I used the mirror lockup and a cable release. I say that to make sure that folks understand that there is no way I could get pictures as sharp as these if I were hand holding the camera especially in dim light which is probably when most of those deer shots would be taken. All this is not to say that there's no point in trying, its just my way of giving credit to the gear required aside from a camera or lens. If I was going to shoot from a stand, I'd make sure I had a good place to rest the camera or take some shooting sticks and use them as a makeshift tripod. You'd still get more blur from camera movement than with a nice tripod and a cable release but if you take enough you're bound to get some good ones. By the way, the cable release is another relatively cheap item that more than pays for itself in terms of getting the sharpest pictures possible. If you don't have one or if your camera doesn't have a cable release option, you could use the camera's timer to trigger the shutter without touching the camera but that's probably not so practical when it comes to critter shots.
The only other thing I can think of saying is that these were all sharpened and de-noised in post processing using the exact same steps each time. The very last in the sequence has NO post processing so that you can get some sense for how much Photoshop helped in sharpening these up.
They're all taken with a Nikon D200 DSLR with a Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 zoom and teleconverters (TC).
First shot - no TC, zoom set to 120mm
Second shot - no TC, zoom set to 200mm
Third shot - no TC, zoom set to 300mm (35mm equivalent of 450mm)
Fourth shot - 1.4x TC, zoom set to 420mm
Fifth shot - 2.0x TC, zoom set to 500mm
Sixth shot - 2.0x TC, zoom set to 600mm
Seventh shot - 2.0x and 1.4x TC, zoom set to 840mm (no autofocus)
Seventh shot - same as seven but no 'post processing magic' applied
Distance to truck was 184 yards.
That's it. About the only thing I was really wanted to see is how the lens worked with both TC's installed at the same time. I'd say it worked better than I expected. Seems pretty sharp for that distance with all those TC's between the camera and the lens. Only thing was, it would try to focus but couldn't git er done. I guess I can muster up the energy turn that little focus ring if I have to
Now I just need to find something more interesting to photograph than my neighbor's truck.
Attachments
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Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 001_120mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 002_200mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 003_300mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 004_420mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 005_500mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 006_600mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 007_840mm.jpg -
Sigma 120-300 and TC Test 007_840mm No Post Processing.jpg
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