I am a happy soul!
A trip down to Fortune Town in Rachada to visit an old friend seemed pretty mundane with little or no camera hardware available at 2nd hand prices. Seems like Canon is having a heyday in Thailand as more and more people switch from point-and-shoot cameras to digital SLRs. The youth of Bangkok are not settling for the lazy road in photography and I am happy to see that. Even petite teenage girls can be seen whipping out their Canon 40Ds armed with 70-200 “white” lenses. –Wow.
All that to say, nothing stays put on the second hand market for long. It takes a few days (sometimes only a few hours) before the item is snatched up by a budget-conscience student or teenager. So my hopes of finding a long range telephoto at a friendly price were pretty dead in the water.
Or so I thought.
One shop had the very budget friendly Tokina 80-400 lens which, despite its record for being the smallest telephoto zoom available on the market, didn’t quite appeal to my tastes or the fact that it had no fast aperture, no IS and no fast focusing capabilities. –Looked like a big NO for many people too, as the retailer told me no one had even asked about it in the eight months he has had it on display.
An obscure camera shop wedged between a row of computer shops caught my attention with what seemed to be a 70-200 Sigma going for 24,900 baht. On inspection, it turned out to be a 100-300 F4 Sigma. Since I was not familiar with the lens, I took a few test shots and headed home to check out the quality.
After some research I found I may have stumbled upon a deal, so the next day, I went back, cashed in my last reserve of dollars and bought myself my first real telephoto lens. –Interestingly, I got there only a few minutes before another would-be customer walked in, looking for the same deal.
After a few days of working with the lens, I’ve learned that this lens is not easy to deal with (like almost any other tele lens) and requires a bit of a learning curve. Lack of IS means it demands a lot of light, or a stable tripod. The weight is somewhat of an issue, but has not proven to be problematic for me. –Photo quality? You decide for yourself:
All photos are taken handheld and none were fixed up; these are straight, fresh out of the camera.
First things first; a little cropping would be nice, and so would a little more range. 1.4 converter is needed, check.
I think it could use some sharpening and perhaps the lens could be checked for sharpness once (standard procedure for all lenses) but I think it’s got a lot of great potential. It’s a fraction of the price of a 100-400 Canon and takes the TC very well (giving it a maximum range of 470mm) so there are a lot of upsides. -Would I have been happier with the 100-400 Canon? -Sure! –But would I have been happy with the bank account afterwards? –Definitely NOT!
Nothing beats a Canon L lens in my book but if one is price conscience, I think this is a very good deal. I doubt there will be another available at this price (the owner was getting rid of all his lenses) and with a genuine warranty, so I am very thankful that God led me to this good deal. Perhaps in the future I’ll be posting more of my own photos.
October 24th, 2009 at 2:44 AM
Virtually impossible to judge the IQ unless the image is cropped and post processed. It is the END RESULT that counts. Send me an original jpg file and I can tell a lot more.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:33 AM
I AM THE OWNER OF A CANON IS100-400 WHICH I BOUGHT EARLIER IN THE
YEAR TP REPLACE A SIGMA 150=500. IT IS AN EXPENSIVE PIECE OF KIT BUT
TURNS OUT CONSISTENTLY GOOD PICTURES. I CHANGED FROM THE SIGMA BECAUSE
THE COMBINATION OF THE LENS WITH AN EOS 450D WAS PROVING VERY HEAVY
(I AM 64 BAND HAVE PARKINSONS DISEASE). THE INITIAL FEELING WAS THAT I HAD MADE A WISE MOVE BUT AFTER A WHILE THE CANON ALSO BECAME VERY HEAVY AND I
WAS OBLIGED TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE BY PURCHASSING A CAMERA HARNESS.
THIS COST AROUND $20US. IT HAS MADE A TREMENDOUS DIFFERENCE DISTRIBUTING
THE WEIGHT ACROSS THE SHOULDERS AND BACk. ONE OTHER POINT TO BEAR IN MIND IS THAT USING A CONVERTER SWITCHES OFF THE AF CAPABILITY.
400
December 15th, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Well, sent the Siggy into repairs and guess what? -The company says “Nothing is wrong with your lens.” -Interesting to note that both Canon and Sigma are both extreemly lazy when it comes to satisfying the customers’ wishes. -Perhaps they use the same repair men?
After two hours of convincing the guy to check the lens for backfocus or front focus issues, along with testing the HSM for innacuracies, the repair man relented (I did this three times in the span of two weeks while my lens was handed from one technican to another like a hot potato) and tweaked the focusing. I finally got my lens back last week. The repairman “adjusted” the focus and WOW! -What a difference! -It actually focuses at 300 now, unlike in the past!
Sharper images at 300 only need little fixing up in photoshop. -Makes me understand why other people claim this is one of the best lenses Sigma makes! An F4 300 lens is a little lacking in the reach, but it does make it a faster zoom lens than what is currently available. Lacking IS/OS hurts a lot though; Sigma should seriously consider this when they upgrade the lens. -Who knows; they just might freak Canon out if they did!
One down side -The finish on the lens is horrible. I am NOT a fan of the coating, it scratches very easily and leaves little dust marks, making it VERY hard to keep clean and now it looks like I took it through the Sahara Desert after one outing to the park with it. New it looks nice but a few hours with it leaves it looking like an aging hag. Really, Sigma needs to stick with the simple smooth finish; this velvety-feeling coating is really just a big scratch and dust collector.
I still need a 1.4 tele but I am eager to see the results of the two paired together!
March 10th, 2010 at 6:15 AM
After using it for a few months I have to say this lens lives up to its expectations. It far surpasses the poorly built Canon 100-300 and definitely has the ability to hold its own against the mighty Canon 100-400. Sure it lacks IS, and extra 100 mm and a white finish, but at least it doesn’t have a built-in vaccum dust pump. Look up fredmiranda.com and see that this lens gets some of the highest ratings for any Sigma on the market at the time.