I have been doing a little bird photog lately. The Audubon Society has a chapter in my area and they go for some walks on the weekends. So I have been joining them, see my posts on my blog
https://thewonderinglenzofolc.blogspot.com. Well, I have been feeling a little inadequate with my measly little Canon 75-300. Some of those guys have these big long things that nearly touch the bird. LOL! So I have been trolling the web and my local Camera shop trying to find an implant to reduce my inadequacy.
They had a Sigma 100-400F5-6.3 DG. Well, lets say "HAD." Now I do!
I took it out for a spin and was a little underwhelmed by it. When I looked at the images I had taken with it on my iPad nothing seemed to be sharp and the colors where kind of flat. I took a deep breath, reminding myself that I had 30 days to return this thing and get my money back. I went out this morning to the local Power plant cooling lake, Lake Julian, and shot a few more images. This time I used my tripod to mitgate any hend held blur. You wanna know the 75-300 seemed to be sharper throughout.
This went against everything I thought would be true. My world is shaken. I reread the reviews I looked at. I looked at the images posted from the camera. THEY were sharp. Then I relooked at my images. Consistantly the images at the lower range were sharper. So I scratched my head and tried to figure out if maybe it was user error. The truth is, a couple of images were not so bad at the longer range.
I ticked through the sentient facts:
1. I know my camera and how to take good pictures with it.
2. I had a new lens, but it had no tripod mount. I had to mount my camera body, maybe causing some wobble.
3. I was using a light tripod.
4. Low light and high ISO to compensate
Perhaps....Naw, that could not be the case. It had to be the lens. I could not be the issue.
Well, after a heavy lunch, of lamb shanks and Baklava, thanks to the local Greek Festival, I was not going any where. I needed to sit down and digest! Not being a football fan (the the Pats rule!), setup shop in the backyard to try again. I used my studio tripod for stability and waited.
After a while, some LBJs came by and picked at the bird feeder. Here are the best of what I got over the weekend.
Now, you can comment on my picture composition all you want. But, I really want to know what you think of the IQ, Color Aborrition, Noise, Bokeh, and so forth.
Thanks olc