Graceland

Looking at a new lens for the Canon

At the moment I have a Canon USM 55-200, Tamron 70-300, and the Canon "Kit lens" 18-55.

I have had very poor results with the Tamron when photographing fast moving objects, but some very good results with the Canon 55-200.

My budget won't allow me to spunk nearly £700 on the Canon Lens I want, so I have been looking at the Sigma range.

I have been offered a Sigma 55-500 telephoto F4-6.3 lens with HSM technology for very good money But I have never had any experience with Sigma products.

Now, with the issues I had with the tamrom being a bit slow for my liking, and the Canon being fast enough due to the USM lens, I need to find out if the HSM technology lives upto the hype in the real world - as attempting to photograph a car at over 100mph is a bit difficult with a shit slow lens as you will all know

Any views on the Sigma range of Len's would be appreciated -Tiff

89xr2

I've got a 12-24mm HSM Sigma lens that I use. I find it fast enough for what I want. I mainly photograph bmx'ing, skateboarding etc. and it's more than capable of handling big photo sequences, 10, 20 pictures etc. I shouldnt think it would have trouble with motorsport. You'll need to use a tripod though for anything over 300mm. I used to have a 175-500mm Sigma lens for my EOS 5 way back when you had to pay to develop pictures! I ended up using it pretty much all the time on a tripod. Personally i'd say get the canon IS 100-400mm L series lens. Yeah it is a grand but you can get it from warehouse express and pay for it monthly if the cost is that big a problem.. Awesome lens.. That;s what i'm getting next.

Graceland

I have a few tripods for all the gear I have already with other cameras and the like so thats no problem.

Warehouse express? Never heard of them? are they a decent place to deal with?

MikeR

Gracey Warehouse direct are very good, and reasonably cheap,

Mike

Muska

very good, one of the best.

I'd spend the extra if i were you, you'd hardly notice it over 12months and the difference with the pics is phenominal!

89xr2

www.warehouseexpress.com

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/prod...aspx?sku=12857

Actually based just up the road from me as well, which I never realised until a year or so ago.

Looking at that again im actually extremely tempted to buy it today .. haha

GARETH T

ive got a 70-200mm f2.8 sigma hsm and im really impressed by it!

Graceland

Details my good man - we need details

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Sorry to post-hijack, but is that a good lens for Trackdays? Or would I need 300mm focal length? or more?

What sort of money was that?

I assume by going to a different make affects compatibility of features, like auto focus etc?

89xr2

Not with sigma. In fact i dont think thats the case at all these days. All the Lenses that are Canon Specific should be fine with auto focus etc. You used to be able to get cheap lenses that only had manual focus for Canon cameras but that was about 10 years ago when I got my first camera..

If you buy an older second hand Sigma lens you could have problems with auto focus on New Digital Cameras. My old sigma lenses for my 35mm camera do not work with my digital one.

GARETH T

depends what track, but for the bigger tracks where you normally spectate further away, i think it would fall alittle short, but then i got a 135-400mm for that (sadly couldnt afford a f2.8 in that lol)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN:IT&ih=002

here's where i bought it from,,, bargin! will buy from him again!

GARETH T

i bought one of these yesterday aswell, to stick in the back of my bag!
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/219404

pa_sjo

You've specified the zoom range of each lens but not how fast it is, which is the more important factor.. If you want to do fast stuff, very well, either get a fast lens (eg f/2.8) or a slightly slower lens (eg f/4) but with VR or IS and hope it's good enough

The 70-200 f/2.8 lens gareth is talking about is about 450-500 from hong kong, about 600 i think from warehouse express.. it'll take the best shots you've ever done.. but 200 still isnt that much for some track stuff.. it's ok for full frame shots from about 20 metres or so.

frog

Maybe technique rather than tools is the answer there sir

A 100mph car isn't that fast if it's 200/300 yards up the road, it's really fast when it's only a few meters from you. Think about it, a plane flying at 500mph doesn't appear that fast in the sky because it's far far far away, however, a 40mph car a few feet from you is actually pretty fast

Unless you are having privileged track access, I would be surprised if you were that close to the car in question, particularly since you are after something around 300mm which is 450mm in real terms, and therefore quite a long lens.

So, technique, what most photographers do in this instance, is manually focus on an area where the car will be, kerb, tarmac, barrier, etc... and shoot when the car hits the "in focus" spot, rather than try and track it with auto-focus. This also enables you to be more creative with your framing, rather than have the car slap bang in the middle of the frame.

Lastly, autofocus in most cameras uses image contrast to focus, so if you are trying to focus on a plain colour panel, no amount of fast focussing motor will help. A lens with a max aperture of F5.6 may also not provide enough light for the autofocus to work fast enough (identifying contrast) in overcast conditions, again, nothing a HSM/SSM/USM motor can fix.

Hope this helps, maybe saving you a few £££s in the process

Paulo P

I'll try that at Brands for Time attack in a couple of weeks thanks I've got a sigma and I have been struggling with focusing on objects moving quickly.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Ive got a Canon 70-200mm F4 "L" That ive used to great effect Gracy...

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Prod...200mm_f4L_USM/

I also use the Canon 300mm IS.

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Prod..._USM/index.asp

I want to buy the 2.8 IS and if i decide too, i will be selling both of the above. Not that anyone would care, but i thought i would mention it. ROLFOL

GARETH T

but generally the cars all pass the same point, so just set your focus distance around there, dont try and keep them in focus over a long distance of movement (does that make sense?)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...2&id=514510579

some strange photos ive taken

Fast Guy

So how much can you afford then? More importantly what sort of lens do you want?

Anyway have a look here

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/cat5.html

And maybe try asking the same question here.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php?