Help with New Lens..

[Tony G]

Hi all. I am after getting a new lens to capture shots from different angles at KSA and other airports when I travel. At the moment I have the Canon F2.8L 70-200mm Lens. I was looking about the 400mm range. I went all out when I bought the canon lens and would find it hard to afford a long range Canon lens. Does anyone use Sigma lenses. I notice they are quite a bit cheaper and have various ranges eg 50-500mm, 120-500 and 150-500 if my memory serves me right.

If anyone uses these, how do you find its uses for aviation at the maximum zoom. I read the images can become quite blury when shooting wildlife at 500mm. Any help will be much appreciated on the Sigmas or any other ideas.

[Tim Bowrey]

Hey Tony Iv got a 50-500 and yeah the photos do tend to be a little undersharp at distance but if the target is close and moving slowly and you have the correct shutter speed you will be fine. Photoshop can pretty much fix the sharpness but the blurryness isnt too much of an issue if you have a reletivly steady hand and you dont shake like Ozzy Osbourne and also some decent light. Hope that kinda helps

[NickN]

I found the vignetting on the 50-500 to be a pain. The major reason I sold mine.

I'll be going for the 120-400 instead.

[Matt_L]

Hi Tony,

I recently got the 100-400 f/5.6 L Canon lense and 50D and I can't recommend both products enough. Put simply they are fantastic!

I managed to get the 100-400 down to 1900 with a 3 year warranty at Paxtons so just pm me and I will give you store details etc if your interested.

When your spending say 1500-1600 on a Sigma might as well go the extra few hundred for the Canon L lense in my opinion and get the quality and clarity it provides.

Even in marginal light the shooting is excellent and understandably the 70-200 is limiting.

Good luck!

[NickN]

The 50-500 is now over $2000 and the 120-400 is now around $1300.

Have Canon raised their prices since your purchase?

That still means $600 difference between the Sigma 120-400 and the Canon 100-400 which is quite considerable.

[damien b]

Hi,

I also use a Cannon 50D and the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens combination and i couldn't recommend it enough. Wildlife and aircraft images at 400mm have all turned out excellent (unless i have stuffed up as i tried various settings).

The lens is around $2200 at present, which is only $200 more than the Sigma 50-500 lens so is well worth it. You may find some good lens reviews on various web sites that can help. I was leaning towards the 50-500 initially but went with the Cannon lens due to reports that i had read. Unfortunatley, i didn't read many reports on the Sigma 120-400 lens.

They are heavy lenses however and take up a bit of room in the camera bag.

Best of luck in your hunting.