Too much money now LOL

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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Not really but enough to make my previous questions outdated,i had intended to spend up to £200 on a 55-300 zoom via ebay but thought of a way to go to £300,my wife has just been to visit her mother who has sent me £300 towards a lens,so now ime looking in the £600 range obviously ime so close to a couple of lenses i like the sound of to find the extra few pounds.
The two i fancy are the sigma 120-400 and the 150-500,the 500 sounds a better bet for wild life but only if its as good at 500 as the other is at 400,i managed with the 135-400 so could work with the first one,dont want to get it wrong so any thoughts would be appreciated been on pixel peeper and have to admit they both look to be as capable as each other.

mike
 
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kirbfucius

Senior Member
I'm not really sure what exactly you are asking, but that probably has something to do with the format of your post.

So you have £600 to spend on a lens, you currently own the D5100, and you're in the market for a telezoom lens. From your other post, it appears that you own the Sigma 135-400mm manual focus lens. The biggest issue I've found with long zoom lenses is that they tend to get pretty soft at the extremes. The Sigma 150-500mm is definitely soft on the long end as seen in this review. The 120-400mm suffers the same; it is soft at 400mm. I'm fairly certain this can be said of pretty much any zoom lens, though. It's a tradeoff.

That being said, you can definitely learn to work within the sharper ranges. Putting the 150-500mm at about 400mm and f/8 should get sharp shots assuming there is available light.
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
kirbfucius said:
I'm not really sure what exactly you are asking, but that probably has something to do with the format of your post.

So you have £600 to spend on a lens, you currently own the D5100, and you're in the market for a telezoom lens. From your other post, it appears that you own the Sigma 135-400mm manual focus lens. The biggest issue I've found with long zoom lenses is that they tend to get pretty soft at the extremes. The Sigma 150-500mm is definitely soft on the long end as seen in this review. The 120-400mm suffers the same; it is soft at 400mm. I'm fairly certain this can be said of pretty much any zoom lens, though. It's a tradeoff.

That being said, you can definitely learn to work within the sharper ranges. Putting the 150-500mm at about 400mm and f/8 should get sharp shots assuming there is available light.
Click to expand...

Yes i think you summed my question up and thanks for taking the time to work it out,have looked at the report you linked to and it does give food for thought if i want to go down this rout the 150-500 sounds the best.

mike
 
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kirbfucius

Senior Member
You mean will it autofocus at f/6.3? It should; there is no reason for it not to. It will just appear soft at 500mm and open to f/6.3, but it should be in focus unless you get a bad lens. For the sake of sharpness I would aim for f/8 and raise the ISO when you can.
 
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kirbfucius

Senior Member
​I thought about that AF-s 300m f/4 with the teleconverter, but wouldn't cost be an issue? I did see one on eBay UK for £619 with minor scratch in the front lens. The minor scratch wouldn't likely cause any visual issues in photos, but it's technically there and hurts resale too. All the others were more.
 
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pedroj

Senior Member
kirbfucius said:
​I thought about that AF-s 300m f/4 with the teleconverter, but wouldn't cost be an issue? I did see one on eBay UK for £619 with minor scratch in the front lens. The minor scratch wouldn't likely cause any visual issues in photos, but it's technically there and hurts resale too. All the others were more.
Click to expand...

I have the the older AF model that would auto focus on your D7000, Have a look at one of them..Link below to a few shots in my Gallery...Surfing Shots..

Saltwater Surfing - Nikonites Gallery
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Just want to say a big thank you to members who took the time to enter into the discussion on my lens threads and give me the benefit of there knowledge,have just spoken to my local camera shop and he has offered me the 150-500 @ £750 and the 120-400 @ £639 so going in this week to have a feel and play,i did ask about the 70-200 2.8 but he wants £900 for that and i would still need a converter eventually for hide work so that one is out.

mike
 
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kirbfucius

Senior Member
£750 on the Sigma isn't a bad price, especially if you're keeping it for a long time. I'd get it over the 120-400 since it's still sharp to 400 where the 120-400 wouldn't be.
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Been to the shop today to try the lenses,a decision has been made although no purchase until Friday i will only have the 18-55 and the new lens so will need to be able to use it as a walk around general purpose lens, the 120-400 i find the easiest to use,my tests today where made at 300mm which if i can hand hold at that i will be happy.
Tested both lenses at 300mm iso 100 on a dull day and got consistently sharp images on the 120-400 but not the 150-500 i put this down to weight and length of the lenses,i dont dispute the longer one will be sharper at 400mm but ime looking for a 70-300 alternative that can be used longer on odd occasions and i know i can do feeding station work with a 400,i will never use it for wild life stalking so the extra 100mm wont in my mind give me any advantage.
Wish i had the money to buy some glass for my D70 he had some early nice second had ones in for that.
mike
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Bought the 120-400 only got a few snaps from the front door but it looks promising

400mm
iso 200
1/80th @F8
Hand held
DSC_0080-copy.jpg
 
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