Originally posted by jpzk
Happy to move my thread over here to post some comparison pics.
Background; I shot fixed focus targets first and hated the results. No way I could make a buy decision from the charts so I dumped them and lined up my
- sigma 500/4.5,
- da*300 + HD 1.4x TC
- D FA150-450mm with and w/o the HD 1.4x TC
These pics were selected from about 100 as most representing how each of the above combos could shoot a blackbird. Tried to keep focus on the head while showing light on feathers for detail. Tripod mounts only, Tav mode at 500-800 to keep motion blur down, iso a little high due to shadows but the results fall in line. I have other subjects to post later with closeups and using the full 150-450 range. Hope this is helpful.
The Sigma 500 and da*300+TC were only shot at f8, the 150-450 was all f6.3 except for a single wide-open (f5.6) shot that I feel really demonstrates a strength of this lens; its sharp wide open at 450mm.
Pics are jpg, totally unprocessed except for the pixel-peeping 100% crops. Most all jpg options were turned off (lens correction, AWB, SR).
NOTE; pic names indicate as follows...420xxxx is the da*300+1.4x TC, 450xxxx is the D FA150-450 at 450mm, 500xxxx is the Sigma 500/4.5 and 640xxxx is the D FA glass with the HD 1.4x TC (it focuses quite smoothly as a comb although the IQ suffers). Second post will include remainder of the blackbird batch.
Last edited by imtheguy; 05-07-2015 at 02:10 PM.