[stormtech]

Hi, i haven't had time to go out and look for wildlife but i did shoot the moon tonight, this time with the Fa* 300 f4.5 at f8.0. I LOVE the reach!
End of Earth Moon - 21.12.12 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Impressive detail in that shot!

[crewl1]

+1 great shot mgbirder!

[barondla]

Super moon shot mgbirder. Now you are hooked on the Q. Pure fun.
thanks
barondla

[mgbirder]

Thanks Stan, Larry and Barondla, your right im hooked ;-)

[ChopperCharles]

Not so much reach... but my 100mm f3.5 macro is now a 558mm f3.5 macro, and I managed to snag this lovely shot of the grooves of a 45rmp record.



Had to desaturate the green in front of the focal zone and the purple after it, but left a little in because it looked too plain without any color at all. Almost no sharpening in post (just a very teensy bit, and it wasn't really needed). Some contrast, and a bit of cropping to bring more attention to the in-focus area. Not sure, but I think the red is the reflection from the Christmas tree lights in the room. Either that, or there is red in the vinyl that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Promaster AF 100mm f3.5 macro with 1:1 adapter, 1/13 second, ISO 250, f3.5 (wide open), hotshoe mounted Sigma EF610 flash, aimed into the clear plastic turntable cover (which spread the light nicely). -2.0 flash compensation.

Charles.

[crewl1]

Very cool shot Charles. Impressive closeup detail there. (If I flip it upside down it reads 'Paul is dead')

[baro-nite]

i did shoot the moon tonight, this time with the Fa* 300 f4.5 at f8.0. I LOVE the reach!

Brilliant! Curious about f/8, which should be well into diffraction-softening territory -- did you try at larger apertures?

[mgbirder]

Brilliant! Curious about f/8, which should be well into diffraction-softening territory -- did you try at larger apertures?

Hi i did, but not with he same camera settings... , i used f5.6 and JPEG without remote control earlier that day and found that the pictures lacked crispness, so i changed the tripod, tripod head, set camera to RAW, and used a remote control instead of the 12 second timer... any comparison would not be conclusive ...

[crewl1]

I had a chance to spend a little time with the new Bigma and the Q yesterday, and brought my K-5 with me as well to see how a cropped image compares to the Q output.

The Bigma and K-5 combo is really good, this lens is a real improvement from what (I recall) I could get from my previous 170-500 Sigma.
Of the Sigma consumer 500mm zooms, this does appear to be the best formula.

To be able to get best image from the Bigma on the K-5, at the long end I found it needs to be dialed in between f8-f11, and kept a little under max extension.
The image samples here were shot at around 450-475mm.

On the Q the lens starts to perform OK once you dial it down to setting '1' on the adapter, which I believe would be f8 at the long end.
At '0' wide open, close inspections of the images show softness and more purple fringing, which goes away as you dial it down.

I didnt have a whole lot of time to try things out but here is a typical sample for comparison.

Q + Bigma no crop, slight PP for clarity and sharpen


K-5 + Bigma crop needed for approx similar size result



The crop needed seems in line with the sensor size diagrams I've seen.
As stated by others the Q really puts a lens to the test, and due to the Bigma's sweet spot at f8-f11 it will require attention and some PP to find the balance between sweet spot and diffraction, but it can be used successfully .

The K-5 + Bigma is an excellent combo that does hold up under extreme cropping very well.
My initial inclination is that the Bigma will be more useful on a monopod where I can take advantage of its OS and HSM AF for non stationary subjects.

One more from the Q + Bigma


Here's a quick video with the Bigma on the Q, had to zoom out to fit the GBH, and even then it kept stretching out of frame.

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[stormtech]

I had a chance to spend a little time with the new Bigma and the Q yesterday, and brought my K-5 with me as well to see how a cropped image compares to the Q output.

Nice testing series.

I also used to own the Sigma 170-500 with good results in good light and stopped down/zoomed out just a bit - nice to hear your comparison of the new Bigma. I see you already have found the sweet spot for shooting your new lens.

I found your screen shot of the crop screen pretty neat - showing just how much more magnification the Q gives us.

The Bigma images on the Q look very good - again finding the sweet spot seems to be key.

And as far as the extensive crop of the Bigma on the K-5 - I'm surprised at how well the image held together with that much crop with that lens.

[mgbirder]

Thanks for the info on the Sigma Zooms, i have a Bigmos (150-500 HSM OS) as my birding lens, will try it out as soon as i get the right adapter from Fotodiox, using it at full aperture by taping the aperture lever does not seem a good idea since the sweetspot on that lens is also f8. Happy Holidays!!

[crewl1]

And as far as the extensive crop of the Bigma on the K-5 - I'm surprised at how well the image held together with that much crop with that lens.

I was pleasantly surprised as well. When I can't set up the tripod for Q long shots I'm happy that crops from the K-5+Bigma will be just fine. Enjoy the Holidays!

Thanks for the info on the Sigma Zooms, i have a Bigmos (150-500 HSM OS) as my birding lens, will try it out as soon as i get the right adapter from Fotodiox, using it at full aperture by taping the aperture lever does not seem a good idea since the sweetspot on that lens is also f8. Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays MGBirder! I look forward to your shots with the Bigmos.

[NeilGratton]

Not as impressive as mgbirder's shot from the 300mm ... this was taken on my Q10 last night with an old M42-fit Jupiter 39A 135mm f/3.5 hand-held at f/4 and 1/1600s. Cropping made the whole image below 1200 x 900 at 100%. Unfortunately there was a little haze, but not too bad.




Sharpening has been applied.

When I've some time to play I'll try it again with my M42 2x extender (quality not great but worth a go), the tripod, and a little more time getting the focus right. And maybe trying to time it for a half-moon to get more detail in the craters.

[baro-nite]

Yet another shot of my pal "George", this one from around 30' (9m) and mildly cropped. My brief test from this session suggests around f/5.6 as the best aperture for the DA* 60-250 on the Q.

[crewl1]

Nice shot of George baro-nite. Seems like f5.6 is the best aperture for a lot of lenses on the Q.
WOuld love to see a tele that reports 2.8 to be the best. Maybe only the 06 lens