8×10Gallery.com

Archive for November 24th, 2008

While I didn’t give the new lens as complete a workout as I would have liked, I did manage to get plenty of images and my first time out with the Sigma 18-200mm lens has left a big smile on my face. The versatility of the lens is wonderful. As I was sitting on the beach I could take a photograph of Donna who was sitting next to me, fill the frame with the lighthouse that was a few dozens yards behind us, and zoom in on a sailboat out in the distance. I also had quite a bit of fun zooming in on the little birds as they toyed with the waves and then moving quickly to grab a pelican flying overhead.

Even though it was the first time out I’m very happy with the way the lens performs. The zoom ring turns easily, the AF is responsive even though the camera does make a gear turning “whir” noise the same as my Sigma 105mm, and the color seem rich and well balanced. I was able to get some phenomenal blue skies, clear whites and good contrast with shells and sand.

Some comments I’ve read have stated the focus seems soft, but from the shots I took the sharpness seems perfectly reasonable and there was plenty of detail in all the shots I took.

I really want to see how the OS was going to work for me and I ended up taking several sunset shots which I am quite pleased with. However, the shots were taken while I was on a Ferry and there was noticeable vibration from the engines themselves and from the waves. Suffice it to say I wasn’t in the most ideal conditions and having the ground shake isn’t quite fair to the abilities of OS. That being said, I still managed to get quite a few sunset shots from the Ferry and the color and focus looks very pleasing.

As I mentioned the lens itself is not an HMS model so there is some noise as the lens focuses, but just like my other Sigma, I had no issue with it, and can only see it being an issue in an extremely quiet location such as a church, when you would want to use manual focus.

A couple of times I found my hands in the wrong place as the lens tried to focus. The zoom and focus rings are back to back so I had my hand on the wrong ring. It’s not an issue, just something to remember, especially when the lens is at the 200mm length it’s easy to rest your palm on the focus ring.

So far, I like the lens – A Lot! It’s very versatile, the focus is quick and I’m looking forward to many more outings with it.

Click here to see the full gallery of Wilmington Beach.

For larger images you can check out my Webshots gallery