Any comments on these lenses? I have an Elan IIE and wanted to buy a super zoom. The Canon 100-400 L lens is out of the range that I'm willing to pay. Thanks in advance for all of your input.

Rob

-- Rob (rlpatrick_2000@yahoo.com), November 19, 2001

Answers

I can't speak to the 135-400 but I have the 170-500 and use it with an Elan IIe and EOS-3 without any problems. The performance is very good when you consider it only costs US$609 at B&H.

If I were looking for an xx-400 zoom I would have selected the Canon but I wanted something longer and Canon doesn't offer anything.

The following images were all taken with the 170-500 (at various focal lengths), the last 3 with a 1.4 TC attached. Some of the hydroplane images are a little soft but that was the first time I had shot them and it was a learning experience for me. The softness is my problem, not the lens.

Hydro 1

Hydro 2

Hydro 3

Hydro 4

Hydro 5

Hydro 6

Hydro 7

Bear

Bird

Bird

Prairie Dog

Giraffe< p> Zebra

Only you can decide if it meets your needs. Dick

-- Dick Tope (RTope@yahoo.com), November 19, 2001.

The Sigma 170-500 is available at Focus Camera & Video for $478.99

-- Rob (rlpatrick_2000@yahoo.com), November 20, 2001.

Check here (http://www.photo.net/neighbor/one-subcategory?id=2) before deciding on Focus. It appears that they have mixed reviews, although not all that bad.

Also, determine beforehand what the shipping/handling/insurance charges are - they are part of the purchase price even though they may not be part of the product price.

-- Dick Tope (RTope@yahoo.com), November 20, 2001.

Thanks, Dick.

Boy, that photo.net site needs to be condensed. But the information appears very helpful. Thanks for the links to your pics. I would be very satisfied to take pics that look like yours. Not looking to earn a living with my camera.

Rob

-- Rob (rlpatrick_2000@yahoo.com), November 20, 2001.

hey, nice pictures of the birds. is the sigma non-hsm really fast enough for that or was it the eos-3s high precision focusing that is responsible for those sharp pictures?

-- jeff nakayama (moonduck22@hotmail.com), November 20, 2001.

Rob,

One of the best things about photo.net is the fact that it's not condensed. The section you were looking at is like a real time chronology of events. Spend a rainy weekend browsing around the site, there is a tremendous amount of information there.

Jeff,

Obviously the lens is capable of taking decent images. The EOS 3 high precision AF I believe only kicks in at f2.8 and faster, althought it's normal AF is very good.

I grabbed those seagull images while I was out shooting something else and wanted to see if the lens was able to focus track adequately. Neither the scans themselves or the images are particularly noteworthy. In fact, I only scanned them because someone else asked much the same question.

-- Dick Tope (RTope@yahoo.com), November 21, 2001.