Sigma 70-300 APO + Nikon F80 + TC

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Camera Equipment : One Thread

I have a Nikon F 80 and a Sigma 70-300 APO Macro Super Zoom Lens, which I found a little inadequate for bird photography. I am planning to go for a Sigma 2X or 1.4X APO Teleconverter. Does anyone have any idea about how does this set work, and also any comments on hand-held photography?

-- Dipankar Ghose (dipankarghose@rediffmail.com), February 16, 2002

Answers

Dipankar, Most people will tell you that teleconverters don't work very well with zoom lenses. The performance of a teleconverter depends partly on it's quality, but mostly on the quality of the lens. And while the Sigma 70-300 is a good lens, it's not a mega- expensive pro-quality lens and it's also a zoom which are never as good as primes. Also the maximum aperture of the 70-300 is pretty small, and with the 1 or 2 stops of light lost with 1.4 and 2x converters you'd have problems. I would say go far another option- maybe a Sigma 400 or 500mmm lens which can be bought 2nd hand fairly cheaply. As for hand-held shots, I think that with small, leightweight lenses you can do some flight shots with fast shutter speeds, but for perching birds you really need some sort of support. If you absolutely don't want to use tripods, then you should at least try to brace the camera and lens on a rock, branch or whatever. The rule for handheld shot is use a shutter speed 1/focal length of lens, so 1/300th second or faster for a 300mm lens, but you'll still not get shots as sharp as with a tripod.

Happy birding, Steve

-- Steve Phillipps (steve@redvixen.freeserve.co.uk), February 17, 2002.


Forget about autofocus with this combo.

-- Chuck fan (chuckfan_@hotmail.com), February 20, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ