Photoclubalpha

got the lens last week on the strength of davids review, the weather has been abysmal since i got it and i don,t want to try it outside in the rain until i see how it is, was playing around with it last night and my grandson had left a couple of his toys out, so i took this pic, with a bit of off camera flash, the lens is rapid and accurate focus and seems to be very sharp, i,m sure i will not regret buying this lens, thanks david for the review i was going for the tamron till i read it

Congratulations with your new optics! Same here: bought it recently and used it a lot during a shoot in the city of Haarlem (Netherlands). It's wonderful! Making the decision to buy it took some time, but was easier thanks to the user reviews on this forum. To all of you: thanks so much!

Peter

Congratulations. Let's wait for some real beautiful photos, you're used to post.

The first 70-200 shots will go public on my redbubbel site. But there are several of them online already. See them at www.peterschrijftmetlicht.nl/haarlem (50 pics, divided over 5 pages). A few of these series have been taken with the 70-200mm. All files have a name/tag which is visibl in the lower left. Take a look at these:

Haarlem – abstract muur 01’ to nr. ‘09’ (first page)
cat, heron and swan (fourth page)
last 9 shots of the series (fifth page)

Let me know what you opinion is on these...

Best,
Peter

Beautiful shots, Peter. I like the simplicity in those shots, plain uninteresting subjects transformed to powerful items in your shots. Bravo!

A few of mine...
Sony A200 with Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM II at a distance of about 12 meters...


ISO 1600, focal length 200mm, 1/30sec, F/2.8


ISO 1600, focal length 150mm, 1/60sec, F/2.8


ISO 1600, focal length 135mm, 1/250sec, F/2.8

Yep, this is where I bought it for...

Hi coen van dijk,

The shots of the female singer are truely good. I like the sharpness and amount of detail showing from the patterns on her blouse. You captured nice poses and moods in her singing...like the graceful gestures of her fingers in the middle photo.

I downloaded the photo to see the exif data but there's none embedded.

Could you share the ISO and aparture settings with us please ? How fast did the lens and the camera react to the amount of available light in that space ?

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

Hi Yildiz,

Edited my message with the info. The singer is Dana Fuchs and her band. The man is Jon Diamond, he plays with Dana... You can go to http://www.youtube.com, search on "Dana Fuchs live in nyc" and play the Live in NYC from Almack... It is the whole concert brought out on DVD and CD...

Lightning was bad at times, just a few days earlier I was at another concert of her and the Tamron 55-200 just was not fast enough sometimes. The light was beter with the Tamron then when I used the Sigma... so, I gained not a lot to stop the action and get sharp results.

Focus was okee, but if it looses and you have to travel the whole focus path... then you miss a focus limiter.

Tonight I was at a concert of Beth Hart in The Hague. Not that much keepers now... But I'm going for the music in the first place... and yes Beth was great... as was Dana back in September.

Thank you Coen van dijk,

The new info in your post helps understand the photos.

Yildiz

Here 2 links of fullsize jpg's straight out of my Sony A200, shot at a distance of 12 meters...

Here a known one...
ISO 1600, focal length 200mm, 1/30sec, F/2.8
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5462/dsc02705ou.jpg

A new one:
ISO 1600, focal lenght 200mm, 1/80sec, F/2.8
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/2940/dsc02688h.jpg

How good is my copy of Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM II ?

Thanks in advance especially if you think it's no good...

coen

Hi Coen,

I don't see much wrong with these given the circumstances. Your shutter speeds are low, the lens is wide open (and the Sigma is soft wide open, I have one myself) and you're at the top end of your camera's ISO - you won't get the same results as on a sunny day with good light. I wouldn't worry too much about the pixel peeping.

Here's a shot I took the other day:

A700 + Sigma 70-200/2.8 HSM II @ 200m, ISO800, 1/125s, f/3.5

Black cat is always a good subject for lens performance. Nice one.
Nevertheless, you will not persuade me in buying one.

The lens, or the cat?

The cat was borrowed, the lens is mine.

Dr. Harout wrote:Nevertheless, you will not persuade me in buying one.

redsim74 wrote:The lens, or the cat?

The cat was borrowed, the lens is mine.

Dr. Harout wrote:Nevertheless, you will not persuade me in buying one.

The cat of course, and you thought I was referring to the lens
gotcha