Sigma 80-400 for Canon

ginger_55 · January 30, 2005

This is priced on BH at 999.00. Sigma zoom telephoto 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 ex APO OS autofocus lens for Canon EOS.

New? Isn't this what I have been looking for, kind of? Has anyone heard of it?

ginger

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=263440&is=REG

marlinspike · January 30, 2005

I know Popular Photography and Imagining did a review of it a little while ago (it's probably on popphoto.com). I've head the OS isn't quite as good as the latest generation of IS, close, but not quite as good.
Richard

fish · January 30, 2005

wow. about the same weight as the 100-400L. you should buy it and tell us how it works.

marlinspike · January 30, 2005

Here's a link to the .pdf of the pop photo review. They seem to like it. Though if you look at their review of this and their review of the 100-400, it seems the IS is better than OS.

http://www.popphoto.com/assets/download/PP09.LensTestSigma.pdf

and for the 100-400 (not a pdf)
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=275

Richard

ginger_55 · January 30, 2005

marlinspike wrote:

Here's a link to the .pdf of the pop photo review. They seem to like it. Though if you look at their review of this and their review of the 100-400, it seems the IS is better than OS.

http://www.popphoto.com/assets/download/PP09.LensTestSigma.pdf

and for the 100-400 (not a pdf)
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=275

Richard

Thanks for finding those links for me. I just printed out the one on the Sigma. It is cheaper.............and that is a big deal for me. That was why I backed out before, I was getting way over my head. This is as high as I could afford. In fact, it looked like it was put on BH tonight just for me to think about.

So I will think about it. Anyone have any experience with it, let me know. I went to depriew. I even asked the Canon lens forum, they never answer me. And that is not true. Someone usually comes along at some point and answers me. One thing, it is not being talked about.

As I said, it looked like it was put there just for me. If it had said 1001.00, I would have ignored it, smile.

I imagine the 20D will ship tomorrow. I had to call to verify the credit card info and the phone number and stuff. That was difficult. (We only use cells, and he kept mentioning a number neither Bill nor I recognized. Finally, I figured out that it is the line coming into the house that hasn't worked for 6 months. We fixed it. Got the OK, he said they would ship it. I called back and made him e-mail me that everything was straightened out.)

I am getting excited. This waiting is difficult.

g

rutt · January 30, 2005

I found this on ebay. I love my 70-200 and I think you would love one, too. If you are going to get deeply into birds, you'll like the extra mms. But from what I've seen of your work, you'll prefer the extra f stops.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4687&item=3869614025&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

marlinspike · January 30, 2005

deltainternational has it for 953. I've never bought from them, but IIRC they do well on resellerratings.com
Richard

marlinspike · January 30, 2005

rutt wrote:

I found this on ebay. I love my 70-200 and I think you would love one, too. If you are going to get deeply into birds, you'll like the extra mms. But from what I've seen of your work, you'll prefer the extra f stops.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4687&item=3869614025&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

That's pretty good, but if you forget about the rebate (it ends tomorrow, and apparently canon only deems certain stores good enough to get the rebate), you can get an imported lens from digitalfotoclub for 1049 and bh for 1059.
Richard

Andy · January 30, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

....I went to depriew. I even asked the Canon lens forum, they never answer me.

g

take a look again, ginger dear

blackwaterstudio · January 30, 2005

I would look into the 50-500, its cheaper and takes some great shots.

Something else you might want to check into is the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and slap a 1.4tc on it.

marlinspike · January 30, 2005

JDS, I wonder about the Bigma not having OS, how fun it would be to handhold. Also, every time someone recommends a sigma 70-200 I say this: try as they did, Sigma could not get mine to work on my dreb. They replaced the flex board once, did nothing and sent it back to me once, and gave me a whole new lens once. Everytime I had unacceptable front focus up close and HUGE back focus far away. That having been said, the guy who sold it to me said it worked fine on his 20D and the guy I sold it to said it worked fine on his 1D. I wish it had worked for me because it was insanely sharp.
richard

blackwaterstudio · January 30, 2005

marlinspike wrote:

JDS, I wonder about the Bigma not having OS, how fun it would be to handhold. Also, every time someone recommends a sigma 70-200 I say this: try as they did, Sigma could not get mine to work on my dreb. They replaced the flex board once, did nothing and sent it back to me once, and gave me a whole new lens once. Everytime I had unacceptable front focus up close and HUGE back focus far away. That having been said, the guy who sold it to me said it worked fine on his 20D and the guy I sold it to said it worked fine on his 1D. I wish it had worked for me because it was insanely sharp.
richard

Bigma would not be fun to hand hold just like the 80-400 wouldn't be fun to hand hold either.

As for it not working right on the DR I'm not sure about that, might want to do some checking around, I haven't heard of any problems with that lens.

ginger_55 · January 31, 2005

Up at FM, one person says it would not work in sports (dogs/birds to me) as the AF is slow. Everyone agrees that the AF is a problem.

That would be a problem for me, in fact, speed is the reason I am getting the 20D, so getting a lens to slow it down makes no sense.

But I have to be getting a lens for less that 1000.00 that shoots long. I am used to long. My 75-300 might not be good, but it is 300, and my lens that goes to 128 is good, so 200 makes no sense to me.

That leaves me with no lens again. But no lens is better than a bad lens. I already have that.

However, I am not going to spend 1000.00 to get another 300, not unless it is the best 300 in the world, so I can't see putting an extension on the 70-200
f4 or whatever.

ginger:cry (Thanks for answering me, Andy.)

Rutt, you are right on the photos you like of mine, the 70-200 would be good, but this is for a different purpose.

ginger_55 · January 31, 2005

Canon 400 Prime?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=12129&is=USA

What about Canon's 400 prime. It is not as heavy. Someone said earlier that it was very sharp. I said I would fall off the dock, but I could try it. Mine now is 4-5.6 and about the same weight, I think.

ginger

Ric Grupe · January 31, 2005

No USM...

ginger_55 wrote:

This is priced on BH at 999.00. Sigma zoom telephoto 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 ex APO OS autofocus lens for Canon EOS.

New? Isn't this what I have been looking for, kind of? Has anyone heard of it?

ginger

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=263440&is=REG

...loud slow AF. IS not as good as Canon's. I looked at this one and decided to take a pass.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=4301

DoctorIt · January 31, 2005

how bout a much better sigma lens:

Sigma 100-300mm f/4

I had a chance to play with this lens this weekend. It was on a D1h, but I imagine that doesn't make too much difference. Focus is fast and quiet, I'd say very close to the 70-200L f/2.8 I played with last weekend. Gus also posted a thread recently about 300mm lenses. This lens was in there, and the samples looked great, not at all soft on the long end. If you are shooting outdoors, f/4 is totally OK. For the money, this is an AWESOME lens.

I'm always weary of anything that has too much of a zoom range. 80-400 is tooo much. Put a 1.4x tc on the 100-300 and you have big glass.

Michiel de Brieder · February 1, 2005

Ginger,

I'm in the same boat, I'm deciding between the Canon 100-400 IS the Sigma 50-500 and the Sigma 80-400.... It's a very tough choice, I'm hoping that I can get my hands on them soon to make a comparison myself (I know a good dealer that has them all in stock) I'll let you know my findings if you haven't decided by then

The Canon is way back on the list because of the cost :cry but it is still there if the difference is worth the cost...

Cheers

davev · February 4, 2005

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

Ginger,

I'm in the same boat, I'm deciding between the Canon 100-400 IS the Sigma 50-500 and the Sigma 80-400.... It's a very tough choice, I'm hoping that I can get my hands on them soon to make a comparison myself (I know a good dealer that has them all in stock) I'll let you know my findings if you haven't decided by then The Canon is way back on the list because of the cost :cry but it is still there if the difference is worth the cost...

Cheers

Michiel and Ginger,

I have been flip flopping over these 3 lenses since I bought the D Reb.
The canon was just to much money for a hobbyist, the 50-500 doesn't
have I.S., but it is 500mm, or the 80-400.

Well, I just ordered the 80-400 from B&H. I should have it in the middle
of next week. I'll be using it on a D Rebel so Ginger, you should be able
to cut the shutter speed in half by using it on the D20. (cause of the higher
ISO's being so noise free ) I normally try to shoot longer lenses at ISO 400.

After I get the lens, I will get out and shoot the heck out it, and post some
pics in this thread. I will probably go to my old haunts ie. the zoo and
conservatory, down by the river and so on. I'll also put some full sized
photo's on my pbase site.

So if you can wait another week, I can post some real world pics for you.

dave.

DoctorIt · February 4, 2005

davev wrote:

Michiel and Ginger,

I have been flip flopping over these 3 lenses since I bought the D Reb.
The canon was just to much money for a hobbyist, the 50-500 doesn't
have I.S., but it is 500mm, or the 80-400.

Well, I just ordered the 80-400 from B&H. I should have it in the middle
of next week. I'll be using it on a D Rebel so Ginger, you should be able
to cut the shutter speed in half by using it on the D20. (cause of the higher
ISO's being so noise free ) I normally try to shoot longer lenses at ISO 400.

After I get the lens, I will get out and shoot the heck out it, and post some
pics in this thread. I will probably go to my old haunts ie. the zoo and
conservatory, down by the river and so on. I'll also put some full sized
photo's on my pbase site.

So if you can wait another week, I can post some real world pics for you.

dave.

looking forward to your review of this one. just curious though, did you consider the 100-300mm f/4 (maybe with a 1.4x TC)? I keep leaning toward this lens because of the reviews and fixed aperture always seems like the way to go. With the 1.4 you have a 420mm lens at f/5.6.

davev · February 10, 2005

I have the Sigma 80-400 now.
Got the lens today from from B & H.
Once again, a crummy day to take pics, gray sky, overcast.

I took 50 pics, most good, (focused correctly) some bad, (and this may be
my fault). It was cold and windy.

all pics hand held, these are the full frame, no crop, but I did use usm. I'm
going on all of my pics, so why not these. All pics at F5.6. At F8.0, they
are much sharper. They may be sharper at f6.3 or f7.1, but I didn't
try that yet.

If I have time I'll post more later.

These pics are 100% crops of a page taped to the wall.
I was about 10 feet from it. The f5.6 was at 1/100 of a second.
The f8.0 was at 1/50 of a second. Both hand held, OS mode 1.
400mm. Focus point on the word "horses"

davev · February 10, 2005

The size of the lens
Here is the Sigma 80-400, Canon 70-200L f4, and Canon 75-300is side by side.
Wide angle, and at full telephoto.

Some of the differences will be tough to learn.
Canon, to zoom, turn counter clockwise
Sigma, to zoom, turn clockwise

Canon, the zoom is closer to the camera. (than the focus ring)
Sigma, the zoom is the away from the camera.

Some side notes. The lens is heavy. I'm a good sized guy, and I can handle
it OK. A smaller person, (male or female) may have a tough time because
of the weight and the dia. of the lens. In the post above, I was able to
hand hold a pic at 1/50 of a second. When I tried doing that, pointing the
camera up into the air, the results weren't as good. (the weight shows then)

Is the focusing slow? It was today, in sunlight it may be better. The slow
focus really doesn't bother me. For what I'm going to shoot, it should make
no difference.

I'm hoping to get out tomorrow. Hopefully the sun will be out.

Sigma 80-400 for Canon

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