3 more from my Sigma 150 Macro

DaddyO

3 photos I took while trying to get used to using the lens. I find it
surprisingly difficult to master this lens. Probably just a personal problem.
These are all handheld.

#1


#2 This one fairly well shows my unsharp image difficulty.



#3. Then along comes one that seems sharp enough.

GOLDENORFE

hi there, the bee shot looks quite sharp,dof is very shallow you could be missing focus point as you take the shot. i had similar problem focusing on butterfly eyes,i was moving slightly as i took the shot missing focus slightly.
are you using flash ?

daddy longlegs appears ok in other post but hard to tell on small subject where focus point is.
post a couple more examples.
phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/

TwistedJ

They look good to me but I'm an amateur at best. Handheld, all I can shoot.....no tripod yet.

Skippy

DaddyO wrote:

3 photos I took while trying to get used to using the lens. I find it
surprisingly difficult to master this lens. Probably just a personal problem.
These are all handheld.

#1
#2 This one fairly well shows my unsharp image difficulty.
#3. Then along comes one that seems sharp enough.

Hi DaddyO, if you believe you have a problem,
would having the lens recallibrated help?
or is it not worth doing that? --- just wondering.

The bee looks pretty sharp to me too.
That flower (1st one) is sooooooo pretty ... Skippy
.

DaddyO

GOLDENORFE wrote:

hi there, the bee shot looks quite sharp,dof is very shallow you could be missing focus point as you take the shot. i had similar problem focusing on butterfly eyes,i was moving slightly as i took the shot missing focus slightly.
are you using flash ?

daddy longlegs appears ok in other post but hard to tell on small subject where focus point is.
post a couple more examples.
phil

Thanks for your post Phil.
As far as having personal issues with butterfly eyes focus, I'm not there yet.
Like to get there one step at a time.
Not using flash just yet. Natural lighting only.

Understand the DOF shallow with macro.
I try using f10 or better depending for right now on insects / flowers and available light.
Again depending which parts I want focus and parts I want to start going out of focus.

Using tripod with the Crane Fly in other post. I was hoping for much sharper images.
Camera image plane parallel to insect. Focus on head area.
This crane fly has enough variety in body parts to expect sharp
focus someplace. Even if sharp DOF is held in .25" - .50" of those parts.

I think the lens may have to go into the shop as sharp focus in iffy most
of the time. Michael

DaddyO

TwistedJ wrote:

They look good to me but I'm an amateur at best. Handheld, all I can shoot.....no tripod yet.

TwistedJ. Thanks for posting your note. I'm pretty much an amateur also just trying to get better results. These shots are halfway decent. Its the
unsharp halfway decent ones that are driving me to distraction. Michael

DaddyO

Skippy wrote:

Hi DaddyO, if you believe you have a problem,
would having the lens recallibrated help?
or is it not worth doing that? --- just wondering.

The bee looks pretty sharp to me too.
That flower (1st one) is sooooooo pretty ... Skippy
.

Yes Skippy, agreed, that flower does have wonderful color and cute little pointy peddle tops.

I may send this lens in as you suggest for recalibration. Figured that was
probably on my horizon if I want to continue forth with this silly (Nice) lens.
Michael

Lord Vetinari

Well #1 and #3 look good which suggests there is not an innate fault with the lens. I assume you are focusing manually for these ?
If you are using MF have you calibrated the viewfinder dioptre setting for your eye ?
I suspect you are just getting used to the macro lens with it's very thin DOF plus the longer macro lenses are not the easiest to use.

Brian V.

DaddyO

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Well #1 and #3 look good which suggests there is not an innate fault with the lens. I assume you are focusing manually for these ?
If you are using MF have you calibrated the viewfinder dioptre setting for your eye ?
I suspect you are just getting used to the macro lens with it's very thin DOF plus the longer macro lenses are not the easiest to use.

Brian V.

Thanks for covering these points Brian.
The lions share of the photos I have taken with it so far are using auto focus. In a few I have tried manual just to see if I can hit better focus / or as good as the lens with viewfinder diopter adjusted. To try and get past some of
the DOF issues, I have been using higher f stop values and fast shutter speeds to try and take out camera shake from the equation. So far what
I am getting is a mixed bag of returns. Subjects further away from the lens
do better than those closer.

I read some of your points about the longer macro lenses prior to
getting this lens. Bought it anyway with a "how bad can it be?" attitude.
Well, if this lens is perfectly fine, then it can be pretty bad.

That said, courierman, nailed a spider shot with it same lens. Perfect sharp. Now why can't I do that? Michael

Lord Vetinari

DaddyO wrote:

Thanks for covering these points Brian.
The lions share of the photos I have taken with it so far are using auto focus. In a few I have tried manual just to see if I can hit better focus / or as good as the lens with viewfinder diopter adjusted. To try and get past some of
the DOF issues, I have been using higher f stop values and fast shutter speeds to try and take out camera shake from the equation. So far what
I am getting is a mixed bag of returns. Subjects further away from the lens
do better than those closer.

I read some of your points about the longer macro lenses prior to
getting this lens. Bought it anyway with a "how bad can it be?" attitude.
Well, if this lens is perfectly fine, then it can be pretty bad.

That said, courierman, nailed a spider shot with it same lens. Perfect sharp. Now why can't I do that? Michael

I'd try to get used to using MF especially when shooting near 1:1- problem with AF is it does not know what you are trying to focus on and as the DOF is very thin - it often gets it wrong.
The other problem is camera or subject shake - this is helped a lot by using flash with the camera in manual mode so the flash duration becomes the shutter speed.

Brian V.

DaddyO

Lord Vetinari wrote:

I'd try to get used to using MF especially when shooting near 1:1- problem with AF is it does not know what you are trying to focus on and as the DOF is very thin - it often gets it wrong.
The other problem is camera or subject shake - this is helped a lot by using flash with the camera in manual mode so the flash duration becomes the shutter speed.

Brian V.

Did some further work with the lens. I am amazed at the razor thin DOF.
It seems to be in wee fractions. I am working 1:1 to push me and the lens.
AF definitely disagrees with my focus choice on so fine a focus point.

??? Flash duration becomes the shutter speed.

You know I get the concept for sure but I'm not sure how to carry it out
totally. Care to elaborate on camera / flash settings.? I think I have played with this flash in manual mode picking my own f stop and shutter
speed and seeing what light I get on topic. Its like playing with flash compensation in AV mode. This what you mean. ?

Lord Vetinari

DaddyO wrote:

Did some further work with the lens. I am amazed at the razor thin DOF.
It seems to be in wee fractions. I am working 1:1 to push me and the lens.
AF definitely disagrees with my focus choice on so fine a focus point.

??? Flash duration becomes the shutter speed.

You know I get the concept for sure but I'm not sure how to carry it out
totally. Care to elaborate on camera / flash settings.? I think I have played with this flash in manual mode picking my own f stop and shutter
speed and seeing what light I get on topic. Its like playing with flash compensation in AV mode. This what you mean. ?

Just tend to shoot with the camera in M mode and 1/200th, ISO100,F11. The flash should be in ttl mode and will supply the missing light.

Brian V.

DaddyO

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Just tend to shoot with the camera in M mode and 1/200th, ISO100,F11. The flash should be in ttl mode and will supply the missing light.

Brian V.

Thanks Brian! I started testing driving these settings at 6 this morning.

Works really well. I hope to post a few from that effort as I am
still trying to nail down my "maybe" soft focus issue. Michael