Still having fun with my macro lens

Took out me macro lens for a spin today...in our bathroom!

I setup my crappy old speedlite on a stand and took a picture of a water droplet from our tub.
Though my speedlite doesn't have high speed sync, I had to just use natural lighting coming from our bathroom lights.
Of course I had to increase my ISO to 1000, so I can get that 500th of a second shutter speed.

I really turned out ok.

Although the shot came out to be kinda noisy.

New eyes...new lens...HA!!!

Today I received an early birthday present from my girlfriend. I've been wanting one for a loooong time now and it's finally here.

It's a Sigma 70mm ex macro lens. I have never owned one, and for the photography I do, I was wondering why I didn't get one before. Now I can't wait to try this baby for flowers and bugs, but for now I took it for some test shots with my girlfriends baking stuff.

My first impression when I first held it was it's a bit heavy for it's size. Doesn't really matter because it really cannot compare to a 70-200 is usm lens which I carried around for a hiking trip the last couple of months...I mean if I can carry that beast for hours I really can't complain about this one. Build quality is good. Same as what you can expect from an EX grade Sigma lens which is their top of the line. I love that matte finish. Some people don't really like it because it scratches very easily. I couldn't care less. I snapped it onto my Rebel and took my first few shots. I tried shooting with autofocus on.

Now this is the downside to this lens. The motor sounded like Robocop trying to get his gun from his holster. It is LOUD...and I thought the motor on the 50mm 1.8 Canon was loud, this one takes the first place for that! The focus is also slow, and hunts in low light. That is why it has a limiter switch on the side to limit the travel time when it's focusing. with the limiter on, it still is pretty slow. Though I've read that slow focus is typical on macro lenses except for the ultrasonic motor ones. I really didn't care either because I am using this lens on manual focus. Auto focus on macro photography isn't fun at all.

Here is where it gets good. The lens is SHARP. As I have read on one review site, one guy says be careful not to cut yourself. I suppose macro lenses are supposed to be sharp but this one is crazy sharp. Here's a sample of a battery taken about 4 inches away:



Of course, compressing these images to be jpegs for the web does not give it justice. But the original was 10 time sharper than this.


Now 70mm is kind of a weird range for a macro lens. Sigma was pretty smart in doing this as this lens can be used on a full frame sensor and a crop body. Used in a full frame it is a real 70mm lens. Used on a crop body, this becomes a 112mm which is just perfect for macro. In my opinion, 50mm is too short and a 100mm used on a crop body is too long. I have a small studio so I went for a shorter lens.

I am really glad I got this lens. Kudos to my girlfriend.

Here are some shots of my girlfriends cupcakes:

I am back...

Thankfully the surgery went out really well. I would say I'm at 95% right now on my vision. It feels great not wearing glasses at all when taking pictures. My eyes are still healing right now but I can see the difference.

I took a picture of my eye before surgery...just in case :)

Got my eyes fixed

I've been on break for a couple of days now. Just got laser surgery for my eyes. Still feeling the sting of the operation but everything else is good though.

It'll take a couple of days to heal and a couple of weeks to completely restore my eyesight to 100%. For now I'm just taking it easy.

Buying lenses...the difference between OEM and 3rd party

This has always been a never ending discussion. People have always asked the question about which one is better. In my opinion, it's always up to you which suits you best. It all depends on your budget, the lens application, warranty, etc.

3rd party lens makers have come a long way in making their lenses very good or equal to oem lenses. Of course, purists will always say the oem lenses are better, that's their opinion. Oem lenses are better in some ways, not all.

I have seen professional photographers use 3rd party lenses all the time. Some say 3rd party lenses are for amateurs only, which will bring us to the discussion, what is a definition of a pro photographer? I'd like to discuss that right now but we will be off topic. But I will discuss about that in the future. For now let's just concentrate on the topic alone.

I use Canon cameras and there are 3rd party lens manufacturers that make lenses for Canon. Two of the most popular ones are Tamron and Sigma.

I currently own a Sigma 18-50 Ex 2.8 lens.


So far I love this lens for it's quality. Build and image quality all in all. It's not perfect but for how I use it, I can say that I cannot go on a shoot without this in my bag. The Sigma Ex line is supposed to be their premium lens line. Equivalent to the Canon L series lenses. Of course a lot of people would disagree that they are totally equal. I could have bought an L lens equivalent, or close...but I just don't have a thousand dollars to spend on a short zoom. It works good for me, so I can say I spent money on this one wisely. Before this lens, I used a Sigma 18-50 HSM OS lens, not bad at all but the sharpness on the corners wasn't really that good on that lens. To think, it's almost half the price of the EX version. So basically, the phrase "what you pay for is what you get" is applicable in this situation.

I used to own a Sigma 28-105 2.8-4 lens.


This was actually the first lens I bought after the kit lens that came with my Rebel XT. Quality wasn't bad at all with this one. I have used it for years till I realized I needed a better quality zoom. I sold this online and got almost the same price when I bought it brand new. Not bad for a lens that is like 5 years old.

I recently bought a Canon 70-200 2.8 IS lens and I love it. I was waiting for the Sigma 70-200 2.8 OS HSM to come out in May, but it really didn't happen. So I opted to go with the Canon so I wouldn't miss the early months of summer without a telephoto. So far I cannot put my 70-200 down. I cannot even take my hands off of it. So why did I go for the Canon instead of the Sigma in this case? For more than a thousand dollars, I'd prefer a lens that is calibrated right and built like a tank. That would save me time from sending the lens back to the manufacturer for recalibration.

3rd party lenses are good alternatives to the oem ones without breaking the bank. Quality control is an issue though when buying them. You buy a 3rd party lens and maybe you get a good copy of it, or maybe not. Though the warranty for third party lenses are superior to the oem ones. Performance also differs between the oem and the third party ones, although the high end third party lenses may be equal or close to the oem ones. All in all, it all depends on you. Do some research, see what is good and what is bad about the lens you are planning to buy. Go for whatever works and whatever makes you happy.

Back from the 4th of July celebration

Just came back from a vacation in Eagle River Wisconsin. Have a ton...and I mean a TON of photos to process. Usually I shoot Raw instead of Jpegs and the size of each file is so much different. So it takes me a while to upload them in my mac if they are in Raw format. Although I already processed some of the fireworks shots that I took.

These were all shot using a remote shutter release, with my camera mounted on a tripod. one very good tip on shooting fireworks is to use the bulb shutter option in your camera and use a remote shutter with it. Use MANUAL focus instead of auto. Question is, how do you use manual focus if your subject is moving? The trick is to look at where the fireworks are coming from and where they usually explode in the sky. Focus on where the majority of them blow up in the sky and then manually focus on that area. Use a narrow aperture starting from f8 onward...it all depends on what you prefer, but using a narrower aperture gives you more depth of field so the focusing doesn't have to be exact at all. With a narrow aperture you will have an easy time to manually focus without worrying too much if your focus is spot on. If you are using a shorter lens, you can actually focus to infinity and basically all the distant object would be in focus. I used a telephoto with my shots but was still able to focus right without being in the infinity area. You can easily do this by focusing on the very first few fireworks that blow up in the sky. After focusing, the sky is all yours.
















The whole set can be found at:

http://www.pbase.com/hardcoreboy/4th_of_july_2010_fireworks

Just waiting

Today I am just waiting for the results of the Chicago Botanic Garden spring photography contest. The winners will be announced at noon. I hope my waterfall picture makes it. Wish me luck.