Lens review and vacation report!

Kawidude

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May 23, 2000
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So my family and I spent last week in Maui. It had been about 5 years since we'd been there and we were really looking forward to it. I decided to bring my camera (350D) but couldn't decide on a single lens to bring. My 75-300 was way too much for what I'd be shooting, my 10-20 wasn't enough and my 50mm wouldn't give me enough reach either. So the day before I left I started browsing for a single lens that I could bring and get the most out of.

I didn't want to break the bank with some fancy L glass, so I took a look at the Sigma line. I ended up with the Sigma DC 18-200mm lens (f3.5-6.3). I know these "hyperzoom" lenses don't have the greatest reputations or image quality because they try to be a "do it all" lens. But after reading a few reviews I was confident that the lens would be fine for what I intended to use it for. I knew it would be terrible under low-light situations so I didn't expect much of it in that realm. Since I knew I would be making any large prints from these photos I figured it would be a decent enough walk around lens that I wouldn't have to swap out for other lenses.

So this was the only lens I brought and I think it worked out pretty well. It was basically my "snapshot" lens for the week. I thought I'd share a few pictures to show the image quality.
 

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Kawidude

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We attended a luau on our second night. As the sun set the shooting got more and more difficult. My keeper rate without flash was pretty atrocious. Somehow I managed a couple of shots that were salvageable. When they're slightly out of focus I just tell people I was going for something "artistic."
 

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Kawidude

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I was goofing around late at night and tried some really long exposures of 1-4 seconds. I didn't have a tripod or monopod, so the results were technically pretty crappy, but I had fun leaning against a palm tree seeing how still I could be. I thought the first shot was still pretty cool considering it was hand held.

And of course, the lens performed really well for the purpose I really bought it for....getting pics of my smoking hot wife in her bikini! :nod:
 

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patto3

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Kawidude said:
When they're slightly out of focus I just tell people I was going for something "artistic."

lol :) I do it too.

Kawidude said:
And of course, the lens performed really well for the purpose I really bought it for....getting pics of my smoking hot wife in her bikini!

If that's her in the last pic then I would have to agree.

I really like the first pic, It gives you that real islandy feeling.
 

XRpredator

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Kawidude said:
And of course, the lens performed really well for the purpose I really bought it for....getting pics of my smoking hot wife in her bikini! :nod:
If you want to post more of those, that would be too much awesome.
 

Kawidude

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:laugh: Yer killing me Pred! I didn't want to get in trouble for posting that shot, so I definitely checked with her before posting. I think I snapped 40 or 50 of those before she noticed me. And here I thought the shots of the dude juggling fire sticks would be the ones to get all the attention. ;)
 

XRpredator

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Kawidude said:
And here I thought the shots of the dude juggling fire sticks would be the ones to get all the attention. ;)
If he looked like your wife, then yes
 

Rich Rohrich

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Back on the lens topic. I use the Nikon 18-200 lens more often than almost any other lens. It always seems to be the right lens for the job. Based on the pictures the Sigma seems like a great choice as well.

I'd love a version that was f2.8 across the range, but if it were it would be another $1700 lens I could only lust after.
 

Kawidude

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Rich Rohrich said:
Back on the lens topic. I use the Nikon 18-200 lens more often than almost any other lens. It always seems to be the right lens for the job. Based on the pictures the Sigma seems like a great choice as well.

I'd love a version that was f2.8 across the range, but if it were it would be another $1700 lens I could only lust after.

Yeah, I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of this lens for everyday snapshot stuff. I picked it up for $379 and I'm pretty happy with the shots I got. I read a lot of reviews about the Sigma vs. the Tamron version of this lens, and for overall image quality the Sigma seemed to slightly win out. I guess the Sigma doesn't truly go to 200mm (something like an actual 175-180 I think?). A lot of people complained about the slow auto focus at 200mm, but I didn't encounter that problem when I had some light to work with. Like you said, a 2.8 version would be sweet, but it'd be too rich for my blood. I'll dig through the pics again tonight and see if I can find any others that looked decent.
 
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