After a great deal of research, I’ve finally decided what I want to do about my long lens situation:
Get both of the 70-200mm lenses to Canon and get them properly calibrated.
Sell one of the two.
Get a Sigma APO 120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM.
Get proper head for tripod.
Try that with the Canon 2X converter II. If that works, great. If not, sell the Canon 2X converter and get the matched Sigma converter(s).
The specs of the Sigma lens look great (see the MTF charts as an example, above), as do almost all of the images I’ve seen taken with the lens.
Unfortunately, my favorite local dealer doesn’t carry Sigma lenses, so I’ll have to shop elsewhere for this.
For some time, I’ve been fascinated with some of the more off-beat percussion instruments (yes, pun intended), such as bodhrans, djembe and the like. In fact, I was looking very closely at some at the Renaissance Festival over the past couple of weekends. While perusing the web site of the House of Musical Traditions (they have the musical instrument “store” at the Ren Fest, and are located not too far from home), I stumbled across a North American manufacturer and importer of unique percusion instruments called Mountain Rythym.
I am a glutten for punishment. We went over to Wilde Lake again this afternoon and took some pictures. I actually got some sharp ones. While one or two sharpish ones were, by sheer luck, taken with the 70-200, the rest were taken with a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM. That’s a lens that sells for a whopping $230 around here. I got it back when we first made the Nikon-to-Canon switch.
Donna commented that these are more like what she’s accustomed to seeing from me — before I started complaining. I went back and looked, and found that many of those really sharp bird images were made with the cheap-o lens!
We’ve spent the past couple of Saturdays at the Maryland Renaissance Festival — as we usually do this time of year. Albanach and The Mediaeval Baebes were again featured artists, along with the usual cast of zany characters. Most of my photos this year are of the Mediaeval Baebes and Albanach, wiith a few other shots thrown in.
After a great deal of research, I’ve finally decided what I want to do about my long lens situation:
