BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

New Sigma lens for gymnastics??

However I have never purchased a Sigma lens before. If you use Sigma lenses or this one in particular,
have you found the quality to be good? Any comments would be
appreciated. I presently shoot a Nikon D70s.

Thanks

Mark Lenz

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May 29, 2007

Try looking at www.fredmiranda.com to see if there are any reviews posted for this particular lens.

Chris A. Vedros
www.cavphotos.com

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May 29, 2007

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May 29, 2007

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May 29, 2007

Your question is asked by so many people, not brand, but the need to get closer shots.

The (trade-offs) in zoom type lenses are many. While you indeed DO get "closer" to the action, you lose a lot of incoming light at these longer focal lengths..and this introduces a new host of problems. Slow shutter speeds (blur) with resulting noise to name only two.

A concept so many of us seem to forget is that a good PRIME lens will overcome a multitude of photographic sins; to a point that is.

I'm not talking about those lenses you see on the side lines at pro football games..Most of us, (including myself) can not justify the cost of these monsters.

So; let's take a 90mm Prime of excellent quality as an example:

Tons of incoming light. Superb optical quality giving you color & contrast accuracy..and with the "cropping" factor of digitals (1.5 for Nikon) you are shooting at 135mm.
Ok; you take the shot of the gymnast dismounting from the balance beam. The problem you see with this shot is too much extraneous background. Cropping with the lens would have solved for this, but you can't do that from a fixed position in the audience with a prime.

What to do? Hmm?
Ahhh, how about cropping with editing software? It works; but now you've reduced the size of the image.

Try this: SCALE the image! Voila'!
120%..150% etc..until you get just what you want.
You have started with a VERY sharp image coming from the PRIME and essentially have put a magnifying lens to it.
While this method has obvious limitations; in your scenario, it might just do the trick.

Here is a sample photo of a flower I took using a 50mm prime. This photo is NOT a macro shot, although you would think so. It was taken at a distance of 16 inches and scaled at 150%.

All the best,

Pete

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May 30, 2007

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June 17, 2007