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new Nikon gear
#71
The 300/4 saves you an immense amount of weight and lets you take the ISO down.  You could also mate it with a 1.4x TC for a bit more reach though that will slow everything down and reduce image quality.  Nikon isn't as good at building long focal length devices as canon and one area it definitely shows is their teleconverters. 

 

The 150-600 covers all the bases, but is also very very large - backpack sized - and heavy.  The 300/4 wins no points for versatility but everything else would be superior.

#72
From the moment I take a converter, the ISO goes up and I don't think ⅔ f-stops will change the noise significantly. The lightweight is great, of course - but the risk to be at the wrong position for a shot is high and "zooming" with my feet… well, there's not always a space to do so.

 

I know, I'll envy one day each 300/4 PF E owner, but at the moment the list of pro is longer than the contra, regarding the Sigma and my planned purpose. Thanks a lot anyway all of you for your thoughts.

#73
My experience with the 1.4x and 1.7x converter is that they are just fine with the old 300 f/4 and there are no big problems with noise, if you're starting with a good light (clearly, if you are already at the limit - e.g. shooting a wildbear at dusk - things change).

 

@Klaus I'm not an Eclipse fan, because I use NetBeans. In any case, it's open source too. It happens that 80/90% of Java developers use an open source IDE, so they don't find it so bad. And for what concerns bugs, I had a few bugs fixed in NetBeans, and other open source software, that I provided myself. They were accepted without many problems. It doesn't go always in this way, but it's way better than with closed software, where you can't ever think of making a contribution...

stoppingdown.net

 

Sony a6300, Sony a6000, Sony NEX-6, Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS, Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS, Sigma 150-600mm Æ’/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary, Samyang 12mm Æ’/2, Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN | A, Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm Æ’/2.8, Samyang 8mm Æ’/3.5 fish-eye II | Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm Æ’/2 
Plus some legacy Nikkor lenses.
#74
Eclipse is otal crap compared to Borland's Delphy/C++ builder/ Jbuilder. Those were waaaaay nicer to use, also much nicer than visual microsoftcrap.

#75
Quote: I had a few bugs fixed in NetBeans, and other open source software, that I provided myself. They were accepted without many problems. It doesn't go always in this way, but it's way better than with closed software, where you can't ever think of making a contribution...
 

And who paid you for that ? Nobody. It devalues you as a developer. You are acting in a business environment just to mention the obvious. It's even worse when thinking of various GPL products such as JBoss. In this case you don't only devalue yourself but you also increase the value of a different company (RedHat in this case).

 

Quote: 

@Klaus I'm not an Eclipse fan, because I use NetBeans. In any case, it's open source too. It happens that 80/90% of Java developers use an open source IDE, so they don't find it so bad. 
 
Sorry but that's a weird argument. If I asked by boss whether I could buy IntelliJ for 500$, he will just laugh at me. At some stage such IDEs cost 2000-5000$ and this money fed numerous (paid) developers caring about these products full time. Then came Eclipse/Netbeans and this market collapsed. Same goes for most of the middleware market. Completely insane.
 
Anyway, I think we drifted quite a bit off-topic ;-)
#76
Two track discussions…  ^_^

 

@stoppingdown: Once the advantage of f/4 is gone because the TC ate it, I can use the Sigma as well. Not to mention: To come to a 600 mm with TC, it's already f/8. No AF problem. In bright light. For wild bears, I'd rent a 600/4 or something like that. :wacko:

#77
Quote:Valid point.

 

I wanted a strong tele to shoot some sports, at first comes in my mind an event called "Bike Days Solothurn" (nearly 24.000 visitors, half of them photographers Wink ). Part of that is a fair, various races in the woods and some show events like MTB dirt jump. I like to catch the bikers when they are at 7...8 m high in the air from a closeby city wall. Distances soemwhat between 5 and 50 meters and it's difficult to access closer points to get that perspective.
 

Just because of this I would go with the zoom. In events where your position almost fixed the zoom is the tool. And since there will be not too much movement you can rest the weight on a tripod.

 

" Moon shots would be nice, too."

 

For this one you will need 600mm for sure.
#78
Let's stop the off topic...

 

Rental is a valid point... depending on the country. I haven't checked here for years, but the last time nobody would rent anything to a non professional photographer  :angry:  I remember how angry I was when I discovered that in USA, just to make an example, they rented me all I needed just a few hours after I landed in San Francisco...

 

Sure, at a certain point the Sigma gains. But it's still heavy. 

 

Not that I'm sure about what I'm thinking  <_< ... I'm pretty relaxed at the time because Sony doesn't offer anything. Let's say that, at the pure level of wishful thinking, I'm not sure of what to wish. It's to be said that sometimes I missed some wildlife shot because the subject was too close for 300mm (it happened a couple of times with foxes and wildboars). So in these cases a zoom would have helped me. Other times, more frequently, a flying bird was too close for the 300mm * 1.4/1.7, and I didn't have the time to quickly unmount the teleconverter. A zoom has definitely a point...

 

But the idea that with 4.5 stops of stabilisation I can also get rid of the tripod... well, that's hard to beat.

stoppingdown.net

 

Sony a6300, Sony a6000, Sony NEX-6, Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS, Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS, Sigma 150-600mm Æ’/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary, Samyang 12mm Æ’/2, Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN | A, Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm Æ’/2.8, Samyang 8mm Æ’/3.5 fish-eye II | Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm Æ’/2 
Plus some legacy Nikkor lenses.
#79
I once compared the vibration reduction of the 70-200/4 Nikon with the 24-105/ Art of Sigma at 105 mm.

 

Here's one sample of a batch

 

Until then I was convinced that new Nikon was the king of anti-shake, but the Sigma actually is visibly better. Of course, I can not conclude from a 24-105 vs. 70-200/4 to a 150-600 vs. 300/4. Weight and length dimensions/proportions are very different. So maybe the 300/4 Nikkor is better. Newer development plus much less weight and therefore easier to handhold anyway.

 

Otherwise can weight also reduce the effects of shake dues to mass inertia.

 

The rental situation in Switzerland is not bad, BUT no rental service works like lensrentals where they check, adjust and clean each lens after renting. Also, they are no offering such a wide variation and are comarativelyy expensive. Sigma, i.e. usually asks for 10 % of THEIR sales price as rental fee for one week, decreasing the second week. But if I'd buy the lens, I'd pay their official sales price minus the rental fee.

 

In case of the 150-600, the official Sigma price is CHF 2195.- , I can get it for 1785.-

 

So I could rent it for 220.- and get the lens from my dealer instead of Sigma and still save some cash. I'd do that if I had general doubts - and if the Nikon version would be available. But as long as I can't rent the new Nikkor 300/4 PF E at the same time and compare them - what would be the point? Finding out "oh yes, it IS heavy..."? I can imagine somehow...  

#80
Lens rental simply does not work as a business model in the European Union due to customer rights we have here. I know, because I tried it once Wink And others (like Lensavenue) have failed with this approach, too.

If you want to try a lens, just order it, test it, and if you don't like it, return it within 14 days (or a month... depending on where you ordered). That's how most people do it. And actually that's what these customer rights are there for. It's cheap, maybe even free, and when you have that option, no one would seriously consider to spend money on renting instead...

-- Markus
Editor
opticallimits.com

  
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