Flowers in Febraury

[Ken Ramos]

Canon 20D
Manual mode
1/200 sec. @ f/9 ISO 100
70mm
Sigma 24-70mm 1:2.8 EX DG Macro
Midday

Gotta new lens ya all

[JoanYoung]

This is a great new lens you have here Sir Kenneth and this pic is perfect as usual. I hope you take a great many more for us with it.

[rjlittlefield]

Flowers -- the man has flowers -- it isn't fair!

I haven't looked up specs on this lens. What exactly does "macro" mean on it?

--Rik

[Ken Ramos]

Rik asked:

I haven't looked up specs on this lens. What exactly does "macro" mean on it?

Well it is marketed as being a macro because of the close focusing distance and the fact that you can get in close like a prime macro lens. Right now I have bad habit of "pushing" the minimum focusing distance. Though not able to shot 1:1 macro I can get in pretty close, 1:1 I seldom shoot anyway because of DOF being what it is at that range. I am thinking this lens equates to a 1:2/4 as far as macro goes. Though I would have to look at the specs. to be certain. Anyway a very handy and useful all round lens. Another thing I like is that there are no "blues" around the outer fringes of the frame at 24mm when a bright sky is in the background too. Only having it less than 24hrs, I might be a little presumptuous

Thanks Rik

Yes Joan, I plan on taking quite a few with this lens. It will probably become my most used of those that I have at present if its performance does not fail.

Thanks Joan

[beetleman]

A beautiful flower Ken. Do you know what the flower is? Good luck with the lens.

[Ken Ramos]

Don't know what kind of flower it is Doug. I was surprised to find it blooming. I was walking along in the manicured gardens bordering a nearby lake, when I came across it.

Thanks Doug

[Cyclops]

Oh nice shot Ken,and I like the sound of that new glass! F2.8! Bet it has a huge front element and weighs a bit eh

[Ken Ramos]

The front element is large but not as large as one might think. See HERE

Only having used it for one day, I don't want to laud over it too much, might jinx it but it seems to be a great lens.

Thanks Larry

[Cyclops]

Well i reckon the flower is a Camellia,certainly looks like one to me. As for the lens,well i bet it would look fabulous on my Canon film camera,and the 28 end would be a real 28
Its also unusual for such a fast lens to have such a close focus,but technology has come on leaps and bounds of late!

[jaharris1001]

hows the focus action on that lens Ken ? I know my 105mm is kinda slow, but usually manual focus with it anyways, nice shot by the way, looks like its nice and sharp

[Ken Ramos]

Well I really don't know what average is with these lenses but I guess just as good as my Canon EF lenses, pretty quick actually, though I seldom use AF. It is not as sharp as my macro lenses it seems, though it is sort of marketed as being one but for an all round lens for general photo shooting and close up work I think it is pretty great and plenty sharp enough for my needs but then again I have just gotten it so I really can't say a whole lot until I have used the thing for a while. More than likely it will be on my 20D most of the time and my macros on my 30D. Reviews give it a bad rap though but some folks really like it and have had no problems with it, I hope that mine follows suit in not having problems.

Thanks Jim

[Cyclops]

I hardly ever if at all use the AF on my Canon, especially if its a wide, there just seems no point(used to have the cheap 28-80 it came with but now I dont have a w/a lens for it)