some of my photos, wild animal park SD CA

[drumpriest]

Hi all, this is completely off the topic of wood working. One of my other hobbies (I have too many, believe me) is photography. I recently ended up in San Diego with my cousins, and we took a trip out to the wild animal park there for a fun day of shooting photos.

For you camera geeks out there, here was the gear I used.

Canon XTi
70-200mm f4 L + 2x teleconverter
Sigma 50-500mm f5.6 - 6.3 OS (the Bigma)



If you are interested, here's the set of my best shots from the park on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2278107...7623867873299/

[herb fellows]

Very nice! I'm assuming they have an aviary there also? Looks like a pretty nice one.

[jziegler]

Nice, I enjoyed looking through them.

I have to ask, how do you like the Bigma OS? It looks like a very interesting lens.

Jim

[Alex Franke]

Excellent! I love the SD zoo and especially the wild animal park. Great shots!

[Stan]

Excellent shots! Thanks.

[Kristofor]

Looking good! I like the framing on the Gazelle/Ibex/pointy-horned-animal shot.

Is your 70-200mm F4 the non-IS version? Is that reason you added the Sigma or was it for the 25% more reach (or the ability to go somewhat wide and long without changing lenses)? How sharp do you find the Sigma at the long end?

I've been looking to add a better tele-zoom. The new 70-200mm F2.8 IS II is far too rich for my blood, but I have been considering the F4 IS version. If you had to pick that lens (and a TC) or the Sigma which would you choose?

[Ed62]

Very nice shots! I could look at good photography all day long.

Ed

[lrogers]

All are good photos, but one of the lion is my favorite.

[drumpriest]

Thanks all, glad you like the shots, the lion is my favorite as well, for the composition.

Herb - they do have an aviary, but I didn't get to spend much time there, I snapped those shots on the walk out at closing.

Kristofor - Mine is the "non IS", 640$ version. We had the Bigma because we had 2 cameras and just felt like trying it out. The f4L + 2x converter gave me a 140-400mm lens on my 1.6x crop camera, so reach was pretty good, and the results are sharp enough. The trouble is that combo gives me a f8 lens, without autofocus (though if you tape pins it's supposed to work, I didn't try it). The F4L is sharper than the Bigma, but if I were shooting distant animals a lot (rather than our smaller zoo in Pittsburgh) I think I'd want more reach than 200mm or even 280mm (with the 1.4x converter, gives you f5.6 and AF works). It would be a hard pick between the Canon 100-400 and the Bigma, as they are roughly the same price. I think I'd probably take the Canon 100-400 IS for the 1600$.

Having said that, I currently shoot the f4L with a Kenko converter, and sharpness seems good in tests, but I have yet to use it in the field. This is the new converter from Kenko which is 1.4x and much sharper than their previous models. I got it for 100$ pre-order, but it can be had for 130$ normally, so with the F4L (which has a rebate right now) I spent 700$ or so for a F4-F5.6 79-280mm L lens. The Kenko has the advantage that it mounts to my other EF lenses, like my Sigma f2.8 18-50 EX DC Macro, I have taken some amazing Macro shots with that one already with the converter on.