[ken-the-pen]

Hi Ron 1863, Richard G, Glsammy, Words and Cherrywaff, thanks for all your inputs, I actually found one of the 50-500mm Sigma's for £845 on the internet and then found a used Canon 100-400mm for £975, which seemed to be a better buy from what I had read on the various forums. I then decided to go the way of the Canon lenses....which I am still considering, however some folk reckon that the L 400mm f5.6 is even better....and it is about comparable in price. Where I have a problem is that I actually got to test one of the Sigma's at a shop and was rather disappointed in the results...I know that I'm new to it but it didn't seem any better than my Canon 75-300mm (which sadly doesn't work properly any more....the auto has packed up for some reason) so I didn't feel that I was really benefitting by a move to that. I really want to try a prime lens to see the results and to see what it is like to have a non-adjustable lens, which I assume would take some getting used to? Unfortunately no shops seem to have the prime lenses in as they say they are too expensive to have as dead stock on their shelves. Birmingham has only two camera shops ! Worcester at least has five shops all of which I visited, but they didn't have a great deal of choice and only one prime, which was a 105mm so wasn't much good as a tester. I will wait till I can get a look at a prime for the big buy.....in the meantime I did find a lens in Worcester which I liked so I bought that as an interim measure, it is a Tokina AT-X840 D and the shots I took with it were crisp and good in colour and contrast....(I don't know if I hit it lucky with the daylight, or if I just happened to get a good lens...I know that even the lenses differ in quality and you can get a good one.....anyway I bought it...£350 for the lens the hood and a Hoya Polarizing filter thrown in). It's too late for a change as I have bought it....but I'd appreciate any opinions if any of you have any or if you know the lens itself....but it certainly gave me some really nice sharp shots yesterday....even though I understand that the autofocus ain't exactly the fastest of the bunch? So Cherrywaff, thanks for the offer, but I'm fixed up on the zoom now....its just a question of looking out for a prime at the right price....once I've had the chance to try one out that is. Ken