Sigma 150mm macro tips and advise

[Keith Talbot]

wahoooo! ive finally taken delivery of my sigma 150mm macro lens!

its been a long wait saving but im there now

can anybody please give me some tips and advise on there own experience's i know its a lot of trial and error but if anyone can help me ' hit the ground running ' so to speak it would be a great help,

any recomendations on f stops iso settings etc tripod / handheld 1.4x covertor?

all the usuall questions

if its of any help its on a canon 400d body

thanks in advance

[pressld2]

Excellent Keith - you'll have fun with that! Are you coming to the Norfolk or Thursley meets? Both will give lots of opportunity to practice.

I've found that the very sharpest results are around f11. Although I do sometimes close down to f16 for extra dof I never really go beyond that. When using it on non-macro subjecst I'll often open it wider to isolate the subject with a shallow dof.

I normally use it on a tripod for flowers and fungi and normally hand-hold for everything else. Also, when shooting macro I find manual focus is usually preferable but I do use the auto on non-macro subjects.

Looking forward to seeing your shots...

Dave P.

[Ollie]

Sure you will get on fine with it Keith. As Dave said the sweet spot for it is around F11 but I use mine more at F14/16 for more DOF and still get great results.

It will take a Kenko Pro 300 1.4tc with very little loss of image quality. I use mine mainly on a monopod but will hand hold if the need arises.

Probably telling you to run before you can walk here but I would definitely recommend using flash with it but that is entirely your decision.

You certainly won't regret buying it..

[glsammy]

Yep I agree with Roger.

I use mine just about permanently with a 1.4X TC on. I also almost always use diffused flash as well. My normal settings are shutter 1/250sec, aperture F16.0. Flash on ETTL.

Here's one I took today with that set up and using F20.

[Keith Talbot]

thanks for the advice chaps,

Originally Posted by glsammy

Flash on ETTL.

is that a setting on the camera graham or a seperate flash?


ive been out and had a quick play tonight,not bad for my first attemp

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Keith Talbot

thanks for the advice chaps,




is that a setting on the camera graham or a seperate flash?

ETTL is a flash setting. It stands for Evaluative-Through The Lens, to give a more accurate flash. Most of the better flash guns should offer this, not only the Canon ones.

[Keith Talbot]

thanks graham

[ron1863]

Good to see you having fun with the new lens Keith and very nice shots too. I was thinking of buying one until I found out that they don't make it for the Sony fitting - yet, and the 180mm is a bit on the steep side.

[Keith Talbot]

cheers ron