Bigma tips please?

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by LoveT

Thanks Graham and Dave - that's the frame fillers I'm on about!

Do you have to do much cropping with these images?



Thea

Yes, they have been cropped. I think you'll struggle to fill the frame with butterfly images,at least the smaller ones anyway!

[LoveT]

Thank you all very much for the information and help - I really appreciate it. Now all I have to do is put it into practice !

Dave - I, er, ahem, have the ring flash kit as well, so I have no excuse really . I really must use my kit properly and stop being lazy !

Thea

[paulthomas]

Thea,

Another good combination for dragonflies and butterflies would be your 50-200 with the 1.4 converter. You'll be able focus as close as 1.2 metres (remember that's measured from the sensor to the subject) and that'll give you a minimum image width of 58mm.

[DavyG]

Originally Posted by LoveT

Thank you all very much for the information and help - I really appreciate it. Now all I have to do is put it into practice !

Dave - I, er, ahem, have the ring flash kit as well, so I have no excuse really . I really must use my kit properly and stop being lazy !

Thea

Thea, do you have only the ring flash or do you also have the macro twin flash set?

I ask because the ring flash does not automatically fit onto the Sigma 105mm, I had to have an adaptor made for it to do so.

The macro twin flash will fit onto the Sigma 105 and 150mm lenses but only if you use a step down/step up adapter, this works very well.

I hope this is of some help.

Dave

[LoveT]

Originally Posted by paulthomas

Thea,

Another good combination for dragonflies and butterflies would be your 50-200 with the 1.4 converter. You'll be able focus as close as 1.2 metres (remember that's measured from the sensor to the subject) and that'll give you a minimum image width of 58mm.

Thanks Paul - I hadn't really thought of that one, so that's yet something else I can try out

Thea

[LoveT]

Originally Posted by DavyG

Thea, do you have only the ring flash or do you also have the macro twin flash set?

I ask because the ring flash does not automatically fit onto the Sigma 105mm, I had to have an adaptor made for it to do so.

The macro twin flash will fit onto the Sigma 105 and 150mm lenses but only if you use a step down/step up adapter, this works very well.

I hope this is of some help.

Dave

Thanks for that info Dave - I only have the ring flash, which has a special adapter to fit on the 50mm macro. That's interesting about the ring flash with the Sigma lenses, and something I definitely need to bear in mind if I happen to be in the market for a bigger macro lens.

Thea

[Fourwings]

I must admit to only using my Bigma for Dragons and Butterflies when I'm out for the day and dont fancy lumping kilos of gear around with me.
I much prefer my Sigma 150mm macro, but thats just a case of me being far more used to it than the Bigma, I've been using the 150 macro for over two years now whereas I only bought my Bigma last June!
Now I have had a winter of Bird photography with the Bigma I feel that I have mastered the beast and so I will start using it for some of the more tricky species.
My biggest tip regarding the Bigma, if you want pin-sharp images every time, keep the focal length under 400mm and use a good tripod.

[LoveT]

Originally Posted by Fourwings

I must admit to only using my Bigma for Dragons and Butterflies when I'm out for the day and dont fancy lumping kilos of gear around with me.

That's what I've got a husband for - lumping the kilos of photographic gear around !

Thanks Steve, I think the message as I understand it is to get in slightly closer and zoom out a bit - not use maximum zoom (as I think I did in the picture above ).

Thanks everyone, I've got lots of things to try out (I'm going to have a busy summer!). I'll post some pics if I get anything worthwhile to show you .

Thea

[BruceP]

If you are generally working with the bigma at the long length, then I would recomend buying a third party lens hood to replace the standard one. The standard one has to avoid vignetting at 50mm so doesn't really offer much at the 500mm end in the way of stopping flare. I normally use a longer lens hood (about 110mm long I think) that screws into the 86mm filter thread, and you will find much better contrast in your images on bright days.

Bruce

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by BruceP

If you are generally working with the bigma at the long length, then I would recomend buying a third party lens hood to replace the standard one. The standard one has to avoid vignetting at 50mm so doesn't really offer much at the 500mm end in the way of stopping flare. I normally use a longer lens hood (about 110mm long I think) that screws into the 86mm filter thread, and you will find much better contrast in your images on bright days.

Bruce

That's a new one for me. I don't think I've ever seen any evidence of flare.