Some time ago I was sent a pre-production unit of the 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM lens made by Sigma. It has been out for some time for other cameras such as Canon and Nikon but my version was of course made for Sigmas SA mount. It was a pre-production unit and I couldn’t really utilize the full OS capability as it wasn’t yet optimized but I did get some real stunner from it with OS and even more so without. Some shots below has had the OS enabled and they appear less sharp in full view, I’m told this will not be the case with the final version.
Those of you that used the older 17-70 will most likely enjoy this new version as well as it’s now more of an EX lens although no EX branding on it. The build quality is very high and it’s bit heavy and feels very solid. It’s like a bigger brother to the current 18-50 2.8 EX – same materials but a bit longer and fatter. Both lenses can produce stunning captures.
The quality produced by this lens is quite extraorinary, to be a none EX lens and a zoom. Full size version (look at his chest!, that’s where focus is)
Final verdict will as you might understand comes later when I have the “real deal” to play with but what’s seen so far is pretty amazing. Good stuff! Just take a look at this last picture of the trees, detail is not bad and I’m told that it might give up to four full stops of stability. I did get some 1/10s shots that I might show later using ISo3200 (very dark environment) and they looked very nice! :) Me like.
Happy New Year 2010!! Well, I’m late, I know. But I just came back from celebrating the new year up at my big sisters place in Brålanda. It’s so far away from everything and Internet hasn’t reached them just yet.. (not). I’m not too often up at her place, it’s a 100km drive (that’s the only good excuse I have not to go there more often and I know she reads this)..
Ah, and you might wonder why I have no splendid pictures of cool firecrackers – Well, it all comes down to luck and really, really bad timing. In Brålanda (a small town of what seams to me to be around 10 people) people have firecrackers but they all live randomly around my tripods position and none of them had ANY understanding of photography or photographers. They could have said: – I’ll let another rocket up right now, and I’ll wait for your signal Carl. But no, they just let them up a little here and there and always in the wrong direction from where I stood with my 20-30s exposure.
Oh well, there is always another one coming!
Now, all these shots has been taken with my Sigma SD14 – some of them using the 120-300 and others using a new lens that I will get back to in a while. (all wider shots). 90% has been developed using SPP with minor adjustments using LR3 before flickry upload. The rest (two shots) has been developed using Silkypix.
(All above shots except the bird has been shot using the other lens..)
Now, the new year started with lots and lots of snow. We had to stay one extra day because of it. Below you’ll find “extra day with snow and my sisters family”, pictures. Continue reading ‘One week Winter.. 2009/10′
I had to brake my online habits again but now I’m back. :) A couple of days ago I went to a friend in Stenungsund and the day was below zero for the first time on a while. Sky was blue and the DP2 was in the back seat with the Polarizer attached! Jaij. All of them has been shot using ISO50, the first one came out overexposed and has been pushed to something like ISO25 and as you see some grass and stone is bleeding. Not too bad though with ISO in mind.
And for everyone with unanswered emails – I’m about to go though everything and you’ll have your answer soon. If you think I’ll forget, please mail again. :)
Now I’m currently waiting for an SPP upgrade and a Mac version of Silkypix. Life’s too slow!!!! Oh and the SD15. ;)
I haven’t worked much with Sigma Photo Pro (SPP) in a long time, mostly because Silkypix has come out and some recent shoots had to be developed quickly and at those times Lightroom comes in handy. But tonight I gave SPP a chance to show it’s true self – These are developments exported as 16bit tiffs and post processed in Photoshop using Nik Viveza. It’s fair as Lightroom has tools very similar to what’s possible in Viveza.
Pretty amazing really how shallow DOF can isolate an object like this. It’s like entering a new world, and I find it very fascinating. Above shot is taken with the Sigma DP2.
As some of you noticed we like mushrooms, and fall in Sweden is like candy store for kids. These mushrooms are called Trattkantareller in Swedish and Cantharellus tubaeformis in Latin. Now you know. And we will dry them and use them during the cold and inhuman Swedish wintertime. See above shot at original size.
Here follows some shots that been on flickr for some time, but without me saying much. These are a bit Strobist as you can see how I did most of them. :) Btw, Everything in this post is developed using Silkypix. I actually learned more on how to use Silkypix since I developed these but they’ll do for now.
With the Sigma AML-1 you get closer, and not only that you get even shorter area in focus. You can create new worlds. :) I had the Sigma polarizer attached as well. Further down in this article you will see shots with and without reflections plus a comparison with DP1 and DP2. All except one shot is taken with DP2.
DP2 ISO50, f2.8, 1/3s – Sigma Photo Pro + Apple Aperture (same to all photos below) Also, all these have their full size version on flickr.
I admit! I’m not a big fan of picking mushrooms but I LOVE to shoot them! Earlier today, Mom and Linn decided to go out. It was already quite some time after sunset and I’m not that keen on searching hard for something I can’t really see so I took my DP2 and Gitzo Explorer and went along (that way I could play with ANY findings, eatable of not). Also, I got some comments about Aperture so here’s a SPP developed and Aperture post processed series of mushy images. When I say dark I mean pretty dark. I’ll give you some exif info below each shot.
Another annoyance with late evening shots is what white balance to select. Light differ quite a lot depending on surroundings and I tried sunlight, shade, cloudy, auto – and went back.. It’s hard not to make it look warm and fuzzy even though you know it was pretty cold colors. Well, I settled for Cloudy in SPP. Except for the very first one (above) that one uses the sunlight wb. Hope you like it!
Original shot taken with Sigma DP2 at ISO50. When I took it I thought, jaij, this is beautiful. Well, back home I wondered why I didn’t pay more attention on what it was that I got. Well, I decided to play with it and make a developer test out of it. So here we go. As you see, the original is badly under exposed and slightly tilted. The first software I tried was Lightroom 2.4.
With Lightroom I used some tricks like painting in order to make it look even better. The paint is a slight orange tone applied to places with direct sunlight. I made a movie that will be on youtube in a while with my exact workflow.. I didn’t use fill light much, instead I used a gradient mask to make half the picture lighter.
Just wanted to share two late shots taken during the session that you saw previously and they’re both taken with the Sigma 120-300 at ISO50 and SD14. It was a VERY bright sunny day so stayed in the shadows under some huge trees – Tried to equal the light so that my elinchrom quadra wouldn’t be too noticed, used a white umbrella and without a meeter I had to test shoot some before setting the correct power and exposure. But I never really used a light meter before so I’m not sure it would make things faster. As long as my assistant was staying on the same distance exposure would stay about the same. My biggest problem was that clouds would come and go, so light would change LOTS in a couple of seconds – and so would exposure. Lots of shots trashed because of this.
Wanted to share how to use a Cokin filter with this little movie. I’m currently making my DP2 video review and I’m more or less testing my gear to make it possible. We’re experimenting with a new microphone from Röre.. And I think my voice is pretty clear.
Here’s photos used in above review. They’re pretty quick and dirty so I don’t want you to see them at 100%. That thing we stood on was moving some etc.. :D Btw, when I developed them they looked fine but right now I think they’re bit dark and too saturated. Oh well. :) (I place them under a “more” thing so you don’t find them easily.. haha)
Last week before my Quadra lost it’s way I took this picture (Getting it fixed tomorrow). I played with SD14 and the DP2 and with the Quadra I could really make this really sunny day sing by staying in the shadows. But without it (as it stopped working) I really lost inspiration. I didn’t bring any reflectors and well.. The Quadra has within a week started to become important! A bit too important I think. Oh Well.. :)
Also, this shot I developed using Raw Developer, I did try with SPP and ACR but RD did bring that detail to the fullest.
…Right now. Or was, now it’s time for bed. These images are screen dumps taken from within Sigma Photo Pro, will deal with them later in Photoshop I think. Or play some using ACR too just in case. ;) I already tried some of these in RD with good result. Especially for BW’s. Oh well. These are all SD14 images, with the cokin on (as you see on some) and the lens is my wide 10-20mm. It’s really a sharp nice lens. I do want a 12mm f1.2 that is sharp from corner to corner and very perfect in all ways including beautiful bokeh.. oo aaaa I want that!
btw, I used ISO50 with both SD14 and DP2 – only – not my smartest move to date. Highlight did clip a little to often. Sun was really in and out a bit to often. Oh well. I got myself lots of keepers too, more than enough so I’m happy. Elinchrom ranger quadra used on all these shots.
Alright so here comes two shots from yesterday. Not only is it two shots – They’re taken with different cameras – SD14 and DP2. Now, not only are they taken with different cameras they’re developed using different softwares too – jaij! ACR for the SD14 image (came out better) and SPP for the DP2 image (came out more thick).. I used my Elinchrom quadra for this and well, it was so easy to use and setup – weather was really tricky but for these staying in the shadows helped. :)
I got emails from users asking me to show what to do to get images from SPP look the same on the web. So here’s the public answer. Note that I use gamma 2.2 on my Mac – I’ll make a another movie soon with a guide to better colors (info about Gamma and calibration). Tip! Select HD and click full screen for best viewing experience. Enjoy!
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