I want to change the lens - need advice

[Prophet]

A friend of mine showed me his 300 IS that he got as part of his 40D bundle. I believe it is the 100-300 f4.5 IS. He showed me the difference between his 300 zoom compared to the $1400 100-400mm f4.5 (I'm recalling specs from memory but I believe that we're talking about the same lenses). He was using his 40D with both lenses. In different types shots, he showed me the 300 and it seemed to be a bit soft at full zoom, when looking at the image at full frame. Cropping the picture (MotoGP rider) and printing in in 4x5 or something, it looked stellar. The 400 was razor sharp with the shot (night shot of a top of building). He was only at 100mm on the 400 and doing some night shots (high ISO, long shutter time), but my point (I'm getting tired) is that the 300 seemed a bit soft and I'm going to avoid it.

When I do move up to a big zoom, its going to be the f4.5 prime. I'm really only interested in this lens for shooting cars and motorcycles on road courses.

-JD-

 

[samal]

yess! I just won a sigma 18-50 f/2.8 ex dc macro on ebay - $275!!! from a amember with substantial 100% positive feedback! Too bad it's too late for my vacation, I am leaving on Wed.

 

[samal]

I have my Sigma 18-50 f2.8 - what a nice lens!

now still shopping for 70-200 F/4 L, but yesterday I ran into a local add for 80-200 f/2.8 L for only a bit more

how these compare? should I go for an older lens with bigger max aperture? or stick to newer and cheaper one?

 

[Dao]

oh .. the "magic drainpipe". I do not know too much about that lens, but you can find some info here when they talked about it.

 

[RyanLilly]

I think that opticaly the 80-200 is very similar to the 70-200, I would go for the 2.8. It was top of the line and is still better than any consumer grade lens.

 

[samal]

my shopping is complete!

Sigma 70-200 f2.8 APO DG MKII - eBay (item 270318914598 end time Dec-23-08 15:23:48 PST)

Sigma 18-50 F2.8 EX DC Macro for Canon - eBay (item 160302163020 end time Dec-05-08 21:27:25 PST)

now time to offload old lens! as soon as I get the 70-200, I will post my Sigma 18-200 for sale

 

[frXnz kafka]

Looks like you picked up some nice lenses. Went a bit over that $6-700 budget though, eh?

 

[samal]

yeah, I spent about 800 on 2 lenses - still not bad considering I got f/2.8 instead of f/4.0

BTW, I went to your site and noticed a beautiful image of russian FED 2 camera, with want looked like old Jupiter lens. it reminded me of my first camera, Zorki 4 with Jupiter 8 lens, exactly like this

 

[frXnz kafka]

BTW, I went to your site and noticed a beautiful image of russian FED 2 camera, with want looked like old Jupiter lens. it reminded me of my first camera, Zorki 4 with Jupiter 8 lens, exactly like this

I'm not sure what the lens is, either a Jupiter or an Industar. Pretty cool camera, and I got it for something like $6 :thumbup:

You might be able to tell what lens it is better in this image: http://frxnz.deviantart.com/art/55-81720123