Expectations

[DaveWD]

When doing something requiring a telephoto, I use a Canon EOS 90D with a Sigma 150-600 MM lens. Frequently, I'm disappointed in the results. Like this shot:

A little out of focus, the background is oddly stratified into bands, and contrast around the eyes makes them all but invisible. I see photos taken with bridge cameras like the Sony DSC-RX10 IV that look so much better. But everything I've read implies the 90D and Sigma should be as good if not better. Is it just technique, or is something wrong with the 90D/Sigma combo? I ask partially because I found the default settings for AP photos left all the photos very overexposed, and I had to manually bump exposure down a couple of notches, which seems odd... if my iPhone can take perfect pictures in almost any condition, you'd think a dedicated camera should do better.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome. Are you shooting handheld or with support ..??

 

[wfooshee]

There may be a lens-specific auto-focus adjustment. I'm a Nikon guy, don't know about Canons, but I know my cameras have had a menu option to set correction factors for lenses, and the camera keeps those factors for the specific lens.

As for the weird bokeh, I had a Tamron 200-500 that I tried and returned back in 2012. inaccurate focus about half the time, and horrible bokeh.

 

[RacePhoto]

Just a quick opinion. Nervous Bokeh: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explor...-a-term-that-means-more-than-blurry-and-fuzzy

Personally, I like to shoot 1/3rd to the right. You mentioned lighter images. If the eye is getting lost on the surrounding, because of lack of contrast, it could be the way you are bringing the image back to what you prefer. I'll just say, that my general correction, which enhances contrast, is Darken Highlights.

And yes I like crop cameras. My best right now is a 50-D. Yours should be very nice, and better, and will make good images. The Sigma lens would sure be fun and affordable, nice zoom range, if I was doing nature, wildlife.

It seems that the background, being close to the subject, with sticks and straight lines, might be part of the problem? I understand you can't always get what you want, it's natural, but there could be something in that situation.

 

[DaveWD]

Thanks for the replies. I use a monopole ... a tripod is too unwieldy to carry and set up for safari and/or hiking. The Bokeh article was ... spot on, and the photos are indeed the effect I complained about. More interesting is the comment that some people like the effect and that Sigma has it. I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and invest in a Canon lens ... but that would be more expensive than just buying a bridge camera, which would probably be good enough for what I need. Decisions, decisions.

 

[ACS64]

Were you, by chance, using electronic shutter mode rather than mechanical shutter? That can be a cause of banding.

 

[MontanaDave]

Thanks for the replies. I use a monopole ... a tripod is too unwieldy to carry and set up for safari and/or hiking. The Bokeh article was ... spot on, and the photos are indeed the effect I complained about. More interesting is the comment that some people like the effect and that Sigma has it. I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and invest in a Canon lens ... but that would be more expensive than just buying a bridge camera, which would probably be good enough for what I need. Decisions, decisions.

One option is to rent a lens and see. some are <1 percent of the cost of purchasing a lens...

I started with a bridge camera, then upgraded to a Canon R7 and my keeper rate skyrocketed!

 

[DaveWD]

a

Thanks... didn' t even know that was available on the 90D. But it was mechanical shutter.

 

[ACS64]

Thanks... didn' t even know that was available on the 90D. But it was mechanical shutter.

The thing that bugs me here is that sometime back, on DPR, the topic of vertical striations (banding) came up and one reader had an accurate explanation that I was able to go out and duplicate the banding using whatever Oly I had at the time.. I think I shot through a near chain link fence while the camera was focused on an outfield player at a kid's baseball game using a near wide-open aperture. Unfortunately, that is all I remember. I did run the banding issue through MS Copilot and the four causes listed were 1) Sensor interference between sensor and camera electronics, More common on older, cheap sensor so unlikely in your case. 2) High ISO settings, but as your EXIF data wasn't attached you will have to be the judge on that. 3) Compression artifact, especially when using very aggressive compression, 4) Electronic shutter due to way the sensor reads out the data..

More thoughts related to your Sigma lens. I have used the Oly m4:3 75-300mm lens for some time with mostly acceptable results, It's about $400-$450 lens. I recently acquired the Oly 100-400mm lens which, until recently was a $1500 lens. Even though that is not OM Systems' top of the line lens in that focal-length range yet it was dramatically better than the 75-300mm.

 

[21limited]

Is this a jpeg or a raw file?

A tripod would be suggested.
There is something weird going on with the IQ, it would appear to be motion blur.
The banding can also be caused by denoising software, or tying to do post processing on a jpeg of not high enough quality.
Almost every camera I own, Pentax, Panasonic Lumix my iPhone do well set to -.07 EV, unless in snow, where the default setting seems to work.

So those are my thoughts of what’s going wrong.

Jepg, to raw.
Denoising software.
Motion blur.
The black around the eye makes this a very high contrast shot, you need to overexpose a bit. that camera should have excellent DR. I’m not sure you’ve ad best use of your DR. Remember in jepg, there are only 16 gradations of black. Bottom line, in day light, you may not be able to get good detail in both the blacks and the whites. IN the iamge postedd, the whites are blown out. Going to +.3 EV instead of -.7 EV might help with the eye, and you’re getting no detail iin the white anyway so you wouldn’t miss anything.
I also put my iPhone down to .7 EV in high contrast situations. But for my black dogs, +.7 EV.
I’m guessing the SIgma 150-600 just has really messy out of focus areas, that’s a lens design issue.
I’ve returned 2 SIgma 120-400s…. I’m not convinced the third party 150-600s are all that good.

I sometimes get banding with joegs when I try to reduce them to 1 MB for posting on forums or flickr.
Your aversion to Canon glass is understandable, but it’s priced the way it is for a reason. I’ve never ehard anyone complain about anything but the price.

Given your lack of tripod use, etc, you might fin something like this useful. Only 20 MP but anything more than 12 is usually good enough.

Panasonic FZ1000 II Review

The Panasonic FZ1000 Mark II gets a bigger EVF, a touchscreen, Bluetooth and other upgrades. See our FZ1000 II review for all the details!

www.imaging-resource.com