Somewhere, Out There...

sm4him · May 7, 2013

...is my Sigma 150-500 "out for delivery." That's been the status since 8:23 a.m. and it's STILL not here!!

Assuming it does actually get here today, it'll be too dark to even play with it by the time it arrives.

Probably just as well--I've had one of the absolute WORST days at work in recent memory, tomorrow promises to be even worse and so...if that lens doesn't arrive in about the next 30 minutes, I'm reasonably certain I will no longer be sober enough to bother learning how to use it tonight anyway. :lmao:

Also got the Manfrotto monopod tonight, but so far, I'm not very happy with it--it extends out just fine, but it practically takes a hammer to get the middle section to go back down. Unless I figure that out in the next day or two, I guess it's going back.

Derrel · May 7, 2013

"Hold your horses!" was what my long-gone mama used to say when we expressed impatience...

The internet era and the ability to track one's delivery status is both a blessing and a curse! A thought about the monopod; with a heavy lens/camera combo on top of the monopod, the middle section's degree of tension might be just about right...something to think about maybe. Sorry it's been such a bad day at work for ya'.

SCraig · May 7, 2013

The lever locks on Manfrotto gear have a nut on the opposite side from the lever. Loosen that nut about a quarter turn and see if that doesn't fix it. I have a Manfrotto monopod as well as the same lens/camera combo and mine slides fine and holds with no problems.

runnah · May 7, 2013

If you have to force it, you're gonna break it.

sm4him · May 7, 2013

It's HEEEERRRRREEEEE!!!! :smileys:
AND, I'm only on my second daquiri...but it's definitely too dark to bother trying to shoot with it tonight. I tried one picture just for kicks, but I'll just wait till tomorrow and hope it's not raining.

Derrel said:
"Hold your horses!" was what my long-gone mama used to say when we expressed impatience...

The internet era and the ability to track one's delivery status is both a blessing and a curse! A thought about the monopod; with a heavy lens/camera combo on top of the monopod, the middle section's degree of tension might be just about right...something to think about maybe. Sorry it's been such a bad day at work for ya'.

Good thought about the monopod; that was testing it with nothing on it.
And you're SO right about the ability to get "real-time" tracking updates. Until this morning, I didn't actually expect the thing to get here until TOMORROW sometime, so I was all excited to see the tracking update this morning, but then disappointed when I got home this evening and it wasn't here. If I hadn't bothered checking the updates constantly, I would have been QUITE pleasantly surprised to see it delivered tonight! And considering I just bought it on Friday, that's not too shabby!

runnah said:
If you have to force it, you're gonna break it.

No worries, I didn't *actually* take a hammer to it, that was just my little way of saying, MAN that was hard to get back down!

I have pretty extensive experience with the "if you force it, you're gonna break it" rule and I can say that it is alarmingly accurate. As I've aged, this is one area where I *have* actually gotten a bit wiser and rarely, if ever, take my irritation out of inanimate objects anymore.

sm4him · May 7, 2013

SCraig said:
The lever locks on Manfrotto gear have a nut on the opposite side from the lever. Loosen that nut about a quarter turn and see if that doesn't fix it. I have a Manfrotto monopod as well as the same lens/camera combo and mine slides fine and holds with no problems.

Thanks; I'll take a look at that and see if it helps. Which one do you have? This is a 685B; it's used, so I just want to be sure that there's not something wrong with it. I bought it from B&H, so I'm not worried about it; at worst, I send it back and try again. But I'd sure love to have that monopod to help test the lens later this week.

I'm sure I'll be contacting you some about this lens, Scott. For starters, what's the difference in the "1" and "2" settings on the OS switch?

jedirunner · May 7, 2013

sm4him said:
It's HEEEERRRRREEEEE!!!! :smileys:
AND, I'm only on my second daquiri...but it's definitely too dark to bother trying to shoot with it tonight. I tried one picture just for kicks, but I'll just wait till tomorrow and hope it's not raining.

I'll be looking forward to tomorrow's posts from you!

Kevin

SCraig · May 7, 2013

sm4him said:
Thanks; I'll take a look at that and see if it helps. Which one do you have? This is a 685B; it's used, so I just want to be sure that there's not something wrong with it. I bought it from B&H, so I'm not worried about it; at worst, I send it back and try again. But I'd sure love to have that monopod to help test the lens later this week.

I'm sure I'll be contacting you some about this lens, Scott. For starters, what's the difference in the "1" and "2" settings on the OS switch?

Yeah, your monopod is different from mine. Mine has traditional lever locks on the sections so my advice may not work on yours.

I had to contact Sigma to find out what the 1 and 2 meant although I had a pretty good idea. They are the same as the settings on the Nikkor 70-300, "1" is normal and "2" is for when it's being panned only. In "2" it ignores horizontal movement and only corrects vertical movement.

Overread · May 7, 2013

ITS NEVER TOO LATE!

Just set it on a tripod and point it up and look at the sparkling stars! Unless its cloudy then its a bit of a pain......

sm4him · May 7, 2013

Overread said:
ITS NEVER TOO LATE!

Just set it on a tripod and point it up and look at the sparkling stars! Unless its cloudy then its a bit of a pain......

VERY cloudy. It's rained for most of the past 4 days...the rain finally tapered off today, and we had a brief period of sun mingled in with the clouds, but the clouds had moved back in long before my lens arrived.
40% chance of rain tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll be able to try it out much then...I'd planned to take Thursday off, because it's supposed to be beautiful, but after the crises that came up at work today, I don't know if I'll get to do that. Here's hoping I can put out the work fires tomorrow and take a day off on Thursday...or even just leave a few hours before dark!

480sparky · May 7, 2013

Your pillow is gonna be all lumpy tonight with the lens under it.

sm4him · May 8, 2013

480sparky said:
Your pillow is gonna be all lumpy tonight with the lens under it.

Well, THAT explains why I woke up with a crick in my neck... :lmao:

It's raining. :grumpy:

Looks like just spotty showers though, so maybe, just maybe, if I can put these fires out at work, I can find a *little* time to test it out before church and choir practice tonight.

tirediron · May 8, 2013

:addpics:

HughGuessWho · May 8, 2013

Congrats on the new lens. And buy all means, please post some pictures and provide your personal review. I have heard scraig say so many great things about that lens that I have been considering buying one myself.

sm4him · May 8, 2013

I'm chomping at the bit to try getting some pictures with this thing!! Alas, it's still nasty and cloudy. Light enough for some pictures right now, but I'm currently stuck inside at work. By the time I can get out of here, it may well be raining again. Arrrgghh!

Also, my first pics apparently will have to be handheld. Called B&H about the monopod and it sounds like it's just defective, so it's gonna have to go back. Boo.