Album (105 photos)

Two lessons learnt,
1. My 300D’s LCD screen is definitely too bright. As a result I underexposed quite a few of the shots.
2. Using AI Servo is a bad idea for sports like frisbee and football. Since players’ movements are multi-dimensional the camera losses its focus too easily.

Furthermore, I should check if the UV filter is lowering my Bigma’s focusing capabilities…

Featuring Blue Angels, Patriots and USAF F-16 Demonstration Team.

Two things worth mentioning about my photographic equipments. Firstly Bigma is superb for airshow photography; you really need both 50mm and 500mm for airshows. Secondly EOS-300D’s interal buffer is indeed insufficient, making it hard to use continuous shooting to capture crossovers.

New photos added to the Birds set.

Photos from Caged Wildlife plus some real wild birds.

A spin-off from More Distraction.

Color occasionally distracts one’s attention from the subject. This set is not a black-and-white set; oscillating in between creates more distraction.

Distract me from my routine life.

On 30th of July.

So I got my lens, actually two of them. Now Evelyne you would probably like the first one–a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX APO RF HSM (a.k.a. “Bigma”).

It is second-hand but in very good condition. Now the decision was far from an easy one; paying abit more I either can get a new Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM or a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX IF HSM. As if to make the decision even harder I also found a second-hand Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L USM selling at a very tempting price. A 70-200mm f/2.8 has always been my “dream lens”; I had once spent some very happy time with a Canon 70-200 2.8/L (thanks to Mr. M). In the end I got the Bigma for several reasons,

1. I am no longer an official photographer for anything; the 70-200mm f/2.8L was almost a necessity back in high school but is much less so now;
2. I do not expect myself taking alot of action shots in low-light condition;
3. I would like to try out wildlife photography; and
4. It was the cheapest among all the above options.

So far the Bigma has been very rewarding; on a 300D it actually has a very long 35mm-equivalent zoom range of 80-800mm. Here is some birds shots from Kowloon Park.

That said, I wished for a 70-200mm f/2.8 yesterday when I was taking photos of the DBS Homecoming Concert.

The second lens I got is a Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

This lens is described as a “must get”–it is very cheap but among the sharpest of all EF lens. I cannot agree more; here is an example,

It is always said that the 50mm prime is the best lens to learn photograhy (although on a 300D 50mm has a FOV of 80mm so it is no longer standard). Indeed with a prime the framing becomes very important; still much to try out here.