Went out for a nice long walk this morning (got home just in time to watch the Habs eek by the Bruins - thank you Jose Theodore) with the "new" Sigma 50-200 zoom hung on the MX. Walked through a railway yard, down to the docks, and to St. Lawrence Market to photograph some street musicians.
First impressions of the lens: Nice size, not too big or heavy for what it is. Even though I didn't have a monopod or tripod with me, a mount on the lens would be nice. It's heavy enough that I wouldn't want to mount the body on a 'pod, because I'm afraid it would be too much strain. I like the screw-lock on the barrel - once you get all focussed and the zoom where you want it, you don't have to worry about it moving - nice for architectural shots where I had to wait several minutes for cars or people to move out of the way. The one downside (that I didn't notice yesterday) is the aperture ring is plastic and very flimsy feeling. It doesn't move smoothly at all. I guess it's that famous "Sigma build quality" that I keep hearing about. Geez, this wasn't a cheap lens when it was new. As I said yesterday, the barrel is metal. How much more would it have cost them to put a solid feeling metal aperture ring on it? Maybe $10 or $20? Reeks of cheapness, imho. Anyway, the proof will be in the pictures, and hopefully I'll have the first few that ended a roll within a week or so... regards, frank -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
