Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great lens for a great price, May 1, 2006
The auto focus is super quiet and reasonably fast in most situations, although mounted on my D30 it does get confused in complex lighting. This is a BIG and HEAVY lens. I use the neck strap provided with the lens, as well as the strap on the camera at the same time. Although I'm probably overcautious, I don't trust the weight of the lens hanging from the camera without extra support. Mounted on a monopod, it is well balanced although following birds in flight presents a challenge. Optically, it's truly beautiful through all f stops. It looks like it will take any abuse I can reasonably give it, being solidly constructed and manufactured to very precise tolerances. I wanted a quality super telephoto and I got one at a great price.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth it's weight in gold!, November 8, 2006
This has been my primary lens for all of my aviation photography and has never let me down! I have photographs that I've taken as slow as 1/40 at the 500mm end without the use of any tripod/monopod with fantastic results! The lens obviously comes in at 8 pounds and in my opinion really helps with panning. The real reason for purshasing this lens is its incredible zoom range. At airshows I keep it in the 300-500mm end of the lens most of the time but there have been many times I had to quickly zoom to the 50mm end to frame that "perfect" shot to include an aircraft taxiing right in front of me along with the other aircraft still in the air. I also shoot at a local airport for my clients and not having to quickly change lenses/bodies continually makes this lens well worth its weight in gold!
the only issue I've had with this lens is when I'm shooting in windy conditions. That long lens acts like a sail and can really be a problem when shooting a slow/stationary object.
Nearly every photograph on my website, fight2flyphoto.com, was taken with this incredible lens.
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bigma: Not a lens, a window (.. yes .. it can be a pain), July 25, 2008
Other owners of this lens will walk up to you when you are shooting in public with this lens, and they will ask how you like "bigma." Bigma is the nickname of this lens.
I've used this lens for 4 years, it has enabled me to discover much. For example, girls and women, can *feel* you looking at them. With this lens, you can get far enough away (30+ feet) that females can't feel you looking at them. And, then you get great head and shoulder candid shots. And then, their mothers call you up and say "I just love that picture because she didn't know you were there." Another constituency you will have improved access to, is small children. They also, like to have their pictures taken, and with all the digital cameras around today, they are masters of over posing. With bigma your church will ask you to become the unofficial photographer because you get "better" pictures of the kids (i.e., candids without posing) than anyone else.
I've used the lens on a D70 taking kid-event pictures, high school soccer pictures, and high school marching band pictures. Yes, I had and hated the auto focus problems - particularly in sports. So, if you have a D70, be prepared to be patient until you get the hang of the lens. Bigma will force you to read your manual and to experiment with autofocus and to measure the % of out of focus pictures you get, and keep trying new things. But after the pain, this is a good thing. It is called learning.
Now I'm using the 50-500 on my D300 there are smaller and less frequent autofocus problems. The sensors in the D70 were not quite good enough, I think. So, if you have a D70 and don't like this lens, you might want to trade the 50-500 for a D300. Or borrow a friend's D200 or D300 and see if the lens performs better. Root cause may be the camera, not the lens.
Bigma Advice:
- You will need a [monopod[ASIN:B0002YE6EU Canon Monopod 100 for SLR Cameras & Lenses]] to avoid killing your back. If you get the Canon like I have, the swivel top has loosened to the point where super glue reengineering is required.
- You also need to know to turn the aperature all the way down when you put the lens on the camera, or Nikons won't shoot. You will know that this has happened by listening to your self say "What the __ll is wrong? Why won't it shoot?"
- Get a [Nikon lens cleaning pen[ASIN:B00006JN3G Nikon Lens Pen Cleaning System]]. With all the glass in a bigma, there are spots, dots, and nits galore to police off the inner and outer lens surfaces. Keep the glass clean and the pictures are visibly sharper.
- Don't ever use the tripod mount on the camera with bigma attached. I did this once by accident. Always, always, always use the tripod mount on the bigma handle. That's what I say to prevent a recurrence.
I must agree with the encomium shared by other positive reviewers. I wouldn't be without bigma. It puts the camera into a world you won't see without it. You bought the Nikon because your eyes are bad, you love the egoboo of giving an undeserving parent a great picture of their kid, and your pocket is no longer so empty. Buy the bigma to get the most out of your Nikon. Bigma + Nikon = increased egoboo.
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