darrinlingle's reviews

  • Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    light, small, sharp, image stabilizer, inexpensive, fast accurate focus
    feels cheap, slow aperature

    i've had the previous non-IS 18-55mm kit lens and the difference is huge. i heard from this site that the image quality was better, then checked canon's web site. they claim a better MTF so i tried it. the salesman at the camera store said he could immediately tell a difference by looking through the lens and that it had more contrast. i've done some tests on it and compared it to the 24-105L's weak focal length (105mm). this lens was much sharper at any focal length at f8 compared to the 24-105L at f4.
    it's amazing that this lens is only $200 and also has I.S. i wish canon would improve the build quality and make it a little stronger, even for $50 more; at least a metal mount. overall, it's an awesome lens. photozone.de also just released a review and rated it excellent. this lens will outperform many "L" lenses believe it or not.

    reviewed November 25th, 2007 (purchased for $200)

  • Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX IF HSM APO

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    sharp, well built, fast focus, works well w/sigma 1.4x TC, price, fx/dx frame
    heavy, 82mm filter size, under-rated

    nikon doesn't really have an affordable fast focusing super-tele-zoom like canon's 100-400L. this is a great alternative because as a previous 100-400L owner, this one seems like it's as sharp with the sigma ex dg 1.4x teleconverter (TC), stopped down to f8 at 420mm. the color and contrast are excellent. don't use a kenko 1.5x or generic teleconverter. the 1.5x doesn't focus with it most of the time. the sigma 1.4x ex dg focuses slower than without a TC but still fast enough for sports and wildlife. i use this on my nikon d300 and d700 with a auto focus fine tune of -4.
    i highly recommend this lens. it's very under-rated - a sleeper lens.

    reviewed December 9th, 2008 (purchased for $925)

  • Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    best bang for the buck, solid build, sharp when stopped down, stabilizer
    soft wide open, f6.3

    after seeing many pics with this lens, i bought one for my nikon d300. very impressive with and without a teleconverter IF stopped down to f8-f11 w/o TC and f11-f14 with a TC. then i put a tamron SP series 1.4x teleconverter on it and when stopped down to f11-f14, AMAZING shots : http://flickr.com/gp/darrinzoolander/60rUec

    reviewed March 25th, 2009 (purchased for $824)

  • Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH LEICA DG VARIO-ELMARIT

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    very sharp in the center great contrast great color no hot spots when used on a fullspectrum camera for infrared photography takes standard 67mm filter solid build smooth dampened focus and zoom
    edge softness very expensive

    there's just a little edge softness, even when stopped down.
    it's so mild that i didn't even notice it until it was pointed out to me.
    i still highly recommend this lens.

    reviewed June 22nd, 2017 (purchased for $1,097)

  • Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* SAL2470Z2

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Razor sharp contrast colorful images Amazingly fast focus with my A7 II and LA-EA4 lens adapter. The solid feeling of a brick. 77mm filter size
    The size of a brick. The weight of a brick. Costs a fortune.

    This is the best lens I've owned. It's much faster, even with a lens adapter, compared to 3 other native FE E-mount lenses I've tried on my Sony A7ii.
    If you can get past the weight and size of the lens and adapter if you have an e-mount camera, this is worth every penny.
    I'm not listing it as a Con because this is an A-mount lens, but if you use it with an e-mount camera, you do lose some minor features and have only 15 (yet very fast accurate) phase detect points in the center of the frame.

    reviewed July 26th, 2017 (purchased for $1,550)