New member needs help

[lurechunker]

I am new to the forum and asking for help. Our granddaughter plays basketball and I would like to photograph her. I kayak and would like to photograph birds. Is the EOS 760D the camera for me? Other? What lens or lenses? How can I protect my equipment form damage from saltwater? Thank you.

[lurechunker]

I need longer reach for birds. Should I go with Tamron 150-600 G2 or the Canon 1.4 teleconverter for my 100-400 ll L? I have the 80D.

[ebiggs1]

IMHO, I always prefer native focal length over converted.  So I recommend the Tamron 150-600 G2. I really don't like lenses that are slower than f2.8 or certainly f4 for converter use.  Canon is supposed to be developing a 200-600mm non-L to compete with the Tamron and Sigma offerings.  Who knows when is the question?

[Waddizzle]

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@lurechunker wrote:

I need longer reach for birds. Should I go with Tamron 150-600 G2 or the Canon 1.4 teleconverter for my 100-400 ll L? I have the 80D.

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Longer reach?  Maybe.  Birding reminds me a whole LOT of fishing.  You have to know your prey.  It pays to be quiet when fishing, and even more so when birding.  You have to know when and where to go, and sometimes you have to wait it out.

One can never have too much reach.  If you buy a teleconverter for your Canon lens, then buy a Canon teleconverter, and make sure the teleconverter is compatible with the new lens.  It will slow down AF speed, which could have a negative impact on your frame rate, depending upon your settings.  Image quality with a teleconverter. I will leave that subject for others.

As far as needling more reach goes, what size of bird, and how far are you form the bird?

[lurechunker]

I am very happy with my 80D and 100-400 L. I probably would have liked the 18-135 better than my 18-55. Live and learn. My thanks to all who have posted. I am hooked on photography. Next purchase will probably be a Tamron 150-600 G2. Need to rob a 7-11 first. 

[Waddizzle]

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@lurechunker wrote:

I am very happy with my 80D and 100-400 L. I probably would have liked the 18-135 better than my 18-55. Live and learn. My thanks to all who have posted. I am hooked on photography. Next purchase will probably be a Tamron 150-600 G2. Need to rob a 7-11 first. 

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Birding can be expensive.  You might consider the Canon EF 1.4x III extender, and/or a 70-200mm.  

I understand the Tamron is brand new, and supposedly improved over the original.  I doubt if I will ever use one, seeing that I have a Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens, which has been a great lens until I get out to 600mm, where it seems to get soft.  Even when I manually focused at the Moon, it always seemed a bit soft.

However, I just recently installed a firmware update via the Sigma Dock.  The update was supposed to be a completely new AF algorithm, which supposedly allows for faster, quieter, and more accurate focusing.  Did it do all of that?  I do not know.  

A couple dozen of shots of birds pecking at the grass shows that my in lens micro-adjustments are off, so I need to clear them out.  I will also point out that what used to be front focusing, and corrected with AFMA ....

... is now back focusing.  In other words,  If I reset the front focus adjustment [+2] to zero, it just might be spot on at ZERO.

The lens does focus with less noise.  The lens does focus faster.  It does re-acquire lost focus faster, too.  Whatever Sigma did in their firmware, so far they seem to have got it right.  How they can make these improvements through firmware is a mystery, to me.

Judging from the rocks, the lens is back focusing.  It took months to set up these AFMA settings, so now I need start all over from the beginning.  So far, it doesn't look like much will be needed.

[lurechunker]

I do not understand any of that but I know beauty when I see it. Beautiful shots. Maybe some day......

[ebiggs1]

"Whatever Sigma did in their firmware, so far they seem to have got it right."

Hey you got a MTF chart to prover you lens is good or are you going to let those beautiful photographs do it for you?  

No, all kidding aside those are top drawer.

[lurechunker]

A 14 yo granddaughter has expressed interest. How about the T6 for her?

[John_SD]

Great stuff there, Waddizzle. In a genre that seems over-saturated, these really stand out as being above and beyond. Fabulous. 

[Waddizzle]

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@lurechunker wrote:

I do not understand any of that but I know beauty when I see it. Beautiful shots. Maybe some day......

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In a nutshell, I have not been one to applaud Sigma because their lenses seem to have a hard time focusing.  I have also been critical of my copy of the 150-600mm "C" lens.  When I use it at 600mm, the images are softer than those at 500mm.

One positive note for some Sigma lenses is the Sigma Dock.  It is a device you can use to update the lens firmware.  You can also use the Sigma Dock to perform AFMA, Auto Focus Micro Adjustments, which is what I was describing.

My lens was never sharp at 600mm, and even then it had a "front focus" problem, which means the sharpest plane of focus was in front of target.  I made an AFMA, which pushed the plane of focus away from the camera.

After the firmware update, which did not clear out my AFMA settings in the lens, the lens now seems to have a "back focus" problem.  It is as if my AFMA adjustment setting is no longer needed, which would be a good thing.  

I think my posted shots are a bit OOF, with the lens exhibiting "back focus", which seems to be apparent from the rocks.  While the shots may seem to be in focus, I think the subject is at the near edge of the DOF.

[EDIT]. My point is simple, though.  The Sigma and Tamron lenses were similarly priced, and reported to have similar IQ.  I chose the Sigma over the Tamron for mainly one reason, the Sigma Dock.  

Tamron has since released a more costly "G2" version, which is reported to be better than their original 150-600mm.  I think Sigma may have finally figured an AF algorithm that finally works as advertised.  I was able to update my lens without sending it in to the factory.   The cost of the dock is far less than the cost of the shipping to the factory to have them do a firmware update.