Tag Archives: lens

Nikon 18-200 F3.5-5.6 VR 2 Demonstration / Review

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...  information: the VR uses quite a bit of battery. Probably as much as the flash at near full power. Also, the VR "sleep" behavior I demonstrate is true of all VR I've tested. I went to the store and tried 5 different VR lenses and they all went to sleep if you held the lens too still. This only happens when you brace yourself or rest your elbows on something. I doubt you could hold it still enough free-standing. "Normal" mode will attempt to actually lock on and hold that position where as "Active" mode simply dampens movements but does not attempt to out-right stop them. NOTE: be sure you turn off vr for any long exposure! The lens will "drift" causing any long tripod exposures to appear motion blurry. Kind of ...

Tamron Lens Sale/rebates on Amazon

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...  the nice Sigma sale Amazon just had (maybe it is still going - I am not sure) Amazon has a number of Tamron lenses with discounts. Tamron Discounts on Amazon. Between Tamron and Sigma, I have had better luck with Tamron. The outstanding Tamron 17-50 f2.8 is one of my more heavily used lenses. For some the range is too limited, but you can't fault the image quality for the price. Anyway, if you have been considering a Tamron lens, this might be a good opportunity to save a ...

Symptoms of Oily Aperture Blades

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...  aperture blades is one of the maladies that can effect old camera lenses. Oil gets onto the blades when the grease in the focus gearing breaks down and leaks. Age and heat are typically what causes the grease to break down i.e. a lens left in a car on a hot sunny day. The blades should be absolutely dry, they do not need lubrication. The primary symptom of oily blades is usually over exposure on shots where aperture is set smaller than wide open. So for example with a 85mm f1.4 lens, wide open is f1.4. If you set f5.6 on the camera and take a picture it comes out overexposed for no good reason. What is happening is that while focusing, the camera holds the lens wide open so you have a bright viewfinder and the AF unit can do its job well. When you press the shutter release the camera closes the lens to the specified aperture and takes the picture. With oil on the blades, the blades don't move or not quickly enough to get to the correct position. The result is that you ...

Sigma Lens Sale!

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Amazon is offering 10% off of Sigma lenses sold by Amazon (not 3rd party sellers). You can check out the list of available lenses here: Amazon Sigma Sale The sales code is: SIGMADAD Amazon often has excellent prices to begin with, so an additional 10% is nice. If you have Prime, you can get free 2 day shipping as well. I do most of my online shopping since it comes tax and shipping free. It is more convenient than shopping local. I buy most of my camera equipment from eBay, but let me give you another example. I purchase a fair amount of computer components for work. I can usually find a better prices at other sources, like Newegg and others, BUT with tax and shipping cost Amazon is almost always cheaper AND faster. Good luck finding your deal  ...