looking for sigma glass, where to buy?

[finboy]

I am fast coming to the conclusion that my current lenses SUCK for low light situations, which isn't good as I often find myself shooting indoors or with flourescent lighting, often with fast moving objects.

I am selling some guitars, and have come up with enough money to look at 2 of sigma's new lenses, the 18-35 and 50-100. After reading tons of reviews, watching video's, etc. Ive come to the conclusion that these will actually be a great choice for my applciation.

unfortunately with the US dollar killing us right now, local prices have jumped for these lenses recently. As much as I want to support locally, amazon.ca has a retailer selling the 18-35 for 950 shipped ($1100 locally), and $1400 shipped for the 50-100 ($1549 locally). I would love to buy from someone in town, but that is $300 that could go to many other things.

So my ask, does anyone know shops in town that are more flexible to match online pricing? I would imagine most of them are taking the exchange rate hit too, but wasn't sure if camera stores have much room for movement.

[The_Penguin]

Originally posted by finboy

I am selling some guitars, and have come up with enough money to look at 2 of sigma's new lenses, the 18-35 and 50-100.

Guitars and lenses. I collect them both
What do you shoot, Canon or Nikon?

Over the last 10 or so years I've spread my money failry evenly across Vistek, Saneal, and The Camera Store, but very much prefer the Camera Store. Definitely check them out.
Also keep an eye open on Kijiji, and Facebook, there can be some good deals. I know someone that got a smokin' deal on a 24-70 2.8 Sigma on Kijiji and it's as good if not better than my Canon L.

Are you focused (no pun intended) on Sigma for a reason (best bang for the buck perhaps) ? Just curious.
They DO make some very good good glass.

[finboy]

i am looking at the new art zooms due to the constant 1.8, and ability to swap focal distances quickly. when shooting my dogs, prime's just aren't working out great, and the zooms i have don't play nice in agility arenas.

I shoot canon, and after months of trying to decide what was going to work best for what i do, settled on those lenses as the 18-35 will be a nice "every day" lens and the 50-100 is perfect for indoor arena events. I don't see myself stepping up to full from any time soon, if i were to move anywhere next it would be to a sony mirrorless (unless canon finally brings out something decent in that segment), and sigma just released a great new adapter for the sony line that will allow all of the focus features with sigma canon mount lenses. lots of flexibility in that way.

the camera store is definitely a good price and good service, I am wondering if i offer to buy both lenses in one go if they will bring the price down.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Avoid Vistek and Seneal, stick to The Camera Store, or online. Aden Camera out East typically has the best prices and free shipping, and you can sometimes get other places to match them. Just look on www.photoprice.ca for comparisons.

My only caution would be dropping ~$3,000 on lenses that will only work on crop sensor bodies. A lot of people end up going full frame, so just something to be aware of. Obviously if you have no plans for that, there's nothing to worry about. You also need to add the cost of the Sigma dock, unless your copies are perfectly calibrated at F1.8 at every combination of subject distance and focal length. The calibration process is extremely annoying and time consuming, so if there are any major issues there I would just exchange the lens anyway.

What camera body do you have? That could be a big part of the problem given the challenging shooting conditions (action in poor light is pretty well the hardest thing to shoot). A Sony mirrorless would be one of the last things I would reach for when shooting in a poorly lit arena to shoot fast action. If you are using Sigma lenses though you have the luxury of picking any major camera brand you want.

[finboy]

Currently using canon sl1, it doesn't have the more advanced focusing system of the 70d/80d line but is a great carry and go camera. mobility is a huge thing for me so the less gear I have to carry, the smaller it is, and the less switching I have to do, the more useful it will be. Weight is less of a consideration, so much as physical size of the camera itself.

Curious about your take on sony's mirrorless performance in fast moving/low light environments, from what I've read/seen the new a6300 seem to perform quite well. By no means am I committing to that camera, but it definitely seems like a cool option in the future.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by finboy
Currently using canon sl1, it doesn't have the more advanced focusing system of the 70d/80d line but is a great carry and go camera. mobility is a huge thing for me so the less gear I have to carry, the smaller it is, and the less switching I have to do, the more useful it will be. Weight is less of a consideration, so much as physical size of the camera itself.

Your camera body is definitely contributing to your frustration in such a difficult environment. You are using the most entry level DSLR you can buy and taking it into one of the hardest environments to shoot, along with what I am guessing were variable aperture f5.6 kit lenses (correct me if I'm wrong there). No bueno. The SL1's 9-point AF system is very entry level (to be honest it sucks), has a single cross-type point, and has a sensitivity of only -0.5 EV with single shot, even less in Servo AF (what you would be using) and outside the center point. It's just not up to the task of agility shooting in an indoor arena. Size/mobility is it's forte, and in that respect it does well. I think you will still be frustrated with AF performance and keeper rate even with the new lenses.

Originally posted by finboy
Curious about your take on sony's mirrorless performance in fast moving/low light environments, from what I've read/seen the new a6300 seem to perform quite well. By no means am I committing to that camera, but it definitely seems like a cool option in the future.

The A6300 is an awesome camera, just again not one I would take into a poorly lit indoor arena and shoot the most difficult subjects for any AF system (erratic movement coming directly toward the camera in many cases). A good DSLR is going to destroy it in AF performance under these conditions. Sony rates the A6300's AF sensitivity at -1.0 EV which is quite poor as well with regards to low light. The other things to consider using mirrorless for action is battery life is a mere fraction of a DSLR, the EVF looks like crap in low light, and balance/ergonomics are way different (you might like this though because you seem to be all about compactness which is fine). EVF lag is also still an issue, and very annoying when shooting action. Even with Sony's newly implemented 'fix' for viewfinder blackout on the A6300, the lag issue remains. Yes, they have ridiculous FPS rates and on-paper specs, but the AF and tracking are not up to par with a good DSLR especially when lighting is poor. You also get into a system where lenses are very expensive with minimal selection, and lens adapters are not ideal. Since it sounds like dog agility is a primary shooting target for you, I wouldn't be going the mirrorless route until things improve a lot. Our standards may be different though, so I would encourage you to try out as many options as possible if you can without purchase commitment. The A6300 is a phenomenal travel/general purpose camera but I would not recommend one for something like indoor dog agility.

[finboy]

By no means is agility the only thing I shoot, but it is definitely making the limitations of my current gear shine through. Primarily I use it for hikes/biking with the occasional around the house get together with a 40mm f2.8 pancake, and the newer canon 10-18 and 55-250. While these lenses work fine outdoors, they do show the limits of the sl1 in low light/action. While I do understand the upsides of buying full frame glass with plans to move to full frame, it's just not a step I see myself taking, especially with the direction mirrorless and apsc have gone as of late (really hope canon delivers something more competitive with the d500). The sl1 works for 80% of what I do now, but falls flat on the last 20%, my hope was that investing in glass now will help with that 20% until I decide where I want to upgrade next, and these sigma lenses have been getting great reviews. Some have mentioned stopping them down to f2 or f2.8 can help with focus hunting, which could help with the focus requirements of the sl1.

Interesting about the Sony, always up for hearing more opinions on it as it definitely has some other aspects (see: wobbly as shit when panning in video) that aren't quite there.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by finboy
By no means is agility the only thing I shoot, but it is definitely making the limitations of my current gear shine through. Primarily I use it for hikes/biking with the occasional around the house get together with a 40mm f2.8 pancake, and the newer canon 10-18 and 55-250. While these lenses work fine outdoors, they do show the limits of the sl1 in low light/action. While I do understand the upsides of buying full frame glass with plans to move to full frame, it's just not a step I see myself taking, especially with the direction mirrorless and apsc have gone as of late (really hope canon delivers something more competitive with the d500). The sl1 works for 80% of what I do now, but falls flat on the last 20%, my hope was that investing in glass now will help with that 20% until I decide where I want to upgrade next, and these sigma lenses have been getting great reviews. Some have mentioned stopping them down to f2 or f2.8 can help with focus hunting, which could help with the focus requirements of the sl1.

Interesting about the Sony, always up for hearing more opinions on it as it definitely has some other aspects (see: wobbly as shit when panning in video) that aren't quite there.

You could always keep the SL1 and add another more capable body for agility. Then you only have to deal with a 'bulkier' body when you shoot agility, which is probably a non-issue if you go there with the intention of shooting most of the time.

I think the 7D3 is probably quite a ways away, and the D500 AF has already bested the 1DX II AF, and you know Canon isn't going to give you 1DX II AF (or better) in a crop body (they never have in the past) so I would be very surprised if they came out with what would basically be a crop-sensor 1DX II. Never know though.

Stopping down a lens will do nothing to help with focus hunting because lenses AF wide open and stop down at the time of the shot only. I suspect the intention of the person saying that stopping down makes it easier to focus was simply that at F1.8 the depth of field is incredibly thin. By stopping down a bit, and therefore increasing DOF, focus errors and inaccuracies which were very obvious at F1.8 are less noticeable, and also more of the subject will be in acceptable focus with the greater DOF. Shooting those dogs at F1.8, you probably aren't going to have very much in focus even if you nail it (depends what kind of shot you're going for). If you're going to be shooting at F2-F2.8 anyway, you also get more lens options. Shooting action at F1.8 with any camera/lens combination is challenging with the razor thin DOF.

If you're looking at Sigma lenses and aren't tied down to one system, maybe consider the D500. For not much more than you were going to spend on those two Sigma lenses you could get a D500 + a decent telephoto (Used perhaps) and there would be no better camera for something like agility. If that's only 20% of your shooting though it may not make sense, but something to think about. If the exchange rate wasn't so shitty it might be an easier decision haha.

[finboy]

Exchange rate is killing me at the moment. Absolutely correct on the dof, there is a lot of chat around the sharpness of the art lenses around f2.8, but it would still be a crutch with the body. Out of curiosity, what body are you shooting with at the moment, I've liked quite a few of your shots from the latest photo thread.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by finboy
Exchange rate is killing me at the moment. Absolutely correct on the dof, there is a lot of chat around the sharpness of the art lenses around f2.8, but it would still be a crutch with the body. Out of curiosity, what body are you shooting with at the moment, I've liked quite a few of your shots from the latest photo thread.

Yeah the exchange rate is brutal, and it affects camera gear more significantly than a lot of things unfortunately. They waste no time raising prices, but take forever going the other way - it has dropped 15 points from the high, and prices are of course unchanged. Depends on the yen too though.

I use a Nikon D810 at the moment. I mostly shoot landscapes, real estate interiors, and portraits. The AF system is very capable, but with 36MP it tops out at 5-7 FPS depending on settings. If I were shooting more action or wildlife I would have already ordered a D500. The fact that you can get what is effectively a crop sensor D5 for less than half the price is pretty ridiculous.