Advantages: Larege aperture, high quality glass, cheaper than Canon.
Disadvantages: It's still a big, pricey lens.

...Big f2.8 aperture lets in more light, allowing the use of faster shutter speeds to freeze movement, especially useful in action sports. Of course the best lens for me to have bought for my Canon system at the time would have been the Canon L series 70-200mm f2.8, but these lovely lenses are just too expensive for many amateurs (who have to pay for their own equipment, like me). The Sigma offering compares very favourably in reviews in the camera press. Optically, it is not too far behind the Canon lens, and price wise, I would say 2/3 of the price of the Canon lens, although Canon have recently introduced a version of the 70-200mm f2.8L with Image Stabilisation, and that is a very nice lens indeed ! I bought my Sigma through ebay, and paid £450 for a mint example, with the box, case, instructions etc. I had decided that I wanted... Read review

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Advantages: Good lens for the money
Disadvantages: Doesn't have Nikon stamped on it

...I certainly picked a hard review to beat for my first opinion, Nige has covered all the good points, but if I'm not mistaken, it was a Canon mount version he reviewed? I have been using Nikon for a few years, and one of the good points about the system is the continued lens interchangeability from the early days, through the classic models (FM, FE F3 etc), right to the present day, and hopefully into the future. The tec specs you can get from the other opinion, so I'll just give you my user perspective on how the lens performs. For starters, although it's an autofocus lens, I use it on my Nikon FE2 body (manual focus, for those who don't know the Nikon system). The lens is a good performer on a manual focus camera, as the focus ring is wide, and smooth in operation, like the zoom ring to the rear of the lens. The large f2... Read review

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Advantages: Economy, size, running costs, equipment
Disadvantages: Acceleration

... Ford Fiesta Ghia 1.4 TDCi 5dr Background I have owned my 2004 Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCi since it was 6 months old and have traveled at the time of writing (OCT 2007) 25000 miles though the car has done 30000 in total.The car lacks in one area, which is acceleration, however, this does not detract from a 5-star rating because if you're purchasing a diesel at this price point you should be doing it for the excellent economy - not for super fast performance... The Drive The car is great fun to drive, and surprisingly nippy round town, the handling feels safe and secure and corners neatly. It is not a performance hatchback so don't expect to be 'burning-off' your average family saloon on a head to head, however the car has a respectable top speed (102mph) and cruises quite nicely on motorways at 70. Not as smooth as larger... Read review

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Advantages: Superb build quality, image quality and incredible image stabiliser
Disadvantages: Big and heavy and very conspicuous. It's blinging. Eats batteries too.

...a mighty 1.57kg, double that of the f4 lens. Of course, if you've got REALLY deep pockets AND you're built like The Terminator, you could buy the EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS and have the best of both! Just don't be surprised if you get arrested for drug abuse while trying to blag your way into the Olympic stadium, posing as a press photographer. Conclusion ----------------- For me, the EF 70-200 f4 L IS rates as an exellent telephoto. Well worth the money. If you want to take great sports or wildlife shots then team this lens with a 30D or a 40D body and you get a package that has a very useful range of 320mm at f4 in a package that you can easily hand hold shoot. The 4 stop IS does the job and makes a real difference when taking detail landscape shots (where the subject is stationary and you just want to eliminate camera shake... Read review

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Advantages: Great fuel economy, FAST acceleration, excellent top speed, Great all round small car!
Disadvantages: Lack of CD player (although CD Changers can be fitted), No Air conditioning, sunroof doesn't completely open - unless you take it off and put it in the boot!

...adults (and maybe one small child in the middle) in the car, so in my opinion it would be ideal for a small family, and is great in long journeys. I'm not sure of the exact figures, but £10 worth of petrol will easily take me just over 100 miles (speed cameras permitting). It's an excellent car for a "new driver", or if the 1.4i is a bit much (being a Zetec engine, it has a power output simalar to another branded 1.6) there is a smaller engine in the Ghia range which is a 1.25i, which you can pick up an excellent conditioned one for approx £3500. All in all, a fabulous car, and I would recommend it to anyone!... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic Clarity
Disadvantages: Weight and Cost

...was used in both cases. You will note no distortion or colour blurring on the Fig 2. This is a neighbour and baby. To show them they have each been compressed to 1/4 size Where can you get this lens. Well my advice is to shop around. This is not a lens that a shop will be keeping in stock. So they will have to order it.I got mine through Bristol Cameras. They have a web site where you can shop. I spotted this on line Friday night. Saturday I went in person to the shop and talked about it. Monday 09.30 am the salesman said that Sigma U.K. had ONE in stock, did I want it? Wednesday 09.30am they called again. It had arrived. How's that for service! This company try for a 48hr delivery time. You may have to hang on longer till there are more stocks in U.K. and I do not know when that will be. You may also get a better deal on price. I... Read review

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Advantages: Reasonable image quality, In Camera red eye removal,
Disadvantages: Noisy Pictures, Chromatic Abhorrations

...: 5.36 (2690x1994 - First time I've seen an image size for a total pixel count). Effective Pixels: 5.19 (2620x1984). Memory: 16M onboard (between 7.5 & 8.5 Mb used for camera functions) Lens: 3x Optical Zoom. (equivalent to 36 to 108 mm on 35 mm camera) Digital Zoom: 6x (18x total) F stops: f/2.91 to f/4.86 (wide) f/4.86 to f/8.0 (telephoto). Viewfinder: Optical real image. Focus: 50 cm - infinity (normal) 10 cm - 80 cm Macro. LCD: 3.8 cms (1.5") with backlight. Image sizes: 5 (5 Mp Best, 5Mp normal, 3Mp, 1Mp, 640x480). ISO Settings 4 (Auto, 100, 200, 400). White Balance: 5 (Auto, Sun, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent). EV: -2.0 - +2.0 in 0.5 EV increments. Scene Modes: 8 (Auto, Macro, Fast... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent over all range
Disadvantages: Weight and possibly cost

...The Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO AF/HSM zoom lens is a medium sized, medium weight and rather expensive lens. It is not a lens for anybody. But if your interest is in wildlife photography or sports photography then this is the lens for you. First the Technical aspects. High Performance Will fit Sigma, Mintola, Nikon, Pentax, and Canon Group/elements 16/20 Angle of view (degrees) 46.8 - 5 No of blades in diaphragm 9 Minimum focus 100-300/39.4 - 18.1 Magnification 1:5.2 Filter 86mm Dimension diameter x length (mm/in) 95x216/3.7x8.5 weight (g/oz)1859/65.2 It can be mounted on a wide variety of cameras. Best to make sure that Sigma makes the lens for your type of camera. I understand that it takes a different chip for each camera. A very useful feature is a Zoom lock. This revents zoom creep when the position... Read review

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Advantages: Good for shooting in low light, compact, discreet, low weight
Disadvantages: None really

...is that kit lenses are "slow" in terms of the light they transmit, typically f/3.5-f/5.6, meaning a slow shutter speed will be required to shoot in low light. This 35mm f/2 "prime" lens lets in a lot more light, about 4X as much in fact, so that you can use faster shutter speeds when shooting indoors without flash for example. Someone with the kit lens shooting indoors without flash might have to shoot at 1/15s wheras someone shooting with this prime lens could still shoot at 1/60s and avoid motion blur. This lens is very compact compared to a zoom lens so is more discreet, which would appeal to street photography enthusiasts. I use this lens with the HN-3 metal lens hood (about £15) which means I'm less likely to damage the glass at the front of the lens if the camera takes a knock, and the hood helps prevent flare from bright sunlight... Read review

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Advantages: compact; lightweight; sharp
Disadvantages: small zoom range; designed for 35mm film; no image stabilisation

...This lens is widely available from many sources, both new and secondhand. It is compact and light in weight and offers a significantly wider zoom range than the 28-55mm lens supplied as 'standard' on many Canon digital SLR cameras. Used on most Canon digital cameras, the effective focal lengths become 1.6x bigger (as the sensor is APS- sized, not 35mm sized), making it a 45 - 170mm zoom. Hardly wide-angle, but, at the lower end, it is roughly the same as the 50mm lens that all 35mm cameras used to be fitted with as standard. With digital cameras, the argument goes, you can 'stitch' several shots together to create a panorama and so overcome the lack of a wider angle lens. That's only true to a limited extent - but TRUE wide-angle lenses need a second mortgage at present! With focal lengths between 80 to 120mm being regarded... Read review

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