I received my package from Amazon today...and it was packed by a moron.

The box is like 3 times as wide as the box of the lens. However, no other packing material was used. Lens seems light enough that it survived just fine, and any "minute" misalignment is probably mitigated by the f/4-5.6 apertures. Pretty much, at present I'm not too worried about it.

When I want to do a "sharpness" test quickly and dirty, I shoot this bird that hangs from a light string in my kitchen. I don't wipe it off...ever, because the dust/cat hair along with the smooth/semi-gloss finish of the humming bird is a variety.

So I popped a flash on top of my refridgerator and shot a few frames at 55-70-135-200-250.

These are purely academic, as there's nothing more to them than my camera, and being 100% crops (these were cropped to be actual pixels. There's no up/downsizing.

other 2 focal lengths, then the 55 and 250 full frame images.

Lens looks alright for the money for sure...

The bird... Well...

:x

h00ligan wrote:
Lens looks alright for the money for sure...

The bird... Well...

:x




I wonder when pet kal will chime in...I just whooped up on him. 55-70-100-135-200-250 f/4-5.6 ISo 100 hummingbird in flight!

Lol.

How did you stop the action on his wings??!? It would be an outstanding capture, but he's got a bit of that "deer in the headlights" look.

Lol

Rob, I feel humbled by your BIF artistry.
Also, you should know that I have never seen a shot of the hummingbird in true flight.........but plenty of them shot "in hover". Truthfully, that is not much more difficult than what you have done....the bird is stationary in both cases.

Enjoy your new lens.

Lol, thx.

I thought about returning it...like...seriously why did I honestly waste 144 bucks on it...then I figured, eh, screw it. I'll beat it around a bit.

RobertLynn wrote:
Lol, thx.

I thought about returning it...like...seriously why did I honestly waste 144 bucks on it...then I figured, eh, screw it. I'll beat it around a bit.

OK, then.......try a shot of this type.......any bird will do as long as it flies straight into the camera.

Now, you think 7D has a good AF system ? Or perhaps 1DMkIII is better ? No matter, you can use any camera you wish.

(In this shot I used 1DsMkII + 500 f/4)

That's the one thing the 55-250 can't do very well (well, it's one of the things anyway)...AF fast enough on objects coming towards ther cameras.

It really is a decent little lens. A perfect throw in the bag zoom for APSC owners.

I love my 55-250 for what it is...you have to crank up the sharpness to get this lens to sing but man for as small, feather lite, and cheep... why not have it as an option in your cropbody bag. For me the focal range is perfect. If there was a pro quality version of this lens I would upgrade to it without thinking twice.

The 55-250 IS is a good lens for the money, I've owned 2 Mk I versions and the Mk II version, and found the Mk I version to be a bit sharper then the Mk II.

Oh those shots were right out of the camera. Raw to Jpeg conversion. No sharpness or anything.

Petkal, not sure if the af on this 55-250 is fast enough, but yes i do indeed think both the 1d3 and 7d have very good af ;$

To really round out your day, stick your 70-200 lenses on your 7D and get one or two representative shots at 70 and 200.

Please.

It would be interesting, I swear.

I had one of those lenses for about 1 day before I shuffled it off to a friend. It's hard to beat the size and weight on those things.

TrojanHorse wrote:
To really round out your day, stick your 70-200 lenses on your 7D and get one or two representative shots at 70 and 200.

Please.

It would be interesting, I swear.

I had one of those lenses for about 1 day before I shuffled it off to a friend. It's hard to beat the size and weight on those things.

I don't know...I have a feeling that my 70-200 version 2 (I just shipped version 1 away) is sharper wide open than these are at f/4 and f/5.6. Maybe I will do it though for fun.

the 55-250 is a great lens, and considering the price, is pretty astonishing. Now when i had one several years ago, it came as a kit with the XSi, so I am sure that the AF hunted a "bit" more than with your 7D. With that said, I found that in less than optimized lighting, the ISO needed to be bumped up.

I must have a sharp copy or something... I have used this lens for 2 years in a dusty environment taking pictures of people on horseback. The images do come out better on my 60D than on the rebel xsi that it stays on.

Images are out of the camera with standard factory settings. Shot in sRAW.


IMG_6738111-top by KMpics.com, on Flickr

IMG_6738111-bottom by KMpics.com, on Flickr

I didn't exactly shoot a sharp/contrasty subject.

I also shot in full raw. You're looking at a full 100%crop of an 18mp raw file.

at the dust... is that under the front element or something you could have blown off?

I'm not at all paranoid about a little dust but that's incredible.

Robert as you know the 7D at 100 per cent is a very demanding camera. Your zoom looks plenty sharp to me!