A Bohemian feast and a dead Sigma

[Donna]

Finally , the moment I have been waiting for , for years ... Bohemian Waxwings!! ... They found my flowering crabapple tree and were feasting on the tiny red apples .... So , I grab a camera and got outside . When I got around to the front of the house they scattered ...Gone! ... Back inside I went and there they were , in the tree again ... I cammo-ed up and gave it another try . This time sneaking behind the house and along the cover of the trees . They got cagey and flew again , but I continued on and plowed my way through the thigh-deep snow in the lawn to hide by a bushy little spruce tree and wait .... and freeze ... and wait....

I turned on my camera ... only to hear that sickening sound , the one that I have heard far too often , since the purchase of that #$$%# Sigma lens .. That sound that makes my blood curdle ... DEAD!..AGAIN...GRRRRRR!!!! ... well not quite yet ... it has to go through it's theatrics first ... with it's horrible sound effects and prolong the aggony ..... This thing dies twice a year ... Only this time , it has just came back from the warrenty fix-it place and has only been out and used twice , about 25 shots taken . A barn and a Moose ... Now that I think about it ... that was on the same day , so I only got one day out of it .... Good thing I didn't remember that sooner .. I would have really been fuming ...

So , I put the camera and the lens on manual focus . The birds came back and I got a few good shots . Not near as many as I should have got , because I was having heck of a time trying to focus on my flighty targets . It's pretty hard to focus without the focus screen , like we had in the olden days ... and it didn't help , that I didn't have my glasses on :headslap:

So here is the bird I have waited so long to get a shot of . This is the first photo that came up when I veiwed them after loading them onto my computer ... I was really happy with it and it sure helped ease some of my grieving over my dead lens .

[Donna]

I had to play with texturing on one of them too :)
Used another one of the free textures from playingwithbrushes .

[Iguanasan]

Well you managed to focus well on that first one! :thumbup: Sorry to hear about your troubles with your Sigma lens. I have a 70-300mm Sigma and I love it. Haven't had any trouble with it at all. I have heard that Sigma lenses are considerably cheaper due to the fact that the quality control is lower. :(

[Donna]

Thanks Iggy :) ... I love the lens when it's working ... But this has been so frustrating . The last 4 times it's been in on warrenty , they have told us that they will send us a new one because it had been in so many times .... But we keep getting the same lens back a month later with a work order that shows they replaced a $5.00 part . It's been a lemon from the start .. it has 3 spots inside on the front lens ellement since brand new . they are visable and they show up on photos taken at the short end . They try cleaning it each time we send it in and never get rid of them . It should have been replaced right away just because of that ..... Good thing Sigma has a ten year warrenty in Canada .

[Andrew]

The more forums I go into the more bad things I hear about Sigma lenses. Most comments are good but there also seems to be a higher proportion of bad than other manufacturers. A ten year warranty on anything is worth nothing to me if I don't have the full use of it during those ten years. I would by far rather have a product I could unconditionally trust for five years rather than have something that is either broken half of the time or that you had that nagging concern in the back of your head every time you used it? Advertising for Sigma seems to push idea that their quality is as good as others but in practice that doesn't appear to be the case. I'd rather pay the extra 10 - 20% and have the assurances that when I use a product whether it be a lens, a car, a fridge, whatever, that it is going to reliably do what I laid down my hard earned cash for. Yes we have been hearing more horror stories about the Nikon Service Center but those concerns I have seen are more related to the quality of the staff labour. Again, lots of good experiences but far too many bad for a company of that stature.

[Michaelaw]

Oh yeah.....That's the shot.....Danm!!! You did good work here:thumbup: Despite the obstacles you came out with a beauty...Good for you:clap::clap:

[JAS_Photo]

Beautiful captures of a beautiful bird!

[Yisehaq]

That was one beautiful shot. I like it very much. The journey to getting a good photo is always enjoyable and even more when it pays off .

[jude01]

really nice shot Donna

[Hillbillygirl]

That is one beautiful shot Donna. Perfect focus, especially regarding the circumstances. Hope you get this lens problem remedied in finality soon.
We are having a very good year for Bohemian's and Redpolls here, but unfortunately have not been able to get out lately.

[Wicked Dark]

sorry about your lens, sweetie. I know the frustration. One of my old manual lenses is very touchy and I know it needs adjustment, whenever I get into a groove of using it, I have to stop. Bah.

but the shot is terrific. Good islolation of the subject and great focus. the crest being up is such a treat.

[Marko]

Just lovely Donna! Dig the play in shot 2 as well!

[aubintbay]

Very nice! Well worth the effort. Too bad about the lense though.

[edG]

lovely capture and interesting post work Donna, sorry to hear of your lens issue.

[Donna]

Thank you all so much! :) ... for the supportive comments and lending an ear to my little rant ... I feel a lot better now that I got that out of my system . I usually tend to keep things bottled up .

Andrew , you are bang on about always having that fear in the back of the mind when using the lens now ... Kinda takes the fun out of using it .
I hope for everone else's sake , that the majority of their lens are good , but I'll not be risking my money on them again .

Hillbillygirl , I hope that you will get the chance to get out there and capture some of those lovely creatures ... Pretty slim pickin's around here for the berry eating birds this year . With last summers drought and all the forest fires around us ... the summer birds and the Bears ate the majority of the berries before they were even ripe .