Since I have exchanged the TAMRON 18-270 / 3.5-6.3 DI II VC PZD for a Sigma 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM Contemporary for my wife I wanted to know how good this lens is in the macro area.
I took 2 tripods and screwed the Nikon SB800 flash onto one of the tripods in conjunction with the Metz WT1 flash control. On the second tripod, my wife's Nikon D200, of course with the transmitter of the flash remote control from Metz. The direction of the flash was from left to right, you can see that in the shadow. I deliberately set the camera to automatic exposure as newcomers do. I just write the Exif data.
Then I took a 50cm x 50cm natural white polyethylene plate, placed it on a table and draped the sewing thread roll with the needle and thread on it. On purpose, I stabbed the needle slightly backwards so that the focus could be seen clearly.
I think that worked out quite well.
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Exif Data:
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Conclusion:
For an "always on the top" from the 400 euro class (375 euros in 3/2020), I think the result is very good. Since the lens has also done quite well in everyday situations, I find this lens in this price range a good "all-rounder" and certainly highly recommended for people who do not want to spend so much money or do not want to buy many lenses. In any case, a good starting lens.
Another night photo and one at the blue hour with the lens.
Moyland Castle at the blue hour
Squirrel in the garden (The photo was taken through a window)
In the meantime, my wife has also devoted herself to photography. She prefers to use this lens because she almost always has the right focal length with her and doesn't want to carry a lot.
Here are a few more shots with this lens.
Lilie Forever Susan (the picture is not an enlargement)
lily forever susan
black lily blacklist (detail)
Here is an enlarged detail with org. Picture:
org. picture:
The exif data for the image
And here is the enlargement:
Conclusion:
For an “always on it travel zoom” from the 400 euro class (375 euros as of 3/2020), I think the result is very good. Since the lens has also performed quite well in everyday situations, I think this lens is a good "all-rounder" in this price range and certainly highly recommended for people who don't want to spend so much or don't want to buy so many lenses. In any case, a good starting lens. The Os also works very well, the squirrel picture was taken through a pane at the beginning of dusk around 4:30 p.m. on September 24th, 2021. If you look at the Exif data, you can see that the picture was taken with an open aperture with a 1/6th of a second at iso 200. The picture isn't 100% sharp, but I don't expect that with an absolute quick shot from the hand. But considering the circumstances of how it was done, I think it was a great effort from the Os.
In various forums there are always questions about used photo equipment for a small budget. For my part, I can only recommend this lens on a small budget.
When I write this I am often torn apart, then the "experts" come forward and recommend fixed focal lengths. Of course I know that fixed focal lengths are better, but with a small budget and if the demand is not absolutely at the upper level, this lens kills at least 3 lenses with a fixed focal length. In any case, three good lenses with a fixed focal length are significantly more expensive than this lens.
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Up until a while ago I had the problem that I kept losing pictures due to hard disk defects. It couldn't go on like this because over the years there were quite a few pictures that are simply gone.
So I thought about what can I do that will no longer happen. So I decided to buy a NAS.
Since I didn't want to spend that much money, I decided to:
ZYXEL NSA320 External 2Bay NAS:
There were also 2 3TB 24/7 WD Red NAS hard drives and 3 TB Western Digital hard drives.
I configured the NAS so that the two three GB disks totaled 6 GB. Back then I bought a 2 bay USB housing for data backup where you could put the disks together so I now had 6 GB of storage space as on the NAS.
But as the devil wants it, you forget to back up the data.
After 2.5 years, not a hard drive broke, but the Zyxel NAS, the built-in network card stopped working. So I thought you were chewing a new NAS. It is not that expensive. Zyxel rebuilds the hard drives and then it works again. In the meantime, the ZYXEL NSA320 was no longer available, so I bought the successor.
Quickly installed the hard drives, but the stupid thing didn't swallow the old hard drives. Error message Foreign operating system, please format hard drives. Unfortunately, my last backup was a little over 3 months ago. I not only lost pictures but also business and video films, because such a NAS is also a great video and music player if the TV is DNLA capable.
I was looking for software to read the hard drives from the Zyxel back but it only worked to a limited extent. I was 180 inside.
Then I said to myself that it never happens to me that I lose data. Because if you calculate the time it takes to re-program what was previously programmed and the data loss that can no longer be obtained, then a professional solution is worth every penny, even though it is expensive.
Since I not only use the NAS for business, but also as a music player, video player and data storage (photographs and self-made videos), I only considered equipment from the professional sector.
So I came to the QNAP TVS 473 with two 6 GB hard disks.
QNAP TVS 473
The QNAP TVS-473 is basically a NAS for bussiness but the TVS series has an HDMI connection so the TV does not need to be DNLA capable. In addition, it can convert videos into the appropriate format on the fly. But I've never used that because my TV can play quite a lot of video formats.
The QNAP TVS-473 is completely oversized for normal households. A smaller NAS from QNAP is enough.
Since the QNAP should no longer work as I did with the Zyxel, I thought ok to install 2 6 GB disks in the Zyxel and then you use the Zyxel for pure data backup.
Unfortunately I had made the calculation without the Zyxel. I didn't get access to the Zyxel NAS from the QNAP NAS.
Since I was 200 inside.
I was so upset about the Zyxel story that I removed the 2 6 GB disks from the Zyxel and bought a second QNAP NAS. However, no longer a QNAP TVS 473, but a QNAP TS-431p.
QNAP TS-431p
I then equipped the Zyxel with two 3 TB disks and gave it to my godchild. My godchild now uses the Zyxel NAS as a video player and music player.
The QNAP TS-431p is a cheap and ideal NAS for home use. The price is around 280 euros plus the hard drives and is a 4 bay NAS, just like the TVS-473. My QNAP TVS-473 is now my main NAS, if I change anything with the data, this happens in real time on the QNAP TS-431p.
No matter what breaks a NAS or a hard drive, I no longer lose data.
I know this solution was not cheap, but it was cheaper than losing data, but you don't necessarily need the double NAS solution for home use. The small Qnap TS-431p with two 3 TB Seagate Cyclewolf hard drives is priced at just under 500 euros. In addition, the space with 2 hard drives should not be enough, there are still 2 bays free to expand it. Of course, larger hard drives can also be installed.
The two NAS have been running faultlessly for just over 3 years now.
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Here are two examples of a 3-fold Mirage and 5-fold Mirage from Hama.
In the case of trick lenses, the quality of the images usually suffers, these examples for the two Mirage trick lenses / filters date from the analogue period. I once had the splien and had to try it out.
3 compartment Mirage by Hama
5 compartment Mirage by Hama
It's a funny effect for portraits but if you absolutely have to have it, I don't think so.
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A new tripod is needed.
For years I used a simple, inexpensive carbon tripod from Walimex. On this tripod I had mounted the Basic ActionShot tripod head from Mantona. I was always aware that it was a simple and inexpensive solution. Both components had a load capacity of 4 kg.
The Actionshot already weighs 800g alone the tripot 900g, there was not much difference left for the camera and the lens. But one thing was very important to me: the combination was light and super quick to use. However, the stand of this comnbitation was not really stable. But so far I had accepted this in favor of the transport weight.
A Nikon AF-S Nikkor E 200-500mm f / 5.6 ED VR, which weighs approx. 2.5 kg, has recently been added. So the carrying capacity of the tripod with the action grip, camera and lens was clearly exceeded and turned out to be a very shaky affair in the test at my home. So a new tripod and a new tripod head were needed. The tripod head would not have been necessary, but I definitely wanted a 3D head.
So I searched the internet for information about carbon tripods. For weight reasons, I didn't want one made of aluminum, and I quickly included the Rollei City Traveler XL. The price was ok at € 99 at Amazon, I don't know why the same part is offered at Foto Koch for around € 250. But a user video made this tripod totally bad compared to the Manfrotto MT055CXPRO4 055 Carbon. Various test institutions had rated this tripod as “GOOD”. What everyone complained about was that the tripod head has no friction setting. I would like to write something about that right away. The Rollei C6i looks very similar except for the color and I tested it myself after buying it and had it in my hand. I can't really imagine that the Rollei City Traveler XL is so much worse than the Rollei C6i.
So I took a closer look at the Manfrotto MT055CXPRO4 055 Carbon. The tests and comments on the tripod on the internet were all very good. However, the price of 400 - 410 € was four times higher than the Rollei City Traveler XL. Since I did not yet have the part in hand, I do not want to say anything about the tripod.
Somewhere stinginess sets in with me. I was simply not ready to pay 400 or 410 euros for a tripod without a tripod head. But somehow I had half resigned myself to spending this money on the Manfrotto MT055CXPRO4 055 carbon tripod.
Then the thought look at the Rollei homepage, they also have other tripods.
On the Rollei homepage I became aware of the Rollei C6i Carbon. I could also find good reviews on the Internet. So I got stuck with the tripod. At around 150 euros, this was also significantly cheaper than the Manfrotto MT055CXPRO4 055 carbon tripod.
There remained the question of the 3D head, here was a lot of my choice for the Manfrotto MHXPRO-3W 3-way head.
About the Rollei C6i:
The processing of the tripod is quite good, as you can read on the net, I can't confirm that the legs are hard to get out. This is only the case if you have not unscrewed the lock properly. The tripod is very firm and secure. According to the manufacturer, it has a payload of 12 kg. Accordingly, the tripod head has failed. He makes a solid impression. That also turned out to be the case in my home test.
The tripod head does not offer a separate friction setting, but with the thick setting wheel it can be adjusted in a wonderfully dosed manner, even with just under 4 kg on it. You can dose it so well with the adjusting wheel that the 4 kg on top are stable and with a little more back pressure it can still be adjusted. Of course you can turn it further, that an adjustment in the vertical axis is impossible.
Manfrotto MHXPRO-3W 3-way head:
All I can say about the Manfrotto MHXPRO-3W 3-way head is that it does its job excellently. It's nice that you can pull out the thick rubber bands. Of course, the friction on this head can be adjusted very well. The head fulfills all my wishes perfectly.
If you set the friction accordingly, you can even use it as a video head.
I hope to have found a cheap but good solution in the combination.
If I hadn't bought the 3D head 5 days before the tripod and had tested the tripod before buying the 3D head, I would not have bought the 3D head anymore.
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