An Equipment Addition

Another new equipment addition has been made before the state of the chase season gets underway. As you know, I've went into a phase of piling up new equipment this spring with the Canon XTi and its' accessories. Well, with only the kit lens on the wide angle side of things and with the opportunities I am likely to have this spring/summer storm chasing I figured why wait when I'll need it and only be bickering about not having it while I'm out chasing. So, I went ahead and pulled the trigger, buying a new wide angle lens that has been on the top of the charts for quality vs price. The Sigma 17-70 DC MACRO lens came yesterday to me and I wasted no time in getting some test shots in with it. Although there are some complaining on how the standards and quality control with Sigma aren't the best, my lens seems to be in very good shape! Fully extended the lens has no wobble, the zoom is fairly tight, which is a nice thing really; the lock feature on it to keep it from extending is great as well. I took quite a few test shots on a dollar bill, a quarter and some text on a page, all of them turning out quite sharp and focus seems to be right on the money. Another thing to mention with focus is how close you can be while focusing, I literally had the lens on the table with the object and it would still focus!! Anyway, here are a few of the test shots, with more on my Gallery Page.