Worth the Wait?

It’s been a while.  Rubbish weather and more house renovations have kept me indoors in a gloomy mood.  Those of you who can remember when I retired last year may recall I was contemplating purchasing a new super-zoom lens.  Due to various factors it never came to be until……  A couple of weeks back I noticed the camera centre had lowered the price of my weapon of choice (always kept a regular eye on their site) by £50.  The time was right and my new baby was brought home, a Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary.  All that was now needed was a decent break in the weather so I could go and play, er, I mean test the lens.

Today, wall to wall sunshine, light breeze and temperatures touching 12c, that will do nicely!  One hour later and I was at Titchwell RSPB on the Nth Norfolk coast.  Here is a small gallery of my favourite shots, a veritable wader fest!

My favourite winter wader, the diminutive Sanderling (Calidris alba). I love the way they chase the waves on the beach, like a clockwork toy!

Coming at you! From the smallest to the biggest. Curlew (Newmenius arquata)

Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)

Reflection. A tiny Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

Redshank (Tringa totanus)

Finally (for now) the beautiful Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) takes cover from a bathing companion

So was the lens worth waiting for?  For my first efforts I am delighted.  This may be the smallest and lightest of the ‘super-zooms’ but it still weighs in at over 4lbs (2 kilo) so I used a monopod for support.  The 600mm reach added to my crop sensor Nikon gives a length of 900mm (compered to full frame or old slr equivalents) so any slight movement will really ruin a shot.  With this in mind the optical stabilizer is not as good as my other lenses, not bad just not great, so fast shutter speeds are a must.  Focus was quick and spot on, I varied the f.stops to try and find a ‘sweet spot’ f11 was, to my eyes, the better.  I hope these shots show as good when uploaded here as they do on my pc, and yes they have been cropped, the lens might be a big boy but wild birds don’t like you getting too close!