Just been browsing dpreview.com and found the Sigma APO 200-500 F2.8 lens. Looks more like a bazooka to me! http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07030805sigma200500mm.asp
I think it is just too long (focal length) for badminton. It is more suitable for wild life photography, where you have to keep a healthy distance to avoid being eaten by the beast.
Oh my... ..oh my, couldn't they get any bigger??..i wonder how much does that lens weigh??..looking at the pic, looks like the camera body is hanging in the air, being held by the lens..
It is to be mounted on a tripod. If you were to hold it like holding a 50mm lens you will have your camera lens mount torn away by this heavy lens. It is huge because of its lens speed (2.8) for this focal range.
Have anyone tried this before? According to wiki, this lens was introduced in 1993 and discontinued in 2005. More Info/Photos: http://www.canon-europe.com/For_Hom...Lenses/Fixed_Focal_Length/EF_1200mm_f56L_USM/ http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=154&modelid=8178 http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/images/images17.php http://www.pbase.com/robert/1200mm http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/ef_1200_56u
yeah. brought that to the gym the other day. i backed all the way up to the far corner of the gym and all i got was the player's nose!
That.. ..looks like a telescope, kwun...with that telescope-looking lens, one should see as far as the stars in the sky..
Those large lenses are par for the course. My old camera was a 1978 Nikon FM, and Nikon used to make obscenely long 800mm and 1200mm prime Nikkor lenses (i.e. fixed focal length, no zoom) for its SLRs back in the late 1970s. The Canon one is quite huge though. Such "supertelephoto" lenses obviously aren't made for badminton or other court sports photography. There's a reason why pros pay huge amounts of moolah for these things.
unless those are freelancers. otherwise, they'd never needed to pay a penny on those lenses. coz, their company had paid everything for them.
These super telephotos are strictly for wild life photography where you build a nest for yourself and sit and wait, always ensuring that your target subject doesn't take you for meal, for days for that decisive moment. This beast weighs 16.5kg, requiring a very heavy tripod, and it measures a staggering 9" in diameter and almost 3 feet long. It is not for badminton, although there are new zoom lenses that have the same focal length reach and lens speed which weigh no more than 4kg and measures only about 4.5" diameter and 11" long.
In going through my inventory of old camera equipment, I think I can put together a first class super telephoto lens of 800mm or 1600mm which weighs no more than 2kg. That is if I get a four thirds digital camera body to use it on. The last time I used this super telephoto was in 1982 in Brussels, shooting birds, hand-held. But the lens speed will be slow, f6.8 at 800mm and in between f11 to f16 at 1600mm on a four thirds camera. A tripod is a must. I might borrow a four thirds camera and take a picture of something that is very far away and see if any image comes out. I will of course need an adapter that fits a Leica R lens to a Four Thirds body, which is easily available. The old super telephoto lens I have is a Leica 400mm f6.8, a design that uses a simple two glass elements cemented together to form a single unit. It is a newer design based on a similar design that was produced for the 1968 Olympic Games in limited quantity. On a four thirds camera, which has a cropping factor of 2, this 400mm lens will become a f6.8 800mm lens. Using my Leica R 2X extender I can stretch this to 1600mm but at the cost of two aperture stops.