Well it's been a wild ride since my last update! I apologise for the delay in updating but I will explain all later in this post!
As I mentioned before all my gear turned up in time for the Bristol balloon fiesta and the Canon 17-55mm IS, my FITH copy works better than the previous four although it still doesn't get the focus right every time! I have to be honest here and say that although it is a good lens it is no better optically than similar non IS offerings from Sigma and Tamron, naively I was expecting the poor quality control I have experienced with Sigma to be absent with the Canon but it's just as bad if not worse! I went through a few copies of the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 and they all produced better colours than the Canon and the newer macro version was sharper at the wide angle end and had better bokeh as well! The only issue I had with the Sigma versions was unreliable autofocus but after spending twice as much on the Canon I found the same problems so at the moment I'm considering using the Canon for the time being whilst either hunting for a macro copy of the Sigma 18-50mm that focuses well or even the new Sigma 17-50mm OS which is still cheaper than the Canon whilst being better built. I really thought that I wouldn't have to repeat the continual process of going through different copies of the same lens by sticking to Canon but that has turned out to be the case so why pay more when I could do the same with Sigma lenses for less money?
Another lens that arrived in time was the Samyang 8mm which performed very well, such a cheap lens and yet such consistent image quality over such a wide angle of view, obviously the lack of autofocus simplifies things but even so I was very impressed by this lens compared to the offerings from some companies I have used recently costing up to four times as much!
I got quite a lot of good photos at Bristol both for personal and business use and had a great time overall!
Now this is where the wild ride I mentioned comes into play! Just four days after returning from Bristol my wife suddenly went into labour some 5 weeks early and within 9 hours our baby daughter Seren had arrived! Although she came early she is in good health and both mother and child are now home safe and sound, to say it came as a shock is an understatement! It was also a relief that it didn't happen while we were at Bristol! Needless to say the past 2 weeks have been chaotic and my head has been a mush of various emotions, worries, joys and white noise! The pessimist in me tends to worry I will no longer have time for photos but the realist tells me that I will learn to be much more resourceful with my time plus of course there will be more family outings!
I will try my best to keep on updating this blog at the slightly more prolific rate that I have adopted recently even though I find myself often tired and with a brain often functioning at half it's normal speed!
My next update will be some photos from the balloon fiesta!
