Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS vs Sigma 70-200 f2.8

Since I have both of these lenses. I decided to do a shootout to see the difference in image quality. Here's how the lenses look like standing next to each other. I've also included a Canon 17-40L, 24-105L, 50mm f1.8 and a Sigma 50mm f1.4 in the picture to show the relative scale of the lenses.







I tested them by putting my Canon 5D MkII on a tripod and shooting at 70mm, 135mm and 200mm at f2.8. Image Stabilisation on the Canon lens was switched off. Here are the results. All pictures are straight out jpg with no editing at all. I just cropped off all the white space around the pictures at 70 and 135mm.

Canon at 70mm f2.8


Sigma 70mm f2.8






Not much difference between them at 70mm eh? Let's move on to 135mm.

Canon at 135mm f2.8


Sigma at 135mm f2.8


The difference is starting to show at 135mm so I cropped right in to the center for a closer look.

Canon at 135mm


Sigma at 135mm







Let's take a look at 200mm f2.8 now.

Canon at 200mm f2.8


Sigma at 200mm f2.8




Center crops to show the massive difference in IQ.

Canon at 200mm f2.8


Sigma at 200mm f2.8




It's a a huge difference in image quality as can be seen in the comparison pictures above. I now know why Canon charges us an arm and a leg and maybe even a liver too. LOL. I guess the Canon lens is well worth the extra money though. So if you have the money, don't waste time thinking about getting the Sigma 70-200 f2.8. Just go ahead and get the Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS.

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EOS 5D MkII weather proof?

Here's some proof for those who believe that silly Antartica article somewhere on the internet. The way that guy said it, was like the 5D MkII would fail at the slightest hint of water.

I've read an article somewhere that Canon specifies the weather proofing to be rated at 1cm of rain in 3 minutes. That's a whole lot of rain in 3 minutes. Anyway, I recently tried it out myself and am totally confident in the 5D MkII's weather proofing now.

I was on holiday in Penang Island recently. That's a tropical island and when it rains, it really pours down by the bucket loads. I was there for a week and it rained every single night. I took my 5D MkII out anyway and continued using it in the pouring rain without a care. It survived a week of tropical rainstorms.

Here's some pictures I took of my camera getting soaked. Sorry for the bad quality, these pics were taken after a walk in the rain. I sat down to have dinner at the food court and took these pics with my iPhone.










I've since taken the 5D MkII out on a few more rainy adventures and have had no problems at all. In fact, I went out for a sunrise shoot by the sea this morning. It was pouring down and I kept clicking away. Hehehe. So........... all you 5D MkII owners, stop hiding when the weather gets bad. Take your camera out and have fun!

Media Recover software

pHWOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Kingston Ultimate 266X CF card rocks I tell you. It's my favorite CF card and it's even saving my skin right now. Mine came with a thingy called Media Recover. I've never had to use it until now and it's recovered 781 pics from my formatted SD card. Thank You Kingston.

Those pics were backed up to my HP Mini notebook while I was in Penang last week. I then formatted the card so I could use a fresh SD card while in Penang. I then had problems uploading pics to the HP Mini. On the very next day, it wouldn't even boot up. All 781 pics GONE!!!!!!! I tried to recover my pics from the HP Mini HDD by connecting it to my desktop PC but it wouldn't even show up in "My Computer". I was getting desperate as I really wanted those pics back. Luckily I remembered that my Kingston Ultimate CF card came with that fantastic software. Some of the recovered pics are corrupt but most of it is intact and it's much better than losing all of them forever.



Anyway, here's how the software looks like when you open it up.








Just follow the provided instructions and you should see this at the end of the recovery scan.







You can then browse the recovered files and decide which files to save.





Thank God I had this Media Recover thingy. It really saved my skin. I had a lot of important pictures in there for articles which I have yet to write about in this blog. I can now continue writing those articles with the proper pics. Hehe. Hopefully this article will help some of you guys in the same predicament as me.
Big thumbs up to Kingston for including this software with the Ultimate CF cards.

If you liked this article or found it helpful, please check out the advertisements ya? You can also buy the product from Amazon through the links below. Your support is much appreciated. :) :) :)