Zoomy zoomy lunch time life through the lens :)

Hi there to Treshnish - my newest follower, you used to follow me when I was 11am - welcome back! I have such a soft spot for Isle of Mull as we celebrated our honeymoon there and spent a few very happy (wet and windy) days there :) Treshnish  takes beautiful seascapes, windswept coastlines and farming photos - please pop over and have a look :)

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I have been asked again about my new lens, so I thought I'd do a post about my new toy :)  As I mentioned before, it is neither super expensive or super fancy, but for me it has been a delight as well as a steep learning curve.

I'd been cogitating over my desire to have something a little more 'zoomy' than my existing lens. When my camera (Sony a230 - no longer being manufactured in this spec) needed a service, I asked the man behind the counter what he recommended at a price I could afford.

He suggested a couple of makes so I did a bit of research on the 'net.  It is a bit of a minefield of information so it did take a bit of searching to find something that fitted my requirements.

Well, today was a bank holiday and I was the only one working :(, so the boys came up for a walk and met me at lunch time - it was glorious sitting in the sunshine listening to the bumblebees working their way through hundreds of thousands of dandelion flowers. It was a perfect day mini micro-adventure.

Of course, I had my camera with me. The above photos is with my original Sony standard lens, the gloriously dandelion filled village green in Langcliffe.

After reading reviews and spec, I eventually plumped for the Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Mcro 1:2 lens, which is a  happy step up for me, however probably not grown-up or sharp enough for the professional. The difference it has made to my 'macro' and my long distance shots is definitely a huge plus. The dandelions below are the same as above.....only shot through the Tamron...... bit of a difference ?Yeah! 

And I don't mean the close ones, these flowers are in the middle distance of the original view.

Above - the Tamron lens retracted and 

Below - the lens fully extended. 

In the interest of science (well..... more for the fun of it really)  I took two more photos - Langcliffe village church, the first with my Sony camera SAL 1855 18-55mm standard zoom lens. 

 And this one - with my new zoomy lens. Neither lens was super extended - just mid-range focus and click.

On the negative side, the lens, when on AF (autofocus), constantly shifts backwards and forwards while it settles and is quite a greedy battery eater. I have started to use MF (manual focus) which is a bit slow and I certainly need loads and loads of practice. However, it is not impossible for me to take good in-focus photos but I am a lot slower at striking the right balance than the AF can do - but it is all practice.

Gratuitous picture of both lenses just for comparison purposes. The end piece of the new lens (on the right) is a sun-shield - which is great as it means I don't have to hold my hand up in front of my camera to stop unwanted sun-flares (unless I actually want them there :) )

And just to make clear, in no way am I being sponsored or have an affiliation with any of the equipment I am waffling on about.

Now - just a couple more pictures before I completely bore you..... enjoy.

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