The moon up close with an EX3.

Steve Shovlar

Steve Shovlar

DVXuser Sponsor
I was having a play about a couple of nights ago with the EX3 and a couple of Sigma lenses on the Adaptimax. I have owned the 170-500mm Sigma F5-6.3 APO for a couple of months and it's an OK pro-sumer lens. Nothing special but good for a cheap telephoto.

Over Christmas though I picked up a quite rare 1000mm Sigma F8 telephoto lens. These were made back in about 1993 and fetch quite a bit. I was lucky in that it was a week before Christmas and people seemed to be spending their money on their family rather than themselves. I was very pleased I had finished all my Christmas shopping in late November, and able to grab this lens for cheap off Ebay. The buyer was gutted it went cheaply. He should have put a bigger reserve on it!

So a couple of weeks ago I shot some footage of the moon with the 170-500mm Sigma. It came out pretty well. Then a few nights ago the moon had waxed enough for me to pull out the 1000mm Sigma and shoot it again. Now the Adaptimax gives a magnification factor of X5.4, as in reality, this lens became a 5400mm super telephoto lens!

Conditions need to be just right to use such a long lens and there was a bit of a breeze, as you can see from the footage. And to add to that I was close to a gas boiler flu, which gave off blasts of heat and probably caused the slight shimmer. A still calm night and I would have nailed it. I'll keep my eyes on the forecast! And yes, that is the moon moving through the sky as the camera is stationary.

But it shows that having a couple of cheap telephotos and an Adaptimax can open up whole new areas of film making for Ex3 owners.

Here's the footage.

The Moon shot with a 1000mm Sigma Nikon mount on a Sony PMW-EX3 on Vimeo
 
you should make a PL mount..i would buy it if you made it..so i can put PL primes directly onto my EX3..
 
Sigma 1000mm - an essential lens for every cinematographer's kit. Great for those interviews with God
where you need a tight, head-and-shoulders framing.

1262223353.jpg
 
That particular green Sigma lens is a 500mm lens and to get 1000mm you have to use their tele convertor. The price of that lens is $29,000. A lot of money but its pretty fast.

I picked up the Sigma 1000mmm F8 for £750.($1200)

Here's a couple of pics of the setup. You really need good rod support though!

1000mm_sigma1.jpg

1000mm_sigma2.jpg
 
Steve Shovlar said:
That particular green Sigma lens is a 500mm lens and to get 1000mm you have to use their tele convertor. The price of that lens is $29,000. A lot of money but its pretty fast.

I picked up the Sigma 1000mmm F8 for £750.($1200)

Here's a couple of pics of the setup. You really need good rod support though!
Click to expand...


Seriously though, other than shooting the moon, what do you use the lens for?

Peter
 
You can use it for wildlife, public disorder roiting shots, warfare, surfing, skiing, surveillance. There are a ton of uses for it. You could use it to film two actors walking through a crowded street talking, and the people around would have no idea there was a film being made.

Depth of field is shallow so two people talking and walking slowly down the street would look very good if you can pull focus just right.

If the weather improves in the next week I will take it down to the quay and shoot some more useful footage.
 
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