Any of you that are into photography will know this already, no matter how many lens’ that you have, you still need that new lens that the others just won’t cover! As I immerse myself even more into photography, I find myself in that very same position.

I started off as everyone do’s with the standard 18-55mm kit lens, but as happens most people, I soon found its limitations. As most people will know, I’m a Mayo Gaa football nut and travel and photograph all their match’s. The first lens that I invested in was the Nikkor 55-300mm f/4.5 vr afs which I am happy enough with (at the moment!) for all the football photos.

Next on my shopping list was an ultra wide lens, to cover wide close up shots and landscape. After doing a lot of online research and reading a lot of reviews, I finally decided that the Sigma 10-20mm f/4 EX DC lens was the best “bang for buck”. I would  have liked to get the f/3 version but at twice the cost of the f/4, I could not justify it.

On a recent trip north for the league match between Down and Mayo, I got to test out the lens. We were up for the weekend but I had decided to stay out in Carlingford Lough, as I had never been there before and wanted to get some photos of St Johns Castle which is on the outskirts of the town.  Below are some of the test shots I got with the lens. I kept the aperture at f/8 and shutter at 1/60 second for all the shots. I left the iso on auto as the light kept changing from sunny to snow to hailstones!!

One of the first photos of St Johns Castle, f/8, 1/60, iso-500, @15mm.

The Tholsel in Carlingford

The Tholsel in Carlingford

 

One of the streets in Carlingford Town, f/8, 1/60, iso-720, @12mm.

The Mint in Carlingford

The Mint in Carlingford

And this shot of Carlingford Jail, f/8, 1/60, iso-640, @10mm. This was the wide end of the lens and it really shows the barrel distortion on the edges. It will take a bit of practice to get the feel of the lens, it really is surprisingly wide, some photos I’ve taken from the tripod I even managed to get my feet in the frame! You can view some of the photos from Carlingford here.

Michael Maye
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