Identical twins

Ralph Turner

Well-Known Member
...or 'Where's Wally?' with a twist.. spot the lady and her clone walking just ahead of her. One of those occasions when a stitched pano shows one of it's limitations.

Taken at Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire, back in '08. (Canon EOS 350D, Sigma 17-70mm @ 30mm, Six frames stitched.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5111.jpeg
    IMG_5111.jpeg
    752.8 KB · Views: 9
Last edited:
Canon EOS 350D, Sigma 17-70mm
I had that very same combo at that point in time. The Sigma was / is a good lens for the price. I still have mine, but my wife has the camera (although she uses it very rarely). I'm seriously thinking about (at some point) replacing it with a used Canon 24-70 f/4L IS. For landscape work I almost never get below (above?) f/5.6 and L glass / coatings will be better than the Sigma (plus the IS will be nice for hand-held shots). But the Sigma honestly still isn't a bad lens as long as you don't need light-speed focus, it just doesn't have a lot of snob value. 🙃 About my only legit complaint was that for manual focus it would benefit from a little less sensitivity (i.e., the ring should turn more from near to infinity).

I like the shot and it looks like a very interesting location. As to the pano artifacts, I've seen quite a few in Google street view imagery. Granted, that's hardly artistic photography, but it's funny to occasionally come across a vehicle with doubled front (or rear) wheels, for example.
 
I imagine the stitching software has come along since then.
It's actually the same that I still use now, Photoshop Elements 6. Most people in the pic were fairly static, so no apparent issues and all else stitched pretty well... apart from that one person walking away from the camera. They'd moved far enough between shots for Elements to see them as two separate people.
 
Last edited:
I had that very same combo at that point in time. The Sigma was / is a good lens for the price. I still have mine, but my wife has the camera (although she uses it very rarely). I'm seriously thinking about (at some point) replacing it with a used Canon 24-70 f/4L IS. For landscape work I almost never get below (above?) f/5.6 and L glass / coatings will be better than the Sigma (plus the IS will be nice for hand-held shots). But the Sigma honestly still isn't a bad lens as long as you don't need light-speed focus, it just doesn't have a lot of snob value. 🙃 About my only legit complaint was that for manual focus it would benefit from a little less sensitivity (i.e., the ring should turn more from near to infinity).

I like the shot and it looks like a very interesting location. As to the pano artifacts, I've seen quite a few in Google street view imagery. Granted, that's hardly artistic photography, but it's funny to occasionally come across a vehicle with doubled front (or rear) wheels, for example.
Thanks, Len, regarding the pic. It's a very pretty place. My boys loved clambering around on those rocks when they were younger.
Regarding the csmera, I still have that combo, though it rarely comes out to play these days since I got my 6D/Sigma 24-105 Art. Optically I found the 17-70 to be very good for it's price, never noticed any particular issues with coatings/flare, so no complaints from me there. I couldn't have justified the cost of L glass at the time anyway. Having said that, I would agree that auto-focus isn't it's strong point ( Sigma's one-time achillies heel? - a bit frustrating at times, resorting to manual for accuracy) and, after a while and a certain amount of use the barrel started suffering with creep when angled up or down from horizontal. Despite these issues, though, it served me well until I got my present 6D/Sigma 24-105A combo around 2013-14. I had the opportunity financially at that point to make the upgrade (though it was more whim than absolute necessity). I wouldn't be without this latter combo now though, giving me excellent, consistent results. The closest I've come to a lens with the red 'L' band on it is a plastic mock lens drinking cup I was gifted years ago 😏☺️.
If you do upgrade to the 24-70L, you'll have to let us know how you get on with it. Presumably you won't miss the 17mm end of the Sigma?
 
Last edited:
Thinking of Sigma lenses and their historic autofocus issues (at least on Canons), I must have been lucky with my 50mm macro as its focus accuracy was good... that is until I dropped it, now it has no autofocus🥴 Luckily the optics appear to still be unaffected and focus confirmation in the viewfinder is still functioning. For what I occasionally need it for I don't really miss the auto.
A few years back I lucky enough to acquire a secondhand Sigma 150-500 for a reasonable price and in near mint condition. It's a lovely lens, but it, too, suffers focus accuracy problems. Fortunately I've managed to tune the 6D to compensate.
 
Having said that, I would agree that auto-focus isn't it's strong point ( Sigma's one-time achillies heel? - a bit frustrating at times, resorting to manual for accuracy)
So far mine seems to focus accurately enough, it's just not the fastest ever (nor certainly, the quietest). Will I miss the 17mm end? Maybe, but I need to force myself away from that in a sense as I automatically use it too often. Plus, given what I could get for the Sigma in sale, it's probably not even worth selling. I'll keep it for a spare or pair it with its old friend for my wife to use.
 
Back
Top