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Sigma 50-500 or Tamron 200-500. What to pay attention to? (1 Viewer)

P

Peewee

Well-known member
Based on some threads on this forum I have narrowed my options down to these 2. It will be my first telezoom for my first go at DSLR bird photography. The camera I have is a Canon 400d (digital Rebel Xti). Although there are many threads on this forum about either one or both these lenses I think I can still use some advice.

Next Friday I will try both telezooms on my Canon 400D and I am just wondering what I should be paying attention to. So I have a few questions:

1. What are the best things for my to try out so that I can make the best decision?
2. Would either of these two be the most likely choice for my camera?
3. I have read the AF of the Sigma is a little better. How can I tell when I am testing and how important is this?
4. The difference in weight is something I will feel anyway but what else should I pay attention to?

Remember that I have no experience with telezooms and bird-photography (apart from some digiscoping) so things that may be obvious to you may not be obvious to me. Any comments please.

Thank in advance

Cheers Peter
 
Yesterday I had the opportunity to try both. I could not really tell any difference in AF speed. The both seemed pretty fast to me (I am no expert). Because the Tamron is lighter and I recon I will not really miss the 50-200 mm range I decided to go for the Tamron. It was a bit cheaper too (€750 vs €939) although this was certainly not the main reason I picked the Tamron. Now all I have to do is hope for some nice weather.

Cheers Peter
 
Peewee said:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to try both. I could not really tell any difference in AF speed. The both seemed pretty fast to me (I am no expert). Because the Tamron is lighter and I recon I will not really miss the 50-200 mm range I decided to go for the Tamron. It was a bit cheaper too (€750 vs €939) although this was certainly not the main reason I picked the Tamron. Now all I have to do is hope for some nice weather.

Cheers Peter
Click to expand...

Good choice, it's a fine lens, you made the right decision!! As for the weather, well???

nirofo.
 
I'd say go for the Tamron, the IQ is a bit sharper than the Sigma from what I have seen. I've enjoyed using my Tamron 200-500mm.
 
alienguru said:
how'bout sigma's 170-500?
Click to expand...

the sigma 50-500mm has some very good points & only 1 bad point, the good bits its fast has a lock and you can lock it at 100mm so its 100-500mm it has a long tripod mount which is great for walking about with it, the build is great, it does weigh a bit but that doesn't bother me, its got large zoom and focus rings, pictures are very sharp and if you shop about you can get 1 for £719. i've not tryed the others so i can't compare.

the bad bit but i think some of its me as i'm not very strong in the hands, the zoom is still around the 200mm marks,

ratting would be for me 9 out of 10, just misses out because of the stiff zoom, and 1 big plus point it can go down to 50mm so in a rush theres no need to change over lenes, my cam is a 300D, hope you under stand all this as my spelling is crap.

regards carl
 
Hello, a bit late to this but my interest is the same as the original poster, in that I'm interested in the EOS 400D in conjunction with the Tamron 200-500. But I have a few extra questions:

can the Tamron lens be used with either the Nikon D40 or D80, or even the Pentax K100D?

I currently have an Oly C750UZ which has 10x optical with 1.7 teleconverter, but whilst knowing that the long-distance pics aren't as good as a DSLR, I was wondering if I'll also be frustrated by zoom distance with a set-up using the Tamron, would I have a similar range to my Oly?........should I be going in the direction of digiscoping? I get the feeling there are compromises every which way.....

confused......and apologies if rather ignorant of these matters

thanks!
 
Old Blue said:
I currently have an Oly C750UZ which has 10x optical with 1.7 teleconverter, but whilst knowing that the long-distance pics aren't as good as a DSLR, I was wondering if I'll also be frustrated by zoom distance with a set-up using the Tamron, would I have a similar range to my Oly?........should I be going in the direction of digiscoping? I get the feeling there are compromises every which way...
Click to expand...

The C750 has a 38-380mm lens so with the 1.7x tc you effectively get 64-640mm. The Tamron gives you 200-500mm, but with the crop factor of the 400D it seems more like 320-800mm, so a 400D with the Tamron will give you more reach than your Oly. The image quality will also be a give improvement, and the change from 4mp to 10mp will allow you to crop your images more and still get a decent result. As for digiscoping, yes it will give you more magnification, but it's all manual focus and it's much harder to get a really good shot (you'll get far few keepers).

As far as I know the Tamron 200-500 will work with the 400D or the D80, but not with the D40... I'm not sure if they make it in Pentax mount but if so it shoudl work with the K100.
 
I have the Sigma 50-500mm lens and all i can say is its brilliant! i never take it off my Canon (get a good tripod/monopod/shoulder stock though as its a heavy bugger!)
Cheers
Brian
 
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