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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

New Sigma 150/600 contemporary (2 Viewers)

Great lens. Just great. I am very impressed. The OS is really good. Picture quality is top notch for a $1,089 lens.

A Prothonotary Warbler. I had to bring the saturation down because this thing is so damn saturated naturally!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17093002898/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17094760419/in/photostream/

Yellow-rumped Warblers

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/16647581393/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17241824326/in/photostream/
 
hosesbroadbill said:
Great lens. Just great. I am very impressed. The OS is really good. Picture quality is top notch for a $1,089 lens.

A Prothonotary Warbler. I had to bring the saturation down because this thing is so damn saturated naturally!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17093002898/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17094760419/in/photostream/

Yellow-rumped Warblers

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/16647581393/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17241824326/in/photostream/
Click to expand...

The colours are quite something, makes my willow warblers seem dull in comparison (and soft).

How do you find the OS compares with the Tamron's Isaac? And have you had to adjust the AF yet or are you still happy with it as is?
 
Paul - Herts said:
The colours are quite something, makes my willow warblers seem dull in comparison (and soft).

How do you find the OS compares with the Tamron's Isaac? And have you had to adjust the AF yet or are you still happy with it as is?
Click to expand...

I think the colors are great with this lens. If you know DPP, I set the the light to -17, the saturation to -1 and the highlights to -2 and still it is seriously vibrant!!!

I have not done a single thing to the OS. Set it from the beginning to dynamic os and to focus priority. That is it. Don't know if I have just gotten used to it or what but I do not find it slow anymore. I actually totally blew it today. I had the OS off by mistake. First thing in the morning I had the warbler singing. Was in very close. Got it with mouth open and tongue out. But it is not really sharp cause the OS was off!!! Totally blew it :-C

I will do some more testing, but i found that it focused just fine today. At one point I was trying to get a purple finch. Had it on full focus limiter. Mistake. Was in close and lens went through the whole range to get on the bird. Very little contrast and a dense tree. I missed the shot but that was my fault. So far I would say it is just fine.

I may try and mess with the range of the focus limiter a bit.
 
Roy C said:
I am leaning towards the Sigma C as a good lightweight walkaround although I do not think there is a lot in it between the Siggy and Tamron from everything I have seen and read (here and on all the other sites like FM, POTN, Talk Photography, DPR .........). The Tammy is now down to £770 in the UK which is a fair bit cheaper than where it was a few months ago (£950) and unlike the Siggy it is readily available in the UK. I may even get another one now I have a 1.6 cropper again ;)
For me the Sigma S is totally out of the running for weight reasons.
Click to expand...

Not so sure about this Roy. To me there is quite a big difference between the 2 lenses. I will be selling my Tamron as there is no doubt in my mind that the Sigma produces considerably sharper images. It is actually sharper than I thought it would be and I will sell my Tamron without regrets.
 
hosesbroadbill said:
Not so sure about this Roy. To me there is quite a big difference between the 2 lenses. I will be selling my Tamron as there is no doubt in my mind that the Sigma produces considerably sharper images. It is actually sharper than I thought it would be and I will sell my Tamron without regrets.
Click to expand...
That's interesting :t: The trouble is here in the UK I could be waiting for ages to get hold of a copy (unless anyone on here knows differently).
I am not sure from the latest pics you have put up (great looking birds BTW) that it looks much better - I have seen better/more detailed shots from your Tammy.
EDIT#2 Just ordered one to see what all the fuss is about lol.
 
Last edited:
I will have to agree, I tried 3 copies of the Tamron on both canon and Nikon, two copies of the sport, Nikon and Canon, and one copy of the contemporary for canon and have been getting better results from the Sigma lenses overall. It is not only a matter of sharpness but a combination of sharpness, glare, chromatic aberration and AF consistency that won me over, in addition to the usual usb dock, custom modes, TC compatibility, better build etc. I see no reason for me to choose the Tamron except for the lower price.
 
Roy C said:
That's interesting :t: The trouble is here in the UK I could be waiting for ages to get hold of a copy (unless anyone on here knows differently).
I am not sure from the latest pics you have put up (great looking birds BTW) that it looks much better - I have seen better/more detailed shots from your Tammy.
EDIT#2 Just ordered one to see what all the fuss is about lol.
Click to expand...

Just for perspective. Here are a Tamron and Sigma shot. Same bird. Different days but very similiar distances and lighting conditions.

Tamron @ 600mm f8 1/1600 iso 400

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/16158430801/in/album-72157644432030826/

Sigma @ 600mm, 1/1000th, f8 iso 400

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17080034798/in/album-72157644432030826/

To be fair one is a fall bird and the other a male in full plumage. But to me one shot is clearly much sharper.
 
Micloi - you say you have tried the Tammy and both Sigmas.

What was your experience on IQ at 600mm, Sports vs Contemporary - any difference?
 
heres two shots from saturdays try out with nick leech ,the bird facing forward is with the sigma sport the other with the tamron both taken a minute or so apart ,both exactly the same settings on my 1D3,both shots hand held the shutter speed on the sigma was 1/250th sec and the tamron 1/320th ,both at f8 ,virtually identical p/p on both (apart for some twig cloning on the sigma shot) approx the same size .i,m sure nick will have others to show .
the one thing in my mind that really was noticeable during the real time field testing was the fact that the o/s on the sigma locks on and holds on target far better than the tamron which tended to be hunting a bit to stay on target .

.yes you could have got completely different results using tripods and lab tests but i prefer the as we use it tests ,and when both shots are viewed at 100% crop the tamron shots are significantly softer .if the C model is anywhere near as good its gonna be a winner ,especially on a 1.6 crop factor body
 

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I concur with Jeff on those findings - the Sports is a bit sharper at 600mm than the Tamron. Now if only we had also had a Sigma-C on hand to shoot that pigeon with as well!

Think I will probably sell my Tammy and get a Siggy. Just have to decide whether to get the Sports or the Contemporary!
 
Here is another of the Prothonotary Warbler from Sunday. I am super impressed with how sharp it is. Granted these are ideal conditions. Clear skies, early morning light, very close subject. But this is the kind of quality I was hoping to get from one of the Sigmas and why I kept pushing for more...

Focus point was touching the bottom part of the eye and the gape of the beak. Wish I had a higher fstop to get a bit more of the bird in focus. But this bird was moving very quickly and actively feeding. I did not want to lose more shutter speed...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/17096487439/
 
micloi said:
IQ was very good with the 1.4x but AF quite slow so good for static birds but not BIF in my opinion
Click to expand...

Have any samples you can show of the IQ? Did you do any comparisons such as 600mm cropped and 600 + 1.4x and see which had better IQ?

I will do that for sure at a local duck pond or something. Just some slow, lumbering birds to test things out.
 
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