Sigma 50-500 OS (1 Viewer)

Appears to have been very little on this lens here so far so thought I would share my impressions after a couple of days of ownership. I've owned the Sigma 100-300 f4 for several years but always felt it needed that bit more reach and could really do with OS (I've tried it with the 1.4x converter but never really been happy with the results).

So been keeping a careful eye on reviews/postings concerning the new bigma with OS and finally took the plunge earlier this week. On the basis of a coulpe of hundred images shot over the last two days I would say this lens is pretty amazing given the price and the zoom range. I was concerned abou the f6.3 max aperture but providing you're shooting in half decent light then I don't think it'll be a problem. The autofocus appears to be a huge improvement on the 100-300 which I always found had trouble locking, particularly on birds in flight. The few attempts I've made so far seemed to indicate a much better success ratio than with the old lens.

It is quite weighty, no getting away from that, but then I don't think high quality glass comes in light weight.

I've posted a coulpe of shots on the gallery of a Coot and a Mute Swan as starters, may post some more in the near future when I get the chance.

Peter

its good to see some images from it, they certainly are very good indeed, look forward to seeing some more, have you used it for BIF yet?

i have had the siggy 50-500mm os for about 2 weeks now and love it, the af speed is very good(better than the 150-500mm os) also it is sharper at 500mm wide open, i find the os very good once again better then the 150-500mm.
heres a couple pics,

I'm very pleasantly surprised out how good it is wide open, not quite on a par with the 100-300 but then again it's a 500.

Only had a chance of a few LBBGs near home the other day which worked well, focus seemed to lock very fast.

I'm doing a cetacean survey in Biscay at the moment so may get a chance to photograph some gulls in Santander harbour. Not going to get anything decent through the bridge windows unfortunately, the 500 really shows up the imperfections of the window glass!

Peter and Scott, thanks for posting some images from this new lens!

Scott, are any of those shots @ ƒ6.3? And are any of them cropped?

Fowl Mouth said:

Peter and Scott, thanks for posting some images from this new lens!

Scott, are any of those shots @ ƒ6.3? And are any of them cropped?

Click to expand...

hi yes they are all cropped and the coin is at 200mm f5.6 and the rest at 500mm f6.3.
heres some more at 500mm wide open,

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/internet site 200kb pics/DSC_6351.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/internet site 200kb pics/DSC_6673.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/internet site 200kb pics/DSC_6712.jpg

Attached are a couple of 100% crops of a hatch cover (sorry they're not birds) but thought they showed the image quality well. Both were shot in RAW and converted to jpg with PS, no sharpening or any other adjustments. The hatch was about 25-30m away.
The first shot is f6.3 iso 200 1/4000 and the second f8 iso 200 1/3200

A very brief play (there weren't many birds flying around the ferry while we were in Santander) suggests that having the OS set to 2 for panning (as the manual suggests) makes quite a difference.

the YL Gull is uncropped but sharpened and then reduced to enable upload to the forum, 500mm f8, iso 200 1/1250.

Pete

Thanks for the samples, guys. Not that any of those are scientific measurements, but it appears to my eyes that this lens is as sharp at ƒ6.3 as it is at ƒ8. If that is true, Sigma has a real winner here. Honestly I never expected that would be the case. I do like my 150-500 OS, but find that just don't like to shoot below ƒ8. If this lens can get those extra 2/3rds of a stop while retaining maximum sharpness, zoom back for landscape shooting, and get a 1:3 macro out of the deal...it might be the best lens of it's kind out right now.

Fowl Mouth said:

Thanks for the samples, guys. Not that any of those are scientific measurements, but it appears to my eyes that this lens is as sharp at ƒ6.3 as it is at ƒ8. If that is true, Sigma has a real winner here. Honestly I never expected that would be the case. I do like my 150-500 OS, but find that just don't like to shoot below ƒ8. If this lens can get those extra 2/3rds of a stop while retaining maximum sharpness, zoom back for landscape shooting, and get a 1:3 macro out of the deal...it might be the best lens of it's kind out right now.

Click to expand...

i would say the 50-500mm at 500mm f6.3 is as sharp if not sharper than the 150-500mm at f8, and f8 on the 50-500mm is even sharper.

Thanks, Scott.

scottthehat said:

i would say the 50-500mm at 500mm f6.3 is as sharp if not sharper than the 150-500mm at f8, and f8 on the 50-500mm is even sharper.

Click to expand...

For some strange reason, f8 on my 150-500 is not very good. Both f6.3 and
f11 are much better. Have no idea why or if its just my copy...