New Sigma 150/600 contemporary (3 Viewers)

[Barred Wobbler]

But the firmware update has absolutely wiped out any functionality with the converter attached.

With the old firmware I could use it behind the Sigma with live view. With the new firmware it doesn't even register as a lens.

 

[Roy C]

But the firmware update has absolutely wiped out any functionality with the converter attached.

With the old firmware I could use it behind the Sigma with live view. With the new firmware it doesn't even register as a lens.

It is very strange that your combo did not AF very well even before as I have found an old post where a guy reckoned his MkIII converter worked very well with the 150-600 (he is a very good photographer BTW).
Just clutching at straws but do you attach the tc to the lens before attaching the compo to the Camera?

 

[Roy C]

I reported to sigma as soon as i received my Canon fit 150-600 the issues with the AF with the Sigma 1.4x TC and they brushed it off...

It will be interesting to see how well the Sigma tc now does with the new firmware. Did you ever try a Canon converter with the 150-600 ?

 

[Barred Wobbler]

It is very strange that your combo did not AF very well even before as I have found an old post where a guy reckoned his MkIII converter worked very well with the 150-600 (he is a very good photographer BTW).
Just clutching at straws but do you attach the tc to the lens before attaching the compo to the Camera?

Always.

As I said, the combo recognised the converter before this update. Now it just won't talk through the converter to the camera.

And when I had both the Sigma and Canon converters to hand, they both performed equally badly. That's why I sent the Sigma converter back.

 

[hosesbroadbill]

Shorebirds and the Sigma 150-600 C

Here are a few more shots taken recently.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/21815361005/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/21740728581/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/21731391875/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/21516754479/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/21627470088/in/dateposted-public/

 

[Roy C]

Seems to have gone quite on here so thought I would post a few recent shots with the lens to keep the thread going. I do not use the lens a lot these days but its worth keeping for the occasional walk as its easy to hand hold (besides it is difficult to sell without giving it away).
Certainly not up to a big white for sure but OK for the money.
All taken in the last week with the 7D2 at 600mm hand held.

 

[Chris B.]

some recent images...

I recently acquired this lens, and for the money, it's astonishingly sharp, and has, on occasion, rivaled images I get from my not-very-portable Canon 500. Here are some recent images taken at a bald eagle gathering place on the Susquehanna river in Maryland.

 

[nikonmike]

I know this is a bird forum but dont forget what else this lens will do while your out walking.

Nikon V2 Sigma 150-600 C

 

[Roy C]

Has anyone got a Neoprene Lens Covers set for this lens yet?( or the sports version) I am trying to decide between 'outdoorphotographygear' and 'wildlifewatchingsupplies' . BTW I see they both now do a expandable sock sleeve for the zoom portion.

 

[hosesbroadbill]

No action here anymore. Anyway in case there are people that are searching for info here are a few recent shots with the C.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/23316266910/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/23293261850/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/22730131898/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/22531393109/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/22090520304/in/dateposted-public/

 

[hosesbroadbill]

Here is one more from the other day that I think shows just how sharp this lens is.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120553232@N02/23382686920/in/dateposted-public/

 

[jshen808]

Super shots, Roy! ..and Happy New Year everyone!! :t:

Roy, I'm not sure if you are using Photoshop for reducing the size of your images. I only learned of this about Photoshop recently. To keep a good sharpness in images after reduction in size using Photoshop, choose the optional method of "Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)", the default setting is "Bicubic (best for smooth gradients). I use CS5, other versions of Photoshop may vary. Just thought to pass this on..

Cheers, John

Seems to have gone quite on here so thought I would post a few recent shots with the lens to keep the thread going. I do not use the lens a lot these days but its worth keeping for the occasional walk as its easy to hand hold (besides it is difficult to sell without giving it away).
Certainly not up to a big white for sure but OK for the money.
All taken in the last week with the 7D2 at 600mm hand held.

 

[jshen808]

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I would like to thank Conor for posting a question for me about the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens. I've been on and off testing/experimenting with this lens, and has more testing still want to do. The lens works great with my D3000 (10mp) and D3100 (14mp) cameras, but struggles in resolution with my D3200 (24mp) and D3300 (24mp) cameras. It seems this lens works better with lower megapixel cameras, maybe up to 16mp's. If someone has a higher megapixel camera, can select in the cameras menu and choose to shoot at a smaller size/ lower megapixel and will work great!

I find the lens is prone to glares, after putting on a Sigma 95mm WR UV Filter AFJ9B0, the pictures comes out looking much better. Highly recommend! Can see this filter at the below link..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/95mm-wr-uv-filter-afj9b0

Getting a Sigma USB Dock is a must, used for tweaking the lens and for firmware updates. Can see the below link..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/sigma-usb-dock

For my lens, I also got the Sigma Teleconverter TC-1401 (1.4x), it works good. My lens by itself required no microadjustments to work good. If connected with the TC-1401 (1.4x) teleconverter, had to microadjust my lens to -12 on all 16 points (yes, microadjust -12 on all 16 points), then the focus is good on my Nikon. If your results is not good, try shooting at a lower sized resolution on your camera. Please see the below link for the Sigma TC-1401 (1.4x tc)..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/teleconverter-tc-1401

Please see the link below for a picture taken with my D3000 (10mp) camera with Contemporary (at 600mm) with Sigma 95mm WR UV Filter AFJ9B0 and TC-1401 (1.4x tc)..

http://www.pbase.com/image/161005953/original

There's a camera combination I'm looking at recently, it's with the Nikon D7100/D7200 (both 24mp's) cameras. Here is the reason why, normally with the Nikon DX 1.5x crop factor, a 600mm lens will have an equivalent field of view of 900mm. But both the D7100/D7200 has the option to add another 1.3x (a tele-bump if you will), it's calculated as 1.5 x 1.3 = 1.95, and Nikon just calls it 2x. Can read more about this "1.3x crop of DX.." at the below link..

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d7100/features01.htm

On the D7100/D7200 cameras, if the additional 1.3x crop is selected, the cameras can only best be shot with the resolution of 15.4mp's, which seems to be perfect for the Contemporary lens. Please see below for the potential..

D7100/D7200 (with DX 1.5 crop factor, and with the additional 1.3x crop of DX enabled = 2x) + Contemporary (shot at 600mm) = 1200mm equivalent field of view (without using any teleconverters!)

As far as I know, only the D7100/D7200 has this additional 1.3x option. I maybe waiting for the D7300 to come out maybe later this year!

Hope this has been an interesting reading for everyone.

Cheers, John

 

[CWOBrien]

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I would like to thank Conor for posting a question for me about the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens. I've been on and off testing/experimenting with this lens, and has more testing still want to do. The lens works great with my D3000 (10mp) and D3100 (14mp) cameras, but struggles in resolution with my D3200 (24mp) and D3300 (24mp) cameras. It seems this lens works better with lower megapixel cameras, maybe up to 16mp's. If someone has a higher megapixel camera, can select in the cameras menu and choose to shoot at a smaller size/ lower megapixel and will work great!

I find the lens is prone to glares, after putting on a Sigma 95mm WR UV Filter AFJ9B0, the pictures comes out looking much better. Highly recommend! Can see this filter at the below link..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/95mm-wr-uv-filter-afj9b0

Getting a Sigma USB Dock is a must, used for tweaking the lens and for firmware updates. Can see the below link..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/sigma-usb-dock

For my lens, I also got the Sigma Teleconverter TC-1401 (1.4x), it works good. My lens by itself required no microadjustments to work good. If connected with the TC-1401 (1.4x) teleconverter, had to microadjust my lens to -12 on all 16 points (yes, microadjust -12 on all 16 points), then the focus is good on my Nikon. If your results is not good, try shooting at a lower sized resolution on your camera. Please see the below link for the Sigma TC-1401 (1.4x tc)..

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/teleconverter-tc-1401

Please see the link below for a picture taken with my D3000 (10mp) camera with Contemporary (at 600mm) with Sigma 95mm WR UV Filter AFJ9B0 and TC-1401 (1.4x tc)..

http://www.pbase.com/image/161005953/original

There's a camera combination I'm looking at recently, it's with the Nikon D7100/D7200 (both 24mp's) cameras. Here is the reason why, normally with the Nikon DX 1.5x crop factor, a 600mm lens will have an equivalent field of view of 900mm. But both the D7100/D7200 has the option to add another 1.3x (a tele-bump if you will), it's calculated as 1.5 x 1.3 = 1.95, and Nikon just calls it 2x. Can read more about this "1.3x crop of DX.." at the below link..

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d7100/features01.htm

On the D7100/D7200 cameras, if the additional 1.3x crop is selected, the cameras can only best be shot with the resolution of 15.4mp's, which seems to be perfect for the Contemporary lens. Please see below for the potential..

D7100/D7200 (with DX 1.5 crop factor, and with the additional 1.3x crop of DX enabled = 2x) + Contemporary (shot at 600mm) = 1200mm equivalent field of view (without using any teleconverters!)

As far as I know, only the D7100/D7200 has this additional 1.3x option. I maybe waiting for the D7300 to come out maybe later this year!

Hope this has been an interesting reading for everyone.

Cheers, John

Thanks a lot John, for your thorough review! Much appreciated.

I have a D3200 and think I'm gonna go ahead and buy this lens. I'll try shotting at lower resolution like you suggest. I'm also planning to pick up a second-hand D300s, a 12mp camera, so that should work well with the Bigma.

Cheers,
Conor

 

[jshen808]

Thanks a lot John, for your thorough review! Much appreciated.

I have a D3200 and think I'm gonna go ahead and buy this lens. I'll try shotting at lower resolution like you suggest. I'm also planning to pick up a second-hand D300s, a 12mp camera, so that should work well with the Bigma.

Cheers,
Conor

Sounds great, Conor!

Cheers,
John

 

[Roy C]

Roy, I'm not sure if you are using Photoshop for reducing the size of your images. I only learned of this about Photoshop recently. To keep a good sharpness in images after reduction in size using Photoshop, choose the optional method of "Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)", the default setting is "Bicubic (best for smooth gradients). I use CS5, other versions of Photoshop may vary. Just thought to pass this on..

Cheers, John

I have been using Photoshop (currently CS5) over 8 years now John and have tried all the different re-sizing options umpteen times lol. For many years I used Bicubic Sharper but the trouble with using that is that it tends to leave ugly white halo around dark edges (and ugly dark halos along light edges) which often gives an horrible over sharpened look.
These days I go along with a lot of the very best bird photographers preferred method and use 'Bicubic' followed by some selective sharpening (using layer masks) at the finished web size - I prefer Topaz detail which does not leave any of the ugly halo's.

 

[Roy C]

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I would like to thank Conor for posting a question for me about the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens. I've been on and off testing/experimenting with this lens, and has more testing still want to do. The lens works great with my D3000 (10mp) and D3100 (14mp) cameras, but struggles in resolution with my D3200 (24mp) and D3300 (24mp) cameras. It seems this lens works better with lower megapixel cameras, maybe up to 16mp's. If someone has a higher megapixel camera, can select in the cameras menu and choose to shoot at a smaller size/ lower megapixel and will work great!

I find the lens is prone to glares, after putting on a Sigma 95mm WR UV Filter AFJ9B0, the pictures comes out looking much better. Highly recommend! Can see this filter at the below link..


For my lens, I also got the Sigma Teleconverter TC-1401 (1.4x),




Cheers, John

This may be best advice for Nikon users John although I can see no logic whatsoever in Cameras with a lower resolution (MPs) giving better res than a higher MP camera - it just does not make sense!This most certain is not the case with Canon Cameras with this lens that's for sure.

Also I have never found glare to be a problem with the lens - I would not recommend any filter with a telephoto lens (except perhaps a very high quality polerising filter in special/rare circumstances although I would never use one myself with this lens) All a UV filter will do is degrade the IQ.

As for Teleconverters I do not know about Nikon but for Canon users a Canon tc (MkII) works better than a Sigma one for some strange reason.

 

[jshen808]

I have been using Photoshop (currently CS5) over 8 years now John and have tried all the different re-sizing options umpteen times lol. For many years I used Bicubic Sharper but the trouble with using that is that it tends to leave ugly white halo around dark edges (and ugly dark halos along light edges) which often gives an horrible over sharpened look.
These days I go along with a lot of the very best bird photographers preferred method and use 'Bicubic' followed by some selective sharpening (using layer masks) at the finished web size - I prefer Topaz detail which does not leave any of the ugly halo's.

Thanks for sharing your experiences on this, Roy!

Cheers, John

 

[jshen808]

This may be best advice for Nikon users John although I can see no logic whatsoever in Cameras with a lower resolution (MPs) giving better res than a higher MP camera - it just does not make sense!This most certain is not the case with Canon Cameras with this lens that's for sure.

Also I have never found glare to be a problem with the lens - I would not recommend any filter with a telephoto lens (except perhaps a very high quality polerising filter in special/rare circumstances although I would never use one myself with this lens) All a UV filter will do is degrade the IQ.

As for Teleconverters I do not know about Nikon but for Canon users a Canon tc (MkII) works better than a Sigma one for some strange reason.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences on this, Roy! I don't pretend to understand all my experiences of my Sigma Contemporary Nikon mount. I was noticing atmospheric haze with my pictures, after placing the mentioned Sigma lens filter, the haze became better controlled. And for some reason for me, lower pixel captures looked better.

Cheers, John

 

[hosesbroadbill]

End of the line

Since I still get contacted on occasion from my posts I figured I would post a final post. I love the Sigma. Think it is the best value on the market. Hands down. But I am selling mine to a friend. It is not as sharp as some of the more expensive Canon options. So basically I am spending a lot more for very small increases in image quality. But the deed is done, the Canons have been bought and the Sigma is off to be enjoyed by another. Have tons of shots taken with it before I stopped that I have not posted anywhere.

Here is one last shot for the road. A Carolina Wren in the early morning light with fall foliage far in the background.

Carolina Wren by Isaac Grant, on Flickr