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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roy C" data-source="post: 1427460" data-attributes="member: 18798">All I can say Mike is if you can shoot bird as small in the frame as the two examples I posted earlier in the thread and get as much detail in a 100% crop as the 400/5.6 gives then I would be very surprised indeed - I would love to see  examples of similar sized birds shot at the same distance. As 'Eastwood' concluded when he tried the siggy 150-500 against a Canon prime "So it is very true that taken at a close distance, the Sigma is a great lens to use, but at a distant, the IQ falls short somewhat". This is precisely what I would have expected and falls in-line with everything I have ever read. You may get good results when viewing a 100% crop of a swan which was taken from, say 10 metres away but try taking the same shot from 50 meters and see what the crop is like !Sigma Tele zooms are excellent value for money and if you get fairly close to the subject you will get very good results but when you shoot a target from a distance and then crop heavily you will find that they fall short when compared to a Canon 'L' prime or even the 100-400/5.6, this is not surprising when you see the price differences.When Sigma first announced the new 150-500 with 4 stop OS I was very interested and would have readily been prepared to pay around £1500 or even more if it delivered on the IQ stakes. Birders everywhere waited for months for the price to be announced and when it was I knew right away that it was not for me. To put it bluntly, I believe in the old adage 'you get what you pay for'. That is not to say the the lens is not great value for money but even Sigma cannot do the impossible.Sigma sell an excellent 500/4.5 prime which currently sells for around £3000 so when you consider that the 150-500 sells for around £700 (and it has OS) then it stands to reason that something has to give.I would hate to think what a Canon 'L' 150-500/5.6 with IS would cost if they ever made one ( especially if the IQ was as good as the excellent Canon 100-400 zoom).</blockquote>

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