Sigma Sports vs Sigma Contemp/Tamron (1 Viewer)

[Nick Leech]

Having tested my Tamron 150-600 head-to-head against a Sigma Contemporary and found very little difference my next quandry is:

At 600mm - would the Sigma Sports give me better IQ (especially more resolution/contrast) than the Sigma Contemporary or Tamron?

People with the Sigma Sports (eg Jeff) are getting some great results, but I am struggling to find anyone who has been able to test the Sports v Contemporary head-to-head with same body, same target and same settings.

Can anyone help or advise?

I may be tempted to buy a Sigma Sports to test at home against my Tammy on the basis I could send the Sports back for a full refund if I find it no better, or only marginally better.

If the Sports is demonstrably better I would use the Sigma Sports for hide type situations and then for a walk-around birding lens either stick with my Tammy or my Canon 400/5.6 or maybe sell the Tammy and replace it with a Canon 100-400 Mk2.

 

[Geoff Brown]

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions - it's a pain isn't it. Sorry I cannot help anymore but both Sigma and Tamron make damn good value for money lenses.:-C

 

[the black fox]

the thing is nick have you fine tuned your sigma ,it took me over a month to settle with it .the sport is probably better long term but carries the weight burden ,you have to be able to live with that and i think there may be more to come yet from the usb dock .

 

[Nick Leech]

Jeff, I only own the Tamron. The Sigma-C I tried wasn't mine and had to go back to its owner.

If I didn't already have the Tamron I would probably pick the Sigma-C for the USB dock. But as I already have the Tamron, I would have to sell it before buying a Sigma-C; that would involve a loss of £200-£300. As it stands, I don't think the advantages of the Sigma-C over the Tammy are worth £300 to me.

On the other hand, if the Sigma Sports gives decidedly better IQ at 600mm I would be prepared to sell the Tammy and buy the Sigma Sports!

 

[the black fox]

nick your missing the point entirely i,m afraid ,it took me over a month to get my sigma performing as i hoped it should ,there may still be room for further improvements .from what i can gather the two lenses S and C are set to a middle of the road setting .the USB dock allows for fine tuning not only to the stabiliser mode but also to how the A/F responds .and without doing that your not reaching anything like its full potential .
so i,m sorry nick but while you may have got a feel for the lens any results are just a test not what it can really do .if you look through my latest shots with the sports i think you can see the difference ,i just have to work on distance shots with it coupled to the 70d now ,i re-adjusted in camera M/A and it hasn't worked for distance work so needs another (now done)re-set

i'll issue a sort of apology here nick as i have just been reading up on the C model and i'm not totally sure that it can be "enhanced" as much as the sport .i suppose someone will come along shortly and shoot me down in flames .but it looks to have a more limited range of adjustments

 

[Nick Leech]

Fair enough Jeff, thanks for clarification. I take your point, but if you only have access to a lens for a short time to evaluate (and when it isn't your lens!) there is no opportunity to make fine adjustments by USB dock - you just have to judge how it performs "out of the box".

I understand you are using the USB dock to adjust OS, focus limiter settings etc - but I am most interested in what adjustments one can make that affect the inherent IQ (resolution & contrast) eg on a tripod with optimal lighting etc cf. the Tammy.

I would only get the chance to do all the USB dock fine adjustments if I have already taken the plunge and bought a Siggy. If I didn't already have the Tammy (which I have had a year), I would probably buy one of the two Siggys. But I will lose money on sale of the Tammy, so need to have some indications that the Siggy (either model) will give superior IQ.

It may be that I am hoping for too much from the two Siggys and will have to save up for a Canon 600mm !

 

[the black fox]

The best way is to meet up and have you take some test shots with my sports lens ,on your camera unless of course your on Nikon .
I,m just outside of Chester so it's not that far let me know if that's a good suggestion .if so i can p.m a phone number

 

[Paul Jarvis]

Nick, since you have already got the Tammy I don't think the sigma c is going to be a big jump and like you say you will be losing money to change. The sports is certainly the better lens in every way but that's gonna cost more to change again . Jeff keep doing what your doing love seeing your photos.

 

[Aloof1]

Played with the sports for a day and compared it to the Tamron before it broke. I would say the most worthy thing about the Sigma Sport has over the Tamron is its weather sealing feel, it feels like it could easily go places i will never with the lens. The sharpness was a bit better at the long end with the sport but it was barely noticeable with anything close to you, you probably had to pixel peep to see a difference. Subjects super far out seemed a bit better but at this point nothing would be considered a decent quality even to share. Anything 400mm or below i would say the Tamron has it with focus speed and sharpness, even may come close to picture quality of the canon 400 5.6. The extra weight of the Sigma was a big negative, again i would not use it to the extent on needing the weather sealing or pure toughness. The price was not worth double imo. I sent my Tamron out a few weeks back because of a err01 error with my 70D, it came back quickly and seems to have better servo mode focus and a bit faster focus. If i was looking into a $2000 range lens i would seriously look at the new 100-400 mk2, if i had a Nikon then i would try to find an old prime 300 2.8 Tokina and pair it with a 2x tele...always wanted to check that setup out.

 

[Nick Leech]

Thanks Aloof1.

Anyone else had a chance to compare a Siggy-S alongside a Siggy-C? (IQ at 600mm)

 

[Nick Leech]

For info - I had asked Sigma UK for their comments on the Sports vs Contemporary IQ debate. This is what they said.

Sigma Technical Support said:
"The sports version has superior performance and build quality although if weight and price are a factor then the contemporary version would be a good alternative which compares well with similar lenses on the market."

Sigma Sales Dept said:
"Both lenses at 600m would provide exceptional image quality, with the Sports model being a fraction better in comparison."


Nick

 

[jimthomson]

http://www.lenstip.com/index.php?test=obiektywu&test_ob=434

Lenstip just posted a review of the sigma 150-600 contemporary.

Looks like the Tamron is sharper at f8 and 600mm.

 

[the black fox]

http://www.lenstip.com/index.php?test=obiektywu&test_ob=434

Lenstip just posted a review of the sigma 150-600 contemporary.

Looks like the Tamron is sharper at f8 and 600mm.

totally humbug and utterly irrelevant ,they have taken a lens straight out of the box and made there assumptions /tests on that basis .the MAIN and only reason for buying a sigma over a tamron is the fact that both sigmas the S and the C models can be fine tuned ,once this is done as far as the sport is concerned it turns it into a completely different beast ,i can't speak for the C model but from comments i see around the web its reacting exactly the same .
its the same as the pre-release field tests regarding the S model if i had read them i wouldn't have bothered but luckily i had the opportunity to test one before release in early dec .and couldn't believe what i was reading .i.e virtually every tester implied you need a tripod for the S model ,i use mine hand held 95% of the time .in fact the shot below was taken hand held in the presence of nick leech in less than perfect conditions ,proof of the pudding as they say

 

[jimthomson]

Not sure why it is humbug. The dock may change focus speed and limits, but these aren,t going to play role in determining the sharpness shooting a static target. A properly AFMA'd lens or a liveview focused lens will be sufficient to determine resolution. Their test of the sigma 150-600 sport showed it to have higher resolution than the Tamron.

 

[the black fox]

Not sure why it is humbug. The dock may change focus speed and limits, but these aren,t going to play role in determining the sharpness shooting a static target. A properly AFMA'd lens or a liveview focused lens will be sufficient to determine resolution. Their test of the sigma 150-600 sport showed it to have higher resolution than the Tamron.

jim with all due respects your totally wrong ,i have had longer with my lens than most u.k owners and at one point after extensive in camera M/A adjustments i was at the point of selling it due to being unable to achieve CONSISTENT sharp results .
however i then played with the settings that can be changed via the dock and after changing the o.s to DYNAMIC and the a/f to MAIN FOCUS POINT PRIORITY .it completely changed the way the lens worked in fact so much so that on my 1D3 i had to reset the m/a to zero while the other camera the 70d did still need a touch of m/a .
its now far more useable hand held to and tends to lock on to a target area i.e the birds eye far easier even hand held .

 

[Nick Leech]

Jeff, just to clarify.

The tweaking with the dock has improved the OS and AF performance for you. Are you also saying it has improved the sharpness of the lens? Not sure how the dock could achieve that. Or are you saying that the improved AF performance means that more of your shots are correctly focused than they otherwise would have been (ie the lens seems to be "sharper")?

 

[jimthomson]

Jeff,
with all due respect, the lense can be manually focused on a stationary target to determine it's resolution. The A/F and OS are irrelevant to the resolution. Lenstip reports the best resolution from a series of autofocused and manually focused shots. They determine the focus accuracy by comparing the auto focused resolution to the best resolution. So the dock can improve the focus accuracy but will have no effect on the resolution.

 

[the black fox]

Nick is probably the nearest on this ,I don't go much on lab test results only what works in practise and it has certainly worked for me ,and others now are reporting back the same findings in actual use of both lenses

 

[AndrewA]

Took the plunge today and bought the 150-600 Sport
A fiver under 1200 pounds with the exchange rate here.

 

[Nick Leech]

Andrew - congrats on your purchase (and excellent price!) - let us know how you get on!