Sigma 50-500mm

spikel2009

spikel2009

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Michael
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Anybody have the 50-500mm Sigma lens was thinking would it be worth investing in one.:)
 
My wife had one, and in good light and being well supported (especially at the 500mm end) it was a very competent lens. We only sold it as it wasn't getting as much use as it should and the fact that the wife got L lens envy!! :LOL:
 
I love mine but dont use it that much. Found it great at an airshow i was at lately, didnt find it heavy all day either.

Need to try it out at the bikes yet, got my eye on moto gp :LOL:

I shipped mine in from the US a couple of years ago and inc import charges it cost me about £600. Not sure if its worth doing now.

Some of my shots with it are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/puckers52/tags/sigma50500mm/
 
I bought one from Jessops last year when, bizarrely, they were cheap there and I had some vouchers I wanted to use. I was afraid it'd be dodgy, soft, returned etc. but it seems pretty good. My copy is sharpest at f11 ish at full zoom.
 
Just to add to this thread - may I comment on the "effective" zoom range?

Some people seem to think that because this is a DG lens (optimised for digital cameras), that crop-factors have already been taken into consideration when quoting the zoom range. It hasn't!!

On a camera with a crop-factor of say 1.5 (like my Nikon D300), the effective zoom-range of the Bigma is 75-750mm.

I've just taken a quick shot indoors with the Bigma set at 50mm and then swapped over the lens to a standard Nikkor 50mm prime. As you can see, they have identical fields of view (barring some movement as I swapped lenses over).

cropfactortest.jpg


Got mine from a UK Ebayer in "AS NEW, MINT" condition for £550. Beautiful lens. Very, very impressive bit of kit for half a grand.

Tom.
 
It's a great lens but having owned a top copy of it and two 150-500mm OS's I would go for the latter every time. OS is just much more useful on a lens like this.
 
Take a look here, all shot with the Bigma, oh and the Sony A900!

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=149423

It's a one stop solution, you'll never have the wrong lens on the camera again and it's acceptably sharp, in fact surprisingly so. I find it a bit of a handful that requires practice, and make sure you don't accidentally switch from AF to MF on the lens!

Rob
 
Went to Donnington Park at weekend and was a bit miffed to find all the circuit "caged in" with mesh fences which meant that one had to move much further back and higher up to get shots of passing bikes.

I ended up shooting hand-held at 500mm to get most of my shots. I was pretty happy with the outcome considering that I was effectively shooting at 750mm (on a D300). ISO was set to 1600 to get a usuable shutter speed. It's a big wieldy thing to lump around and avoiding camera-shake is tough on full zoom, but overall a great lens!

Pix below on full zoom are a bit soft, but certainly good enough for personal use.

rossi_sigma_50-500mm.jpg
 
I find those pictures really soft even for 'home' use. What shutter speed/aperture settings? Considering your ISO there shouldn't really be camera shake?
 
.
Huh? That level of softness hand-held at effective zoom of 750mm, I can cope with! If I'd had the good sense to take a tripod (or even a monopod) I would have expected better results.
 
bakedbeans said:
I find those pictures really soft even for 'home' use. What shutter speed/aperture settings? Considering your ISO there shouldn't really be camera shake?
Click to expand...

Sorry to be critical, but would have to agree with BB about these shots.

What are you going to be using the lens for. Motorsport / Aviation or Wildlife. It is the budget side that has drawn you to this lens.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=151221

The 50-500mm is heavy, would primarily use it on a tripod or monopod. It's f6.3 (and cheats the camera into thinking its f5.6 so it will autofocus on cropped sensor bodies) To get the best from it, you'll have to stop it down an fstop or 2, so will need good light for the faster shutter speeds. Personally the sigma 100-300mm f4 (plus 1.4x TC) would be a better choice. But budget will be a major influencing factor.

Peter
 
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