150-500 iq problems

mjb123

mjb123

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Hi I've had my sigma 150-500 for a few weeks now and am really struggling to get good sharp images! The main problem I think is that I don't seem to be able to get the shutter speed up high enough!!
Whilst the weather was so bad I didn't really think much of it and maybe bumped up the ISO but I was out today in bright sunshine not a cloud in the sky and struggled to get the shutter speed above 200 with ISO at 100!!!
Being a nube at this am I doing something wrong or should I be thinking that I may have a problem with the lens??
I can't be sure but I think It has an AF issue sometimes it seems to hunt but I'm not sure if its the lens or bad light??
CONFUSED!!!!!!
 
Are you using it hand held, big old lump of a lens and you don't say if its stabilised or not
 
If you're not getting a high enough shutter speed at 100 ISO increase it. I invariably shot at 400 with my Sigma. Long lenses will test your technique as will high megapixel sensors.
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Are you using it hand held, big old lump of a lens and you don't say if its stabilised or not
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Yes hand held and it is stabilised, I do have a monopod which I didn't have and probably could of done with as if was quite windy!!
You see alot on here with bad copy's of soggy lenses and I started to wander! But probably put it down to the user error!!
 
artyman said:
If you're not getting a high enough shutter speed at 100 ISO increase it. I invariably shot at 400 with my Sigma. Long lenses will test your technique as will high megapixel sensors.
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I will, I just thought that I wouldn't have to need to do this in such sunny conditions!!
How far could I push the ISO on my 60d before I start to interfere with the IQ!!!
I've seen some of your photo's that you took on your 150-500 do no what it's capable of I suppose it's a case of practice practice practice!!!
 
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mjb123 said:
I will, I just thought that I wouldn't have to need to do this in such sunny conditions!!
How far could I push the ISO on my 60d before I start to interfere with the IQ!!!
I've seen some of your photo's that you took on your 150-500 do no what it's capable of I suppose it's a case of practice practice practice!!!
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Push the ISO as far as needed, and yes practice practice practice ;)
 
artyman said:
Push the ISO as far as needed, and yes practice practice practice ;)
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Thats why I always use ISO 800 at least with mine, (hand held) even in countries were lights good, like Africa and India, I think thats its weak point, well thats what I found anyway :thumbs:
 
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I use mine at an iso of at least 400 and put the stabiliser on 1 with a monopod and 2 handheld, most of my shots are of wildlife and I have my focus mode on Continous servo,have you tried changing the auto focus in the camera? This might be why it's tracking, just a thought.
 
On my phone so can't see what camera you have.

What settings are you using can I ask.

As I had my d90 and 150-500 out yesterday in the garden ISO 200 f8 and was getting near on 640+ shutter speed most of the day
 
I had the same problem with my lens always hunting never locking on focus.
There had been a Sigma recall on some of these models due to a problem with the focus servo.
All credit to Sigma UK the lens was collected monday and returned to me by the friday of the same week.:clap:
Never been a problem since then.
 
joker2006 said:
On my phone so can't see what camera you have.

What settings are you using can I ask.

As I had my d90 and 150-500 out yesterday in the garden ISO 200 f8 and was getting near on 640+ shutter speed most of the day
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Hi I have a 60d!!
 
jessica1 said:
I use mine at an iso of at least 400 and put the stabiliser on 1 with a monopod and 2 handheld, most of my shots are of wildlife and I have my focus mode on Continous servo,have you tried changing the auto focus in the camera? This might be why it's tracking, just a thought.
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I'm still getting used to all the settings, do you mean the AF points or are there other settings??
 
Think a lot of the problems people encounter have more to do with user error and over ambitious expectations with this type of lens

Very hard to focus on a small bird amongst foilage at full telephoto range using an aperture of something like f8 using a high'ish iso to get the shutter speed up.

Even harder hand held to get a sharp shot and some support like a bean bag would help a great deal

Know some will disagree, but I have come to the conclusion that getting a good selection of sharp frame filling shots of a small/medium sized wild bird requires one of the long fast (expensive) primes.

Even then you need good support, camera shake is accentuated at the longer focal lengths, not helped by the weight of the outfit

Guessing 99 times out of a 100 these lenses are doing exactly what they should, just users asking too much of them
 
Hence why i asked about the settings you need to give your self a good fighting chance with the settings and with good support as you say.
 
Hence why i asked about the settings you need to give your self a good fighting chance with the settings and with good support as you say
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Rule of thumb is a shutter speed at least the same as the focal length, so 500mm would be 1/500th. If you take into account the crop factor that goes up to about 1/800th and personally find that approximately double the focal length is about right.

Good support/technique obviously plays a part as does the stabilisation, no hard and fast rule so see what suits and don't expect the same in comparison to photos taken with lenses costing ten times as much
 
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Yeah I understand that but I suppose I was going down the route to ascertain why he couldnt get higher than 1/200 shutter speed on a day like yesterday.
 
Probably because the metering was taken from the focus point, if that was for instance something like a bird in a tree the camera would see it as being far different than the overall lighting conditions.
 
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I normally always shoot in P mode with auto ISO but have the max ISO set to 800. The 600D that I have tends to favour the faster shutter speeds with this lens but if the light is good it will lower the ISO anyway. For wildlife I find that's a really good setting. I might change to a different mode in certain circumstances.
The reason I limit the ISO is that otherwise the camera will raise it to 3200 or so in order to keep a fast shutter speed. The image stabilisation is very good and I would get better pictures at 1/125 ISO 800 rather than 1/500 at ISO 3200 for example.
 
joker2006 said:
Hence why i asked about the settings you need to give your self a good fighting chance with the settings and with good support as you say.
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I usually use av mode!! As I find this the easiest to control!!!
 
I take it that is aperture mode in Canon talk. If so what do you have that set to cause I'm out with my d90 at the min and on ISO400 and getting 1/1250 plus on f8
 
The 150-500 takes a lot of getting used to. I tend to leave my camera set to shutter priority (about 1/500) & adjust the ISO to give me f8


littleears.jpg
 
mrgubby said:
The 150-500 takes a lot of getting used to. I tend to leave my camera set to shutter priority (about 1/500) & adjust the ISO to give me f8


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/brian.pitblado/example/littleears.jpg
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IMHO that's a very good method for using this lens as it addresses each determining factor in the right order. The lens is best at around f8 to F11 but (hand-held with OS off or on), you're going to need a shutter speed of about 1/500 to get sharp - but your ability to hold/pan the camera steady will determine the slowest shutter speed that you should use.

Edit: Almost forgot to say - as was mentioned above, metering and illumination of subject could mean you're shooting in low-light conditions even with the sun we've been getting lately. Where the birds feed in our garden, I struggle with the 150-500 even on days like today - the birds are just too deep in shadow.

That's a smashing picture - reminds me of Sage the owl from The Herbs :D
 
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Here is one I took yesterday of a Scottish Wildcat in bright sunshine. If you look at the exif you can see it was taken at ISO 800 f/10 1/640. Given more planning I would have chosen ISO 400, f/8 and whatever the camera decided for shutter which I guess would still be around the 1/500 region. However P mode favours the higher shutter speed (with this lens) and limiting the max ISO stops it from choosing something which will degrade the photo too much. Lightroom is very good at removing the little noise you get at this setting.

IMG_2033.jpg by grblades, on Flickr
 
The way i use it is have camera in aperture mode and then if i can get it around f8 if i can and get the iso as high as i dare or need to get the desired effect. Everyone has there own way of doing things so im sure someone will come along with a different way.

Im still learning so i may be completely wrong lol
 
You can have different autofocus settings, my Nikon has auto servo,single servo and continuous servo in the focus mode.I use continuous as most of what I am shooting is wildlife and the birds on the feeder! Then in the auto focus area mode the options are closest subject, dynamic area and single area. The closest subject setting I found that my lens was tracking more so I changed to dynamic which opened up the area it was focusing on and this was better, it allows for birds to come in and out of the shot and still be in focus(hopefully!) With the auto servo it is better on slow moving subjects it does depend on what you are shooting, I tend to get a shutter speed of 500 and use the iso to get this first, if you make your shutter speed the priority then let the camera do the rest you should be ok. I tend to make my autofocus point in the middle as it's more of a habit to have the feeder in the centre of my shot, the old school way but it works for me! Hope this is ok and happy shooting!
 
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Another option is select both your shutter speed and aperture in manual and set the ISO to Auto and let the camera sort the exposure that way. You just have to remember that you can't add any exposure compensation though with that setup
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Probably because the metering was taken from the focus point, if that was for instance something like a bird in a tree the camera would see it as being far different than the overall lighting conditions.
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Maybe this is partly the reason I do use mainly spot metering!! So many things to take in to account and those little birds don't hang around for a second..
Loads of great tips for me to work on thanks very much! And feel free to add some more!!!
 
I find that I get MUCH sharper pics if I use a tripod ( with the OS off ) rather than trying to hand hold the beast with the OS on.

....and don't think you will get decent pics from 50yards away!:lol:

This one was ISO 400, 1/125s, f8 on a tripod with OS off just to prove you don't need huge shutter speeds!

Heather


Swallow by Tigertail.ufo, on Flickr
 
That is an impressive shot something to aim for!! Thanks for example!!
 
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