500mm ish which way to go?

Mr Bump

Mr Bump

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Sophia aka Paul
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Hi I currently have a D7000 and my main lens is a 70-300 VR which I do like a lot however it is a bit soft at the long end which I have managed to tighten a bit with stopping down etc. I am very happy with the lens but in the future I would like to go a bit further zoom wise and tighter.

my thoughts are [1] The Sigma Bigma 50-500 everyone says its real good for nature and birdies etc but its heavy or [2] the nikon 300mm F4 + 1.4 Teleconverter.

thing is when i am off wandering I never realy find many opportunities to be taking close shots its all long shots so don't know if i realy ned the zooming?
 
I'm a Canon man myself, but can help out a bit.
Up until Friday I owned the 50-500 OS and it was outstanding in IQ, OS (VR) and the minimum focus distance is pretty short too, the only reason I let it go was because of the weight and already I'm regretting it.

Feel free to look over my flickr set if you want to see 1,000+ examples :)
 
There both excellent lenses, which ever you decide to purchase, £40 spent on a monopod would be invaluable at focal lengths in excess of 400mm. You could also consider the tc1.7 with the Nikkor making it a 510mm f6.3, the same speed and focal length as the bigma, this should auto focus in good light. I would plump for the Nikkor if absolute image quality is you're aim but that has to be balanced against the excellent os system on the sigma, either way with long glass your technique has to be spot on to get the most out of either of them.
 
I think for some yes, a monopod is great, personally I hardly ever used one, that said no doubt I would have dodged backache had I learnt
 
The Nikkor 300/4 AF-S is sharp as a tack wide open, and does not suffer with the 1.4 or 1.7TC mounted, it also has the benefit of a 5 feet minimum focus distance.
 
Martyn... said:
The Nikkor 300/4 AF-S is sharp as a tack wide open, and does not suffer with the 1.4 or 1.7TC mounted, it also has the benefit of a 5 feet minimum focus distance.
Click to expand...

I use the nikon 300mm f4 with both the 1.4 and 1.7 tc's. with the 1.4 tc it is great.the 1.7tc actually makes it 500mm f6.7 as you lose 1 and half stops of light.it still auto focused on my d7000 in good light and is reasonably fast too, well enough to capture Sanderlings,Knots and Turnstones running on a beach.


Sanderling by Rob'81, on Flickr

its a quarter of a stop slower with the 1.7 tc than the sigma.if zoom is important to you then the 300mm prime is a little less flexible. i went for the 300mm f4 over the sigma as IQ was better and it was faster at 300mm than the sigma,but then most of my shots were at 300mm and i was not trying to get to 500mm. At 300mm the nikon wind hands down, at 420mm the nikon probably just wins it but at 500mm the sigma is probably just a little better as its F6.3 instead of f6.7. I can't say anything for the sigmas IQ.

Don't forget you would need to buy the nikon and a teleconverter to get 500mm, that's around £1300 new compared to the sigma 150-500 at £730 new and the sigma 50-500 at £950 new. It all depends on how much you really want to get to 500mm.
 
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I think the 300mm f4 is by far the best option, chuck a 1.4 on and you wont ever need to take it off, put a 1.7 on and you'll use it 50/50 dependant on conditions and subject.

There are usually a few in the classifieds, just strangely not at the moment.
In mint condition you can usually find the lens for 650-750 and a tc for about 200. It will blow the sigma out the water anyday, and also makes a great macro 'ish' setup too.
A decent monopod is defintily wise advise, it also makes carrying much easier.
 
Thanks guys i must admit i am steering towards the 300mm F4 as it just seems to be super sharp wide open which is great for the light.
 
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