500mm lens dilema, advice please

Marine Breeder

Marine Breeder

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Name
Gary
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Yes
I have now sold most of my original kit,taken possesion of a D90 in the
last 2 wks,i now only have my macro lens.tubes and 2x convertor.
Looking for a 500mm lens sadly my budget doesn't stretch anywhere near a
prime lens,
i've been looking at the sigma range,50-500 bigma?,170-500 or the 150-500mm.With my budget being approx £550-600 im looking at second hand,
looking at getting into wildlife or if theres a different lens you consider good for a begginer feel free to suggest.

What would you guys/gals recommend.

Cheers Gary
 
I would go for the 150-500 with simga's stabilization, just in case you want to hand hold,and with that budget your not far off a brand new one.
 
I had all 3. If you need stabilization then it has to be the 150-500.
If not then I would go with the 50-500 as it covers the useful 50-150 range and it is much sharper than the 150-500 open wide.
 
I have the 150-500mm and I have used it at rugby matches and used it hand held, works great.
 
ghostdancer said:
I would go for the 150-500 with simga's stabilization, just in case you want to hand hold,and with that budget your not far off a brand new one.
Click to expand...

So what would you expect to pay for a second hand one?

micloi said:
I had all 3. If you need stabilization then it has to be the 150-500.
If not then I would go with the 50-500 as it covers the useful 50-150 range and it is much sharper than the 150-500 open wide.
Click to expand...

I intend to do birds mainly so would you recommend stabilization?Is it the older 50-500 you hae used,have they not released an updated version,all
the abbreviations confuse me.
 
i have a 500mm Sigma mirror lens... is it any good ? not used it a great deal
 
just been comparing reviews there dont seem to be much in them,then looked at some
images from both and they just confused me more,stunning pics from both,leaning towards
the 150 due to i.s anything to help me more i think.
 
I have had the 150-500 for a couple of months & I'm now getting some good results, I deliberated long & hard but I'm pleased with my choice.

I must confess that I returned my first version, which I obviously wouldn't have been able to do if I'd bought s/h. However, if you keep an eye on here for a s/h version, you could always ask to see shots taken with it.

The OS system works really well & of course you'll need it often in the UK! I'm a Canon user so I don't know how a D90 fares with high iso, but you'll need to be able to use that too!

I did a lot of research before buying & was satisfied that this lens is very capable if well used, which itself involves a fairly steep learning curve. Good fun though!

Have a look at Martyarty's kingfisher pics, I believe he uses this lens, although on a 7d.
 
I use a Sigma 150-500 it is a cracking lens and for wildlife it's worth sacrificing to 50-150 range to gain the IS as mostly you will be at the long end. When mastered it can produce some cracking results.

http://SPAM/c3whur/mar/Img_1730.jpg
 
micloi said:
I had all 3. If you need stabilization then it has to be the 150-500.
If not then I would go with the 50-500 as it covers the useful 50-150 range and it is much sharper than the 150-500 open wide.
Click to expand...

You're no longer restricted to just the 150-500 if you want OS - the latest version of the 50-500 now has it but is significantly more expensive than the non OS version or the 150-500. They (50-500) might be starting to appear on the 2nd hand market but will probably still be a bit over the £600 mark.

Can't comment on the IQ differences between the 2 but the 150-500 is far sharper than the older 170-500 all the way through the focal length and aperture range.
 
Thanks for the input all,
I did see the kingfisher pics and must admit was well impressed,how much was to do with
the camera i dont know.

Nice pic Ken and if i could get results like that after some practice i would be more than happy.

So it looks like i'm in the market for the 150-500 just have to keep an eye out for one
popping up.

Did see the newer version of the 50-500 but even s/h it would be out of my range.
 
Marine Breeder said:
Thanks for the input all,
I did see the kingfisher pics and must admit was well impressed,how much was to do with
the camera i dont know.
Click to expand...

The 7d used for those pics has lots of megapixels so allows heavy cropping whilst still keeping detail. However, the lens is still obviously capable of resolving the detail in the first place.

You would need to get closer to achieve the same, but that's another skill to acquire:thumbs:

I think the big requirement is to be comfortable using your body at
iso 800-1600 or more.
 
Another vote for the 150 - 500.

(Paignton Zoo)

34g0qar.jpg
 
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