Opinions of the Sigma 150 - 500 lens?

[miurasv]

Has anyone here used this lens? I have a Nikon 18 - 70 AFS DX and Nikon 70 - 300 AFS VR lenses and want something that will give me a long zoom for aircraft and airborne birds. I had a little play today with my camera and lenses for the first time and think I would like a longer zoom lens. I can't afford anywhere near enough for a Nikon 200 - 400 Zoom. What is the Sigma 150 - 500 like? Obviously the Nikon 80 - 400 VR won't give me as much reach but is this a better lens? Thanks again to you very helpful and knowlegeable people

 

[sdb123]

Have you used the search facility? If you put 150-500mm in the search box, you will find a number of threads that could be useful.

 

[peterjones00]

I had a 150-500 for 8 weeks and was very disapointed with it at 300 it was ok above that it went very soft and it weighs a ton I used it on a D300 what i would do is hire one then try it out if you like it buy it if not look for something else

 

[Nod]

Heavy (but carryable), slightly soft wide open at the long end (stop down a bit and it sharpens up) and the OS works well - about 3 stops. Possibly a little slow for birds in flight but with good technique should be OK for aircraft.

 

[realspeed]

If its of any help I also have the Nikon 70-300mm VR lens and the Sigma 1.4 teleconverter works well on it but you might have to step up the ISO a bit. Even the travel of the rear of the lens doesn't hit the converter. This will give you the equivilant of
98mm- 420mm but you might under some circumstances have to use manual focusing.

Might be worth a trip to the camera shop to tryout this combo.

Realspeed

 

[miurasv]

Thanks everyone. Very helpful. So what about the Nikon 80 - 400 VR?

 

[StewartR]

So what about the Nikon 80 - 400 VR?

Probably the biggest embarrassment in Nikon's entire lens range. I understand it is quite decent optically - though I can't confirm this personally because I can't see any reason why I would ever want to use it instead of a Canon 100-400L. But everything else about it is dire:
- heavy, stiff zoom ring
- awkward MF/AF switch
- worst implementation of VR, ever
- dodgy design with a huge front extension
- slow, noisy AF

 

[Paul Holtom]

Recently compared the 150-500 and the 120-400 and decided that the 120-400 was a better bet as its a bit quicker and long enough for my needs. The size and weight of the 150-500 also put me off.