Sigma 50-500mm F/4-6.3 EX DG HSM Lens OK?

cowasaki

cowasaki

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Like the title say Sigma 50-500mm F/4-6.3 EX DG HSM Lens is it any good?

I am looking at what to get for christmas ! Its on the limits of money but I wanted something with a bit more zoom than the 28-200 that I have at the moment. Seen this at DigitalRev for £509.99

Or does anyone have any alternatives? Its a 4-6.3 which doesn't look that great maybe a 2x convertor with my Nikon AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR DX? I have asked about 2x and 1.4x convertors before and mainly had negative comments !

Decisions decisions! What do I do? I would love to spend £1000 (and VERY nearly did just before christmas) but this is the limit I can manage at the moment.
 
Maybe look at the 170-500 and use it as a next on lens?
 
ive heard that this is a very good lens, it is tack sharp and goes against all physics of super zooms becoming soft across its range.

its relitivly small for what it does too!, i think the only critisism with this lens is that i needs ALOT of light, as the apertures are relitivly small making it a fairly slow lens.

theres a few guys on this forum who has one in there bag, and have only good things to say about it.
 
The lens itself it quite heavy, but then you are getting a lot of focal range for the weight! IQ of my old one was quite good, (Non DG version) so I doubt this one will be any worse.

My recommendation is to get this if you are happy with a heavy lens (admitedly, once on a tripod you wont notice that aspect of course). For the money, you get pretty good image quality and a 10X optical zoom.

If however you don't need any variance in focal length, you could look at some primes? Perhaps the Nikkor 300m f/4?
 
Woodsy said:
The lens itself it quite heavy, but then you are getting a lot of focal range for the weight! IQ of my old one was quite good, (Non DG version) so I doubt this one will be any worse.

My recommendation is to get this if you are happy with a heavy lens (admitedly, once on a tripod you wont notice that aspect of course). For the money, you get pretty good image quality and a 10X optical zoom.

If however you don't need any variance in focal length, you could look at some primes? Perhaps the Nikkor 300m f/4?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't the 300 prime be rather more expensive!

I have also seen this one too: Sigma 135-400mm F/4.5-5.6 DG
 
I was just about to suggest the Sigma 135-400(y) A couple of hundred quid cheaper than the bigma if you get it from Hong kong! I'm very pleased with mine;)
 
Not sure TBH, I couldn't find any on ebay :(

Never used the 135-400 so couldnt really say...

If you could stretch that bit further mate, the Nikon 80-400 VR on ebay goes for around £700? Expensive I know but the image quality will be as good if not better, and the VR is certainly a bonus!
 
I have a Bigma to.
Its a great lens.
It really does perform, and is really very good all the way through the focal range,although the sweet spot is around 400mm.
It gets criticised for being heavy, but after all it is a 500mm lens, show me a 500mm lens that isn't heavy.
Also, as has already been said, its not the fastest lens in the world at f/6.3 @ 500mm, but again, it doesn't cost £4000.
To be honest, with the high ISO performance of most modern digital SLRs the speed isn't quite as much as an issue as it used to be,although it would have benefited from some VR.
The lens collar has a handy moulded underside that doubles as a comfy carrying handle which makes it quite easy to carry around for the day.
Its a funny old beast the Bigma.It has that huge focal range, and does it almost impossibly well, but most people would only buy this lens to use as a super telephoto at its maximum reach.Having said that, there has been times when Ive found it really useful to be able to zoom right out to say 75-200mm to catch a bird that landed right nearby.
I'm sure there will be plenty of brand name snobs that will knock the Bigma,but funnily enough, most of the ones that do knock it have never owned one.
If you do buy the Bigma you wont be disappointed with its image quality, but just be aware that it needs good light and at the very least a mono-pod to guarantee sharp images at full reach.
There are other options available at similar price points.The sigma 80-400mm which has anti shake and of coarse the Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 ED VR D which is even more money still.But if you want 500mm reach there really is very little competition in that price band.
In my humble opinion,for £500 quid you really cant go wrong with this lens.Its a cracker.
 
Ive dug out a couple of images both taken with the "Bigma" at 500mm and wide open.
Both images are straight out of the camera,all Ive done is resize them for the forum.I'm sure they would both benefit from a little post processing, but it will give you an idea of what you can expect using the Bigma at 500mm.

NKN_5269.jpg


NKN_5311.jpg


Bob.
 
sigma 50-500 is wonderful but it.s quite heavy.for the price and quality i think it.s one of the best telephoto lens!
 
Must admit I've seen some cracking shots taken with the Bigma - impressively sharp!
 
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