Which of these two to go for?

Wail

Wail

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Wail
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I am thinking of getting a long zoom lens and have been contemplating one of the following, for wild-life:-

Sigma 50-500, going for £729
Sigma 170-500, going for £560
Sigma 150-500, going for £696

All these prices are on Amazon, UK!

In my current kit I already have some good lenses, one of which is the 70-200VR for which I am about to buy the Nikon 1.7x IIE teleconverter.

Now, my dilemma is that I’ve just thought of the Nikon 300 AF-S f4, which would work with the 1.7x Nikon teleconverter to give 510, and is priced at £798 at Warehouseexpress.

So, should I for one of the Sigma or for the Nikon bearing in mind that I am getting the Nikon TC whichever way I go?

Thanks for any heads'-up on this.
 
the quality of the lenses listed aren't going to be that great.
 
I would assume the Nikon will be better than the Sigma's, they arent renowned for their high quality image.
 
Sorry, I may not have been clear!

The option is to go for one of the Sigma or for the Nikon! I'm not sure which of these to go for?

I understand that the quality would not be perfect, but seeing that I can't put more than £1,000 into a single lens these are the options I have! Of course, there is also the Tamron 200-500 ... to add to the confusion.
 
Of course, I would love to get the Nikon 200-400 f4, but no way do I want to spend that kind of money on a single lens. So, it is a "compromise" lens that I would have to come to accept :crying:.
 
i would go for the 300f4 nikon as the Q will be much better as it is a prime, although i don't have one
 
It does seem like that best solution and the most expensive one too!
 
I have the Nikon 300 F4, it is a very sharp lens. I then bought the 1.7 to go with it,I could not justify the cost of a 400 or 500 prime on ,what is, a hobby. The 300 on its own is a very good lens and is not uncomfortable to handhold all day. I do mainly wildlife and do walk in woods and on the rivers a lot,so weight is an issue. The 1.7 takes the F4 up to F6.7 ,also with the additional length and taking into account everything else,I tend to use it on a monopod mainly. Its also a lump easier to carry around this way.

Couple of examples, my pp skills are very limited so these could be better, but should give you an idea.

Pied_Woodpecker056.jpg


Roe_Deer_4.jpg


Downside is that you lose zoom, hence the deer being chopped off, it came very close.Combined with the tc it is a very slow lens. But you get a decent 300 prime and a budget 500. The setup will never compete with the 500 primes, but sometimes we can`t always have what we would like. I think 500 primes are about £5000 +......:eek:

Yep the sigma zooms are more range friendly, but the ones I borrowed did not meet the sharpness of either the 300 on its own or the lens and TC setup.

Just my opinion......(y)
 
fracster,

Thank you so much for the performance report and the pictures. This option sure looks the better of the lot; though as you've said I would lose the zoom, which would be somewhat ok since I would still have the 70-200 coupled with the 1.7 TC would give me 120-340 .. a nice combination I'd say.

Now, to try and digest the cost of this as it is close to £1,000!
 
You're making it so much harder to resist ..... are you on a commission :razz:, how much discount is there with the bank transfer ... a link please :shrug:? Thanks :)
 
Linkety Link,2% discount.

No I ain`t on commission, maybe I should be..........:D

If I have helped you and saved you some money, then that`ll do me......(y)
 
The Nikon 300mm f/4 is a great lens - performs very well with both the 1.4 and 1.7 convertors as well. I'd recommend that over the other choices without hesitation.
 
Thank you, again. 2% on a £750 kit is a good saving :clap: :)
 
Wail said:
Thank you, again. 2% on a £750 kit is a good saving :clap: :)
Click to expand...

Whaddya doing on here then? Go get it ordered..........:LOL:
 
fracster said:
Whaddya doing on here then? Go get it ordered..........:LOL:
Click to expand...

OMG I want to do that right now, but ! :eek: !! here is the bad news ....

a) I have to wait until my exams are over (tomorrow) .. before I can get my mind seriously thinking logically.

b) I have then have to wait to see what the plan for summer is (this is a very personal issue) and this should materialise in the next week, God willing.


So, if all is going well, I would be able to order this, and a few other new toys by the end of next week ... otherwise it's all down the drain :(
 
I hope it all pans out as you would like, best of luck......(y)
 
Wail said:
OMG I want to do that right now, but ! :eek: !! here is the bad news ....

a) I have to wait until my exams are over (tomorrow) .. before I can get my mind seriously thinking logically.

b) I have then have to wait to see what the plan for summer is (this is a very personal issue) and this should materialise in the next week, God willing.


So, if all is going well, I would be able to order this, and a few other new toys by the end of next week ... otherwise it's all down the drain :(
Click to expand...

:bonk: ouch, I know that one - we have been waiting, for many reasons, for a financial injection for over a year now and if nothing else goes wrong, should have it by the end of this week so I can finally order the new toys I have been waiting for, but the anticipation and suspense is killing me and I just KNOW something else will happen to hold things up :bang:
 
LadyLens,

The funny thing is that this is all just a hobby, so does it really matter if I get these items or not? Sadly, I sometimes see my ego attached to my gear .... and this is very frustrating. The outcome of next week will decide the a serious part of my life for the next 3 ~ 4 years, and that's no easy feat.

When all that is down and out, the gear I currently have is not bad by any measures and I would be able to shoot a lot for years to come with just what I have .. but as I said, my ego is riding on this BIG time .... so, I wait in anticipation of the outcome.
 
simondavo,

Thank you for the input, I figure you meant the Sigma 170-500?!? :shrug:, if so, would you please clarify why you'd have me go with that?
 
Hi,

remember Nikon won't warranty a Hong Kong bought lens it will need to go back to Hong Kong for any warranty issues to be dealt with by the seller, not always a great option with postage times etc.

Why not try Ian ( Kerso ) he supplies Nikon gear now and will be cheaper than most online retailers and will give full UK warranty too. Email him at 2kerso@gmail.com for a quote and ask about stock and potential delivery time.

Mike.
 
mikeyb,

Thanks for the head's up on this. I am aware of the warranty issue, and it is something to factor in. However, whichever lens I go with the price differential would be the same - or very close - regadless since if I was to buy the Nikon, or any of the Sigma, it would be from the same source.

That aside, I am trying to assess as to which is the better option to go with bearing in mind that I've originally quoted prices in UK.

When I finally do decide on buying, I will do a very extenssive price research into this and bearing in mind that I am originally from Saudi Arabia where we have no import tax and no VAT! You can see, it would probably be a lot cheaper to get it from Saudi in the end .. an example, the Nikon 80-400VR goes for just about £450 over there vs. the £900 here in UK and £700 in Hong Kong!

But, as I've said, the outcome of the next week will decide a lot for my next few years, and that would also have an impact as to where I buy the gear from.

Again, thank you for pointing out the warranty issue as it is very critical never the less.
 
sprog said:
Blimey, who told you that little gem?

Some of the 'pro' EX Siggies actually outperform Nikon quite impressively.
Click to expand...

Sprog, as Ladylens points out later on, i was choosing from the list provided.
I wasnt refering to all Sigma lenses, just the ones mentioned here.

But then as I use Canon I soppose I shouldnt be commenting at all... :)
 
Had a play with the 170-500 the other week and didn't get on with it at all. Having the extra reach was all well and good but I was testing alongside a Nikon 300 2.8 and Nikon 70-300VR and the Sigma's AF tracking of puffins in flight was so slow as to be useless, whilst the Nikon lenses both did well. A friend of mine got some good shots using the Nikon 300 f4 with a 1.4TC on, so if I were you tha's the option I'd go for (I'm assuming the 1.7TC performance will be vaguely similar to the 1.4).
 
I've used the 170-500 and the 50-500 and the Nikkor 300mm with a TC outpeforms both of these by a VERY comfortable margin.

The new 150-500 is interesting as no one has used it yet in Nikon mount - it has OS which should help if you want to try to handhold a 500mm lenses.

I would not buy the 50-500 or 170-500 at all.
 
This was shot with a Sigma 50-500mm on a D100 body.. whilst i can't vouch for the quality of all the x-500 series lenses i certainly have had no issues or complaints with any of my Sigma lenses (including a 17-35 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8 and 80-400 f4-5.6 OS)..

gallery_7_6_1091708871.jpg



this one was a 70-200mm f2.8 Sigma with a 2x convertor ..

gallery_7_6_1092755345.jpg
 
percymon,

Thank you for the reply and for posting these pictures. The first one is not bad at all, what focal length and settings were used for that?
 
Sorry - i lost the original files in a hard drive crash - so only the online compressed jpeg that i posted. It probably would have been arounf f5.6 and 400mm but i couldn't be absolutely certain now.
 
Andy,

Thank you so much for the post and pictures. I know I'd be crazy to go with the one of the Sigmas now that I've seen what the Nikon 300 f4 is capable of :)

I now just wait to see what the next week brings before I decide on buying this. As it so happens I am so aching to buy the TC now ... but I keep telling myself to wait. Afterall, at most I have until the end of next week to wait.
 
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