15.9.2010

Bought for wildlife photography and receiving a "baptism of dust" on safari in South Africa in mid-August, this lens has proven to be exceptional value for money. It survived the dust, the heat and the bumpy drives admirably and provided some wonderful photos.Used with both a Minolta D7 and a Sony A350, I've found focusing to be quick for such a long lens and very quietly thanks to the HSM. Hunting was only a minor problem and even then only in particularly cluttered scenes or at particularly close ranges. Speaking of close ranges, this lens does a surprisingly good job of "close-ups", but it's not a replacement for a macro lens by any stretch of the imagination.Also bear in mind the imnpact of APS-sized digital camera sensors... both of the cameras I used have a 1.5x multiplier on focal length which mean this lens effectively becomes a 750mm maximum zoom.The lens comes with two modes of optical image stabilisation; one for use with static subjects and the other for moving/panning shots. Using either with a Sony/Minolta body can produce "intersting results" if you forget to turn of the in-body anti-shake mechanism. Having tested all combinations, I've been reasonably impressed by the OIS included in the Sigma lens. The fact that it moves lens elements rather than the CCD means that the effects of OIS are immediately visible through the view-finder and can be quite disconcerting to begin with. It also means you have a little more confidence in the stabilisation because your subject isn't jittering about in the frame anywhere near as much. In use, ther's not much between the lens-based and body-based stabilisation technologies. If anything, I think the in-body mechanism gives marginally better results than the lens for static subjects while the lens-based stabilisation is slightly better for panning shots.The maximum aperture is surprisingly large for such a long lens, and wide-open at 500m it does a wonderful job of losing all background detail. The images seem a little soft at maximum aperture but I think this varies between subjects and is only likely to become apparent at A4+ sized enlargements.The lens comes with a nice, padded carry case and a strap that attaches to the tripod collar. The collar itself is a very handy addition providing much better balance of the lens on a tripod and, when rotated to 12 o'clock, serves as a great "handle" for the camera & lens. And make no mistake, it's good to have a reliable means of holding things as the pair combined will weigh about 2kg depending on the body you're using and, zoomed to 500mm it's quite a handful. The Zoom lock is handy, it's main use to stop the lens "zooming under it's own weight" while being carried. The OIS mode selector is conveniently located on the barrel close to the body for operation by your left thumb.All things considered, this lens offers exceptional value for money. Having image stabilisation in the camera body meant that the OIS was less of a selling feature for me, but I still found it useful. The HSM works wonderfully well and is much quieter. But above all, it's the zoom range and quality of images that sell this lens. Highly recommended

4.4.2014

It was with trepidation that I bought this lens. I was looking at the Canon 100-400mm L series when I tested this lens on a Canon 5D Mk3 at the shop. I have had mixed results with Sigma in the past but good experience with their 50mm 1.4 and 15mm. The reviews on the web did little to encourage me but when I took a close look (pixel level) on a calibrated monitor I was simply stunned by the overall image quality compared to the Canon.Now perhaps I was lucky in having a good copy of this lens and unlucky with the Canon copy. However, considering,after the £100 rebate, this is half the price of the Canon it out performs its price point by a fair margin. I really wanted it to fail. Honestly I did.I wanted to dislike the pictures it produced. I tried it in all sorts of situations over a week in the hope I would be sending it back to Amazon! But I concluded that for me it would do what I needed.OK, the 500 end is soft when viewed at pixel level, but do a normal A3 print and with correct sharpening it looks great. Drop it down to 400mm and f8 and the results are very good. A picture of a car parking sign from a long distance revealed the contours of the previous car park plastic sticker that was underneath the new one!Yes, I know that the far corners are really quite soft but then I am not looking in the corners! 99% of the time my subject is in the centre or near enough. Stop down to f11 and the corners improve a bit. But it is still soft so if you are a pixel peeping junky who wants razor sharp everything then this lens is not for you.Colour and contrast are fine. It is a little more yellow than the canon but a tweak in lightroom or equivalent is all you need. Colours have a nice punch to them.Build quality? Well it is only £600! What do you expect? Overall it is a nice finish though how it stands up to rough handling over the long term remains to be seenFocusing on my Canon is fast enough and i tested moving cars and planes using the servo which tracked with ease and multiple shots were all sharp. No issues. Again, don't expect the speed of the Canon f2.8 lens but for most situations it is fast enough.The OS is brilliant. You would not believe how slow a shutter speed I was using hand held at 400mm..........you wouldn't believe me if I told you.All in all, despite wanting to justify buying the Canon, I have decided to run with this lens and see if Canon update their range. Will I swap? Time will tell. I need to improve my technique and stop pixel peeping. When that is achieved and I have more practice I may look at the next Canon zoom lens but it will have to be significantly better. I may elect to go for a prime and keep the zoom for the 100-400 range and the odd trespass to 500mm. Let's see.Try it yourself. Stop pixel peeping. Worry about the picture and if you like it and less about the ultimate sharpness and above all go take some piccys and have fun.

25.9.2013

I have two Canon L lens, and recently began a search for something in the 400mm range. I mostly do wildlife and my own dogs, usually from a kayak or canoe. I love my L lenses so much that I bought another Rebel so I could use one lens on each camera when I was out kayaking or canoeing. Works great!But, my search was frustrating since those L lenses ARE expensive. I also have an older Sigma telephoto zoom (shorter) that I use fairly often. While it IS a bit softer than the Canon L's, the price was right. My search and review reading led me to this Sigma 150-500mm lens over and over. The main complaints seemed to be issues with the reverse turn on the barrel and searching for focus.

4.10.2013

Ordered Tuesday night, received Wednesday morning, now that's what I call fast... Read conflicting reviews about this lens and was unsure about buying it for a while, a great price yes but still a lot of money, for me anyway... After about 2 weeks of conflicting reports and reviews, I read a review from a guy, who has the same camera I do. Pentax K5. and it wasn't the same old number crunching, target shooting, confusing review you normally see, from someone using what they consider a great camera, which they tested it with.. No this guy just posted a series of photos, with details of how it was shot (settings) and then gave his verdict. I bought it on that review alone..

16.8.2012

There is a small group of camera nuts at work; and I feel like the last one of us to get this lens; with everyone else raving about the zoom and the quality of the image. They are big fans of the fairly quick and fairly precise autofocus and are managing with the weight. Eventually they beat me down and i decided I should get one for those times I want to take pictures of birds or planes; replacing my 300mm Canon as I wouldn't ever take both.Out of the box the first thing you feel is how well made it feels - lots of metal under your fingers and positive feeling switches (including a zoom lock to stop it running out as you walk around.) The lens comes with a large padded case (canon should take note its that good)

25.8.2012

I just got home and was so happy the delivery guy left the package here so I could play with it immediately and revel in instant gratification.Drooling I carefully opened the package to expose it's treasure. I was surprised to see that a nice black lens bag was surrounding said treasure. I lifted it out with care and gratitude but the first thing I noticed was that it weighed as much as a Volkswagen! However, no matter It was here and I could feel the dopamine sputtering in my synapses.It was humongous it was both threatening and challenging. I approached it with my 650D carefully aligning the markers with utter respect. It was a religious experience as they came together.

1.12.2013

Unboxing the lens I was happy with the quality of the lens case it came with and pleased that it came with a lens hood and it's own strap. Build quality is very good. The wife commented on the physical size of the lens which elicited the standard bloke response of placing the lens in my lap, zooming it in and out while pulling rude faces at her. This lens really extends when zoomed out!First use was on the North Sea coast, usual British winter weather, blowing a gale and freezing cold. I fired off a few shots of some passing birdlife and got some good results, made even better by finding out that I'd forgotten to turn the image stabiliser on.

10.8.2015

This is a very nice lens, and it is also quite affordable. It delivers very sharp pictures, even at the 400 to 500 range. Given that the cheapest Canon 400 mm prime lens starts at $1250 and the comparable Cannon 100-400 mm zoom lens starts at about $1350, this lens is a steal. It comes with a very well designed padded nylon bag that keeps the lens protected and makes it easy to transport it (it is large enough that it will not fit into your standard lens bags...). I like the lens lock, which keeps the lens in smallest position and helps to avoid the lens barrel from becoming too loose over time. The image stabilizer is a great and much needed feature (given its weight,

30.3.2014

The first thing you will notice is that this is a big heavy beastie. Fully extended with the hood fitted it is very large and initially you will tie yourself in knots trying to handle it. It can be used handheld but unless your iron man you will soon get tired. I would definitely recommend a strong tripod.The lens is very sturdily built and well finished with a large plastic hood. There is a lock at 150mm but I have had no problem with lens creep. I am still getting used to the manual focus ring being nearer the camera and the zoom being further away. Also the anti clockwise zoom is a little counter intuative and takes a bit of time to master. The image stabilisation appears to work well.

7.9.2013

I haven't had this very long (I actually have the Nikon version, not the Canon) and do not feel comfortable giving it a full review, but first impressions are:1. Solid build quality but some zoom creeping if you point the lens downward or upward, you have to hold on to the zoom ring to prevent this and it only locks in the 150 mm position.2. Good sharpness and contrast 150-400 mm which drops off a little at 500mm. Still, it's the best you can get for under $1000.00 (barely) that gives you as much range on a full frame digital camera. I use a Nikon D700.3. First images I shot with this lens were comparable but not quite as good as I get with my Nikkor 2.8 AF-S VR 70-200 mm.

6.9.2013

I bought this a month ago after much soul-searching about the cost. Cheaper than many alternatives it may be but still more than my Sony A580 bought last year and almost as much as my D7 plus super wide lens in 2005!But enough of that, this is about the lens. And what a lens!It is certainly heavy, and after the first real test at Clacton Airshow my arms noticed the difference compared to its predecessor (a 35mm version of the sigma 70-300. Absolutely no regrets though. The full zoom allowed me to follow even the smaller aircraft around the sky and achieve excellent action shots. BUT the best was undoubtedly the Red Arrows crossover at the far end of their loop.

3.11.2017

I purchased this lens on July 9, 2012, it's now November 2017. This has been an excellent lens for over 5 years. This lens is the "primary" lens that's been on my Canon 5D MIII all this time, I shoot wildlife, outdoors, in South Florida. I have averaged well over 50,000 shots "per year" with it for 5 years, that's a lot of pictures. Early on I purchased the rubber skin for it so the lens looks brand new after being drug through the Everglades and wetlands for all these years. The past few months I've noticed a little bit of softness in my shots but I attribute that to needing my auto-focus settings more than anything with the lens.

5.3.2013

On the negative side it is a big heavy lens which, to be honest, at f6.3 at 500mm is not that fast. I found the lock button only works at the 150 end of the range so there can be a tendency for the lens to shorten when raised. (Note I also found that the autofocus does not work with the Samsung GX10 or Pentax K100 but is fine with my K5) Annoyingly even Sigma do not produce a teleconverter that works with this lens (some cheap ones may say they do but the resulting image is never really sharp on those I tried even with a tripod and remote release).On the positive side if you are a Pentax user this is the longest lens you can reasonably get especially on a budget (Pentax now do a 560mm 5.6 but

6.4.2011

Hi all, I have this lens for over a year.The reach of the lens is great. I have a Canon 500D so the focal length is more like 240 to 800mm.Its good for shooting things like the moon or birds or anything in the distance.The autofocus is pretty good, it can search sometimes. It does a nice blur of the background (bokeh)when focusing on a nearer object.There was a recall on the lens, my number was within the range. I never sent it back for checking as this was hassle. I have found the lens slightly soft but its hard for me to know whether this is the best the lens can do or if could actually be sharper. Its all quite relative. I have two L lenses and they are super sharp so maybe the comparison is unfair.

6.4.2010

Being a birder and having FAILED miserably at diggy-scoping a thought it was about time I brought a SLR with a couple of lens. A stanard lens and a large telephoto lens but which one. In my travels I noticed that alot of people were using Canon 300 and 400mm lenses. So I thought Canon Camera Canon Lens. But while birding in Mongolia a American photographer was using a 50- 500mm Sigma lens, and he told me that as good as Canon lense are they tend to be more expensive than the equivalent lense from other companys and I should take a good look at what else is out there. So I ended up buying a Canon 450d and after buying a few magazines I found a review on mid priced lenses 200mm to 500mm from all the major manufactures.

Sigma 150-500mm f5.0-6.3 DG OS HSM - Reviews

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