new lens....150-500mm

[tyrsmkr]

I bought my first 3rd party lens. I decided to try out a sigma 150-500mm. Im going to use it for the general backyard birds and covering some auto/motorcycle racing.

The thing is a tank, but still easy to handhold IMO. The OS works good, I can get to 1/100 at 500 and still have decent results.

And the first "victim" was this little guy in the peach tree.

 

[dcclark]

Man, that lens could kill a man!

... and yes, I'm envious.

 

[schumionbike]

wow, that's a nice lens!!!! Congrat

 

[Samanax]

Doesn't have the nickname "BigMa" for nothing.

 

[250Gimp]

Congrats on thenew toy!

NIce shot of the bird. NOw you have to show is more of those types of shots with that monster.

Have you tried Birds in flight yet? Curious about the focus tracking.

Cheers

 

[tyrsmkr]

Thanks guys!

Have you tried Birds in flight yet? Curious about the focus tracking.

No, it was a little cool and windy so I didn't get much of a chance. For such a huge lens it focuses pretty quick. I practiced some panning on unsuspecting cars passing by and it kept up fine.

 

[AtlPikMan]

Im very interested in this lens. I would to shoot Air Shows and race events. Please keep us posted with pics and your thoughts on it. What do you shhot with Nikon or Canon?

 

[tyrsmkr]

First auto racing events are the 17-19 of April. Ive been anticipating this all year so for sure I will have lots of photos, hopefully one or two are good enough to share

EDIT: Sorry, this is the canon version.

 

[AlexColeman]

What is the Frange, because I assume that is not constant.

 

[tyrsmkr]

I don't know, that tree is just a thicket of branches. I just took a snapshot and went inside to warm up

 

[250Gimp]

I think Alex meant the aperature range.

 

[tyrsmkr]

LOL oops my bad I read that wrong.

Its f/5-6.3. Not fast by any means, but it works good enough for what I want to be doing. I imagine most of my shots will be pans and the occasional birdy at the feeder.

Wide open, it isn't too bad at all. At around f/8 it gets fantastic.

 

[tyrsmkr]

A couple more quick snapshots. The first one is noisy. I had to crank the ISO to be able to handhold the shot (getting dark)

These aren't quite 100% crops, but pretty close. I'll say 90% :greenpbl:

 

[AlexColeman]

Nice, how well is AF at the far end?

 

[tyrsmkr]

I think it does fine. But honestly I don't have enough experience to really say one way or another. Ive never tried any canon L glass.....hell the best thing I have is a 50mm 1.8 From a newb standpoint I say it does very well.

I was almost disappointed with it at first. I didn't think the 500mm seemed to reach out very far and it wasn't that sharp. Then I broke out the old 70-300 and that checked me back into reality. It really is a good lens, especially for the price. Im glad I didn't spend the extra $600 on the canon 100-400 (although im sure its a fantastic choice also) From an ameture's standpoint it doesn't get much better.