Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM

jacsul · Aug 24, 2012

Looking to buy this lens.
Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM for a-900 any drawbacks?

Kolia · Aug 31, 2012

None ! No drawback at all apparently ! lol !

KmH · Sep 1, 2012

I had 2 of them with a Nikon mount. Great long reach lens for the price, but pretty much daylight only.

dash66 · Jan 30, 2013

I just bought this lens myself. I like it a lot, but with the cold, snow and ice in the Pittsburgh area since the day that the lens arrived, I have been staying in and haven't been able to try it out more than a couple of times. One thing with this lens though is I will need much more practice before I can use it handheld. Even shooting at a fast speed with steady shot on, if I zoom in all the way I can see a lot of blur. If I carefully mount it to my tripod (I have an inexpensive tripod that is DEFINATELY not made to handle this much weight) I get good results. I will also agree with KmH in that that they really need to be used in bright daylight. With all that being said though... WOW does it pull things up close. I can't wait for the weather to get better, so I can really put it through it's paces!

questech · Sep 10, 2016

dash66 said:
I just bought this lens myself. I like it a lot, but with the cold, snow and ice in the Pittsburgh area since the day that the lens arrived, I have been staying in and haven't been able to try it out more than a couple of times. One thing with this lens though is I will need much more practice before I can use it handheld. Even shooting at a fast speed with steady shot on, if I zoom in all the way I can see a lot of blur. If I carefully mount it to my tripod (I have an inexpensive tripod that is DEFINATELY not made to handle this much weight) I get good results. I will also agree with KmH in that that they really need to be used in bright daylight. With all that being said though... WOW does it pull things up close. I can't wait for the weather to get better, so I can really put it through it's paces!

Yes, you have to use the focal length/shutter speed rule of thumb (500mm = 1/500th sec - 1000mm = 1/1000th sec - etc.) and for birds in flight you should be shooting higher shutter speeds anyway.

For best results I shoot at F/8 - F/11 (I consider F/11 the sweet spot), which means - Yes you need some light, but with the right technique and practice, I handhold at near dusk with great results.

BTW, I do most of my shooting handheld and get results rivaling much more expensive lenses.

Anthony

Streets · Sep 23, 2016

jacsul said:
Looking to buy this lens.
Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM for a-900 any drawbacks?

Yes, there is a serious drawback. It weighs 2.25 pounds more than the Sony 70-300 APO G. The Sony is hand holdable for many more individuals and as good or better than the Sigma in any category you care to measure the two lenses by. Could you really tell the difference between a full, max. telephoto image taken by the Sigma on an 8x10 print and the identical image cropped by 40% taken by the Sony on an 8x10 print? I very much doubt it.