Sigma 150-600 Garbage

[DarkShadow]

One thing I have herd that the Copy variations from one lens to another can be different but I think that can be said for many other lenses as well. It will never be a Nikon 500mm F/4 thats for sure but you really do have to spend some time with these type of lenses regardless and sometimes they are just not for everyone.Or Exchange it for a Nikon 200-500 or really pony up and get a Nikon 500/f4

 

[astroNikon]

Hand holding a heavy lens can be cumbersome. Here's I thread from a few years ago when I asked about that very issue ==> Stability - making yourself a tripod versus using one

I practiced a lot on a 500mm Reflex lens. That lens did not like movement at all, and it was manual focus. But I learned how with proper breathing, holding, etc techniques to get good handheld pics from it. I also tested my 18-105 VR lens a lot too, turn VR on shoot, turn it off .. shoot .. and repeat as I explored hand holding techniques.

The 150-600 is heavy. Even Sigma 150-500 are HEAVY. You have to really learn to brace the lens to take good hand held shots.

nowadays, I mainly have VR turned off of the few VR lenses that I use, including my Tamron 150-600.

 

[Didereaux]

Hand holding a heavy lens can be cumbersome. Here's I thread from a few years ago when I asked about that very issue ==> Stability - making yourself a tripod versus using one

I practiced a lot on a 500mm Reflex lens. That lens did not like movement at all, and it was manual focus. But I learned how with proper breathing, holding, etc techniques to get good handheld pics from it. I also tested my 18-105 VR lens a lot too, turn VR on shoot, turn it off .. shoot .. and repeat as I explored hand holding techniques.

The 150-600 is heavy. Even Sigma 150-500 are HEAVY. You have to really learn to brace the lens to take good hand held shots.

nowadays, I mainly have VR turned off of the few VR lenses that I use, including my Tamron 150-600.

For the OP: AN has given good advice, very good advice. To learn how to hold a large lens in a stable manner search out Shooting stance techniques. Holding a rifle in the standing position stably is one of the more difficult things you can learn, BUT there is a ton of well illustrated and explained articles on how to do it properly and why certain stances are so stable. THe proper holding of a camera and a rifle are exact correlates...and I mean exact. I used to shoot match rifles, so I know this is fact. When you can shoot a 22 rifle at 50yds and achieve sub 1" groupings you are STABLE! That's what it takes to win at the higher levels of competition.

 

[JacaRanda]

I hand hold the Tamron 150-600 and probably 95% of the time I'm shooting Manual, F8, 1/2000th. Anything different than that means I am really close to the subject and will dabble with 6.3 or 7.1, or slower shutter speeds. Otherwise those manual settings were changed by accident.

 

[Didereaux]

Autofocus? Try manual focus. Maybe it's front- or back-focusing.

I can but if this is what I get with auto focus, I don't want it. What's the point if I may ask respectfully?

Do you see the lines in the bokeh on the cropped images? not digging that either.

well, I guess the lines are the siding on the house after closer inspection.

First off I do not like this guy. In fact if the opportunity presented itself I would probably slap him up side of the head with Manfrotto's heaviest tripod, BUT occasionally he comes across with some usable information...this is a case in point. Watch the video completely, the last 1/3 shows the files in LR and has some useful comments, as well as giving the shutter speeds etc. After the vid you can DL 5 of the RAW files to view yourself at the second link.



RAW files
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary “Real World Review”: The BEST Wildlife / Sports lens for under $1,000?

 

[Derrel]

Here's a guy whose on-line reviews are VERY much real-world oriented actual tests of how a lens actually performs, along with very,very good and insightful comments. This review is a must-read for the 150-500 Sigma Contemporary lens buyer:

As Bryan wrote: "Don't underestimate the shutter speed required to stop motion at 600mm. An in-action subject that was photographed at 300mm will need a significantly faster (figure 2x) exposure duration when photographed at the same distance (same subject framing) at 600mm due to the subject crossing twice as many pixels in the same time period. "
Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C Lens Review

One thing it taught me is that the Sigma dock allows the user to custom-tailor the lens-based Optical Stabilization system for different uses; Bryan wrote:

"As is common for stabilized telephoto lenses, the Sigma 150-600 features mode 1 (normal) and mode 2 (panning) options. Using the Sigma Dock, this lens' OS can be further configured to one of three settings described by Sigma as:

Dynamic View Mode – This mode offers a recognizable OS effect to the image in the viewfinder. This helps to ensure the composition of images quickly.
Standard – This is the default setting. The OS effect is well-balanced and suitable for various scenes.
Moderate View Mode – This mode offers an excellent compensation of camera shake, and achieves very smooth transition of the image in the viewfinder. The composition of the image remains natural even when the angle of view keeps changing.

The lens comes with "Standard" selected by default. I primarily used Standard mode for my testing (and off while shooting sports), but I prefer Dynamic View Mode for subjects that are not moving quickly."

 

[Didereaux]

Here's a guy whose on-line reviews are VERY much real-world oriented actual tests of how a lens actually performs, along with very,very good and insightful comments. This review is a must-read for the 150-500 Sigma Contemporary lens buyer:

As Bryan wrote: "Don't underestimate the shutter speed required to stop motion at 600mm. An in-action subject that was photographed at 300mm will need a significantly faster (figure 2x) exposure duration when photographed at the same distance (same subject framing) at 600mm due to the subject crossing twice as many pixels in the same time period. "
Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C Lens Review

One thing it taught me is that the Sigma dock allows the user to custom-tailor the lens-based Optical Stabilization system for different uses; Bryan wrote:

"As is common for stabilized telephoto lenses, the Sigma 150-600 features mode 1 (normal) and mode 2 (panning) options. Using the Sigma Dock, this lens' OS can be further configured to one of three settings described by Sigma as:

Dynamic View Mode – This mode offers a recognizable OS effect to the image in the viewfinder. This helps to ensure the composition of images quickly.
Standard – This is the default setting. The OS effect is well-balanced and suitable for various scenes.
Moderate View Mode – This mode offers an excellent compensation of camera shake, and achieves very smooth transition of the image in the viewfinder. The composition of the image remains natural even when the angle of view keeps changing.

The lens comes with "Standard" selected by default. I primarily used Standard mode for my testing (and off while shooting sports), but I prefer Dynamic View Mode for subjects that are not moving quickly."

Had not seen this review before. EXCELLENT! Thorough, but understandable...what a rare event that is!

 

[jcdeboever]

Good stuff men. I need to check those links out when I get home. I will also follow up with pics at f/8 with faster shutter speed when I get a chance in the next few days. After reading all the responses, I suspect the lens is fine, it's the guy behind the viewfinder that may be defective. [emoji6]

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Didereaux]

Good stuff men. I need to check those links out when I get home. I will also follow up with pics at f/8 with faster shutter speed when I get a chance in the next few days. After reading all the responses, I suspect the lens is fine, it's the guy behind the viewfinder that may be defective. [emoji6]

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

If you find that is the case come join me in the back room reserved for such folks! lol

 

[Derrel]

SNIP>>>>Watch the video completely, the last 1/3 shows the files in LR and has some useful comments, as well as giving the shutter speeds etc. After the vid you can DL 5 of the RAW files to view yourself at the second link.



RAW files
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary “Real World Review”: The BEST Wildlife / Sports lens for under $1,000?

Good video as far as Jared's go, yes Big D, a very good video review, and thanks for linking us to it! The transcript and extended commentary in the article portion mentioned that he shot the entire event with the Sigma OS Optical Stabilization feature ON, in Mode 2, which is the panning mode. I noticed that the vast majority of his sharp images that he highlighted in the video were at 1/3200 second and at f/8, with the ISO around 400, on a bright, but hazy day, but also over a huuuuge expanse of water: what is called a marine environment. Marine environments provide much brighter light than over land or forest,etc, so that means that over say, a golf course or pasture land, the ISO of 400 would NOT have been able to deliver anything even close to f/8 at 1/3200 second! Just an observation that I made, but one he didn't make or say directly in the video. Keep in mind what Jared said: it was so bright that he could not even see the image he was getting on the rear LCD of the camera well enough to evaluate the images, and that it was so bad (so,so bright there) that he had to rely on the histogram to gauge how he was exposing.

It is a good video, but a few things went unmentioned: yes....fast target speeds--but at long distance, at fairly parallel approach patterns, high-contrast targets, dark-against-brilliant backdrop, high-contrast, sharp-edge paint jobs and decals make for the EASIEST AF targets ever devised, and also long-distance targets that do not vary much in focusing range: ALL the focusing was at the longest focusing range, beyond 200 feet, but less than infinity: on the Canon 7D, with the lens focused at 450 feet, at f/8, the depth of field band is from 425 feet to 477 feet, for a 52-foot deep focus band...for a computer and hypersonic motor, this is DEAD-EASY focusing, due to high light level, long focus range, small f/stop, and high-contrast target edges against backlighted skies, and also high-contrast, sharp edge decals and paint jobs. Oh....and on targets that are BIG....not ducks, not birds...but large aircraft.

Airshows are where a lot of people want a long tele-zoom, and this video showed a good test scenario, but again...this is LONG-RANGE autofocus on big targets with ideal contrast between aircraft body and bright, white, target-less sky backdrop, and high-contrast paint jobs on the subjects. The Blue Angels have that paint scheme to make the aircraft MORE-visible to the eye, so you can see them optimally, and for an AF system, show aircraft at 450-1000 feet distance are basically NOT moving all that fast, over much of an angular view. Also, the farther away a subject is, the slower the speed can be used to freeze its movement. At 650 feet, the DOF band extends from 600 feet to 709 feet at f/8 on the Canon 7D he used. On the FF Canon 5D, the DOF band at 650 foot focusing distance ranges from 574 feet to 748 feet, for a total DOF zone of 174 feet....over HALF of a football field of acceptable focus error to work within, with 75 feet in front of the focus point of 650 feet, and 98 feet of acceptable focus BEHIND the 650 foot focus point. So yeah...the lens focused great. The science underlying it gives a hint that, yeah, it damned well BETTER focus well at airshow ranges on aircraft.

I'm not trying to invalidate anything seen in the video, just trying to point out some of the underlying basics that made his results good. Look at the f/8 at 1/3200 second and ISO 400 exposure. I JUST stepped outside and took some meter readings using a semi-spot meter: for a properly-exposed backlighted subject at ISO 400 at f/8, the shadow-side exposure is 1/160 second: for the most bright part of the sky here on overcast day at 1:20 PM, it is f/8 at ISO 400 at 1/1000 second. The scene there was so bright he could barely evaluate the images he'd just shot on the camera's LCD: this is why a marine environment is such an easy location to shoot with a slow-aperture lens.

 

[jcdeboever]

O.K. Here are some more. They got better. Still not 100% sure, maybe you can tell me or direct me for more tests. I got started and my phone was blowing up. errrrrrr
Thanks again everybody...

#1 550mm, F/8, 1/1250s, ISO 4000

#2 550mm, F/8, 1/1600s, ISO 1600

#3 550mm, F/8, 1/640s, ISO 1600

#4 550mm, F/8, 1/1000s, ISO 3200

#5 550mm, F/8, 1/1000, ISO 1600

Here is a crop of #1, I don't know, doesn't seem to good to me. I am missing something. It's not to far away, maybe 30 yards?

 

[DarkShadow]

They look really soft as In not really In complete focus.Was the feeder moving from breeze? Tripod or Hand Held?

 

[jcdeboever]

They look really soft as In not really In complete focus.Was the feeder moving from breeze? Tripod or Hand Held?

Not really moving. you can't see it but that flag was to the right and was limp. I was using a monopod. I can't hold that thing still hand held, it keep bobbing on me. I am so used to primes. I checked the single focus point (AF-S) and dead center on the bird feeder.

 

[DarkShadow]

You may have very well got caught with a bad copy.Like I said my first one there was something funny going with the OS and I exchanged with B&H the turn around time was less the 48 hours for the exchange but I am not for from NY.

 

[Didereaux]

Just a thought, but when I put mine on a monopod I use the #2(?) panning IS mode, and not just with the Sigma but with the Canon 100-400 L as well. Kind disregarding the noise it seems to my eye that there is a tiny bit of circular motion blur, not much but if that is so then I believe you need to change the IS mode and try again. Also just for hoots and giggles try and set a shutter speed to the equivalent 1/focal length. You really have to eliminate as many outside factors as possible before making any sort of assumptions about lens'. It's a whole different world above 400mm