which lens..

[PaulWog]

"the 18-200 is the perfect lens for every day use IMO. but i do want something that will get me close to those far aways objects/animals and i do not have the money to buy a high end lens."

I'm not recommending a high-end lens. The Tamron 150-600mm isn't a high-end lens. It's an entry-level zoom lens (in its respective range) for telephoto work with birding/wildlife and maybe some sports. You said you want noticeably better reach than your 18-200mm, and you're on a budget... that's really the first thing that should come to mind. If $1000 is too much for you, and you have such high expectations that the 150-600mm Tamron isn't good enough, then I'm not sure why you bought the 18-200... and I'm also not sure why you're interested in bird photography (it's expensive).

I already know about the 400mm Canon f5.6. First, it's a Canon mount lens, not a Nikon mount lens. Second, it's a fixed focal length, the Tamron 150-600 can shoot at many different focal lengths (yes, cropping is a thing, I know). Third, it's $300 more than the Tamron 150-600. Fourth, the performance difference in terms of sharpness is not significantly different. You won't end up finding a hidden lens in the midst of hundreds of hours of research... there is what there is. You could buy used and save some money though.

Honestly, your four most economic options will be:
1) Get the Tamron 150-600mm.
2) Wait on the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens and see what the performance and price is.
3) Wait on a review for the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens, and up your budget to $2000 if it turns out to be suitable.
4) Find something used that fits your price-to-performance expectations.

 

[dannylightning]

i have always enjoyed seeing good photos of birds, i guess its the colors and the sharpness that i enjoy looking at. i find shooting birds enjoyable, its also challenging which i like, first you need to set and wait till one shows up, than you need to get it quick before its gone, all while relaxing at the park and enjoying nature.

where i live, not much interesting to shoot unless i make a long drive, but there plenty of parks near home with lots of birds but not much else interesting to shoot there but the animals,

i bought the 18-20 because i think its a great all around lens, seems sharp enough for general photography as long as the subject is not to far away, its also convenient to have one lens that has a descent wide angle and zoom. and i found that it actually took better pics than my kit lens, i got to try one out and i decided to get my own. the idea is i would have one all around lens and than i would eventually get a lens with a big zoom. than i picked up the 35mm for any time i might need to shoot indoors in low light and don't want to use a flash which wont be often bu it was not expensive so i though why not. all i need is a lens with allot of reach and i should be good to go. i just don't want to get the wrong one. i am looking for the best i can get with the money i want to spend.

photos of birds look best when they are very sharp, that is the reason i am so worried about how sharp the lens is. if i were using it for sports or something like that i would not be so concerned.

on the sigma website they have the lenses listed, no price yet, the have the lens in the wild life and the sport section, but it looks like its the same exact lens, not 2 different ones, maybe i missed the other one or i was looking in the wrong place

 

[dannylightning]

well ill tell you what, i ran across some reviews and images from the sigma 50-500mm lens, this lens is looking very appealing right now. looks very sharp and can be used for more than just a big zoom. looks like better IQ than the other lenses i have been looking at. cost a bit more than i really want to spend but as of right now it seems like the best bang for the buck if i wan really good IQ and a descent amount of zoom.

 

[PaulWog]

well ill tell you what, i ran across some reviews and images from the sigma 50-500mm lens, this lens is looking very appealing right now. looks very sharp and can be used for more than just a big zoom. looks like better IQ than the other lenses i have been looking at. cost a bit more than i really want to spend but as of right now it seems like the best bang for the buck if i wan really good IQ and a descent amount of zoom.

At $1500, you might as well spring for the Sigma 150-600 Sport lens.

I'm not so sure at $1500 the Sigma 50-500 is going to provide any IQ advantage over the Tamron 150-600. The main reason you'd want the Sigma 50-500 is for the extra 100mm wider.

 

[dannylightning]

you have a good point there and i am not sure IQ is that much better between the 2 sigma lenses, i was just looking at pics on flickr, i just found out you can search for tags there, i found loads of pictures taken with all of these zoom lenses i was looking at. i found there were lots of what i would call excellent photos with all of these lenses and some that were just descent or not that great but i think i just saw more good ones than bad ones.

as far as the tamron probably 90% of the photos i viewed were up to par with the kind of IQ i would like to get. not sure if that was the lens or the user

with the sigma lenses i would have to say only 75 maybe 80% of the photos were up to part with the IQ i would like to get. not sure if it was the lens or the user.

going by what i found on flickr it looks like the tamron is a lens i would be happy with and its only slightly more money that i wanted to spend, i have a feeling this is the lens i will end up getting, but i probably wont pull the trigger for a few more months.

its so hard to figure out which lens to get just going from what you can find online, i want to thank everyone for their help and suggestions you all have been great and very helpful.

 

[PaulWog]

Don't pull the trigger until the annual announcements are made (coming up), and the Sigma 150-600 contemporary and sport are both properly reviewed. Even if I had $1200 to blow on a telephoto lens right now, I wouldn't do it. I would definitely wait.

Given the fact that the Sigma 150-600 Sport is $2000, the Contemporary should fit in at a tempting price-to-performance point & is worth waiting to take a look at.

 

[dannylightning]

man, it looks like those new sigma lenses are around 7lbs and they are huge compared to the others, that is kind of a big turn off, a 7lb lens seems like it would get really old really fast carrying that thing around for a few hours.

even a 4 lbs lens does not sound like a good time to carry it around but i think it wold be doable, 7lbs i just don't think i would want to take that thing anywhere.

if i were going to set in one spot for hours it may not be a big deal but i seem to move from spot to spot when i head out to a park to shoot and do a lot of walking around

 

[hamlet]

The 150-500mm's should all become super cheap. Might be something to look into when you're on a budget.


Actually, that might be something i'd look into. With all those 150-600mm, people will flood the market with the 150-500. The used and the new ones should drop in price. Perhaps i can get one for €400 soon.

 

[dannylightning]

I was kind of thinking the same thing, the price on some of the used ones may drop, i guess well have to wait and see, as of right now the price on the used sigma 150-500 that I found were not that good of a deal compared to some other used lenses i have looked at.

 

[dannylightning]

well, I think i am getting the sigma 150-500 and a Nikon 50mm 1.8 FX lens. I happened to run into some one who has a few lenses for sale at a awesome price, I am going to go check them out on Friday.

after talking to a few people on the forums here that own the 150-500 and seeing the images they have got with the lens, if I am able to get those kind of images out of it ill be quite happy.

I guess ill get those if they are nice and now all i need is a nice tripod that will hold the weight of the big zoom lens. I don't think i will need to buy anything else for a long time.

I don't really need the 50mm at all, not sure if ill really use it or not but it is dirt cheap so why not, I just hope the lenses are in good condition.

 

[dannylightning]

I have a question i hope someone can answer for me about the 150-500 sigma, It was getting kind of late so i did not really have time to give it a proper test. I was able to shoot a few shots of random things around the area but the sun was going down and i had to crank up the ISO a bit.

As far as the image stabilization on the lens, on number 1 it worked great for hand held shooting and I was getting some nice shots at 500mm, with the switch on number 2 it almost acted as if the stabilization was off, as I looked threw the view finder I could see the lens moving around just as much as when I had it set to off, when I was panning left and right and shot there was no blur in the number 2 setting, when the stabilization was off it seemed to blur the photos all the time when it was hand held so it appears to be working in position number 2 but was not acting the way i would have expected it to act., From the little bit the instructions said it sounds like the switch on position 2 is for taking pictures when you are moving the camera and not for taking photos with the camera still. is that correct. I want to make sure nothing is wrong with the lenses stabilization before I buy it.

I got a few pics of squirrels and some flowers in someones yard way down the street, none of them were great photos but the IQ on those photos was very good, I was not worried about composting a good photo, I was just shooting anything and everything in the area just to get a idea of the IQ, i was zoomed in on a house about a block away and got a nice picture of something I could not even see with my eyes but at the same time on the squirrels that were much closer than the house, even 500mm does not seem like that much reach but still much better reach than i get with the 200mm, I cropped the squirrel pic big time and the image was still nice and sharp.

The number 2 setting for the image stabilization kind of makes me wonder though. If that is not a issue than I cant pass up buying this lens.

 

[Derrel]

I'm not familiar with the 150-500's stabilization system, but there are lenses that have dual-mode image stabilizing. Nikon has for example used "Normal" VR and also "Active", the first being for,well, normal situations and the second type, Active, being for moving platforms, like aboard boats, or when there is a LOT of movement, or a lot of wind,etc., and the camera is very shaky and prone to gross movements, as opposed to normal shooting where you are trying to "steady down" and get a good, smooth release using good hand-holding technique in Normal situations. I suspect Sigma's 1 and 2 modes are similar.

As an aside, on the first generation 80-400 VR Nikkor, I have found that Active VR can be used in normal type situations when ridiculously slow shutter speeds are used, and it will often get a good frame out of five or six at simply, utterly ridiculously slow speeds, like say 1/3 to 1/6 second at 400mm; my guess is that at such slooooooow speeds, the creaky, joint-filled, blood-pumping, air-breathing, pulse-havin' human body is, to the VR system, a "moving platform".

 

[dannylightning]

my guess is that at such slooooooow speeds, the creaky, joint-filled, blood-pumping, air-breathing, pulse-havin' human body is, to the VR system, a "moving platform".

Say What Now ??

My 18-200 has 2 VR modes, both act the same way when they are on except for in active mode i hear allot of clicks coming from the lens, than again i am able to keep the lens still enough as it is that i can get good shots from it even without the VR so the lens might not have been moving around enough to see how it really acts in that mode. maybe ill turn that lens to active BR and wobble the lens around a bit and see if it acts the same what as the Sigma did.


The sigma has the same basic deal, with the switch in the second position i guess its equivalent to the active position on a Nikon lens, at least as that is what a couple of reviews I have read said so I would imagine that they would both do the same basic thing in that mode. but i could be wrong

it does say the mode 2 on the stabilization switch for sigma is for shooting moving subjects and it should keep the pic from bluring and it seems to be doing what it should if i go by how the picture looks when i am panning the camera and snapping shots.

 

[Derrel]

Again, the maker's own instruction manual is always a good source. Nikon uses an auto-switching VR system that can automatically detect panning in horizontal OR vertical directions; the Canon system from some time back was designed to be TOLD by the user is the target was moving, and the camera was being swung along. Different incarnations of VR/IS/OS/VC have different protocols, so it's important to make the right settings. Some stabilizing systems CAN be used on a tripod; others can NOT be used on a tripod. SO, again, the Read The Furnished Manual credo always applies to stabilized lenses.

Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO Autofocus Lens 737306 B&H

"The OS system uses two sensors inside the lens to detect vertical and horizontal movement of the camera. It works by moving an optical image stabilizing lens group, to effectively compensate for camera shake. It automatically detects movement of the camera and compensates for camera shake when shooting a moving subject such as motor sports."

You will get the hang of the lens; the tests tonight might have been at too slow of a speed for the system/focal length in use at such a late time in the day.

 

[dannylightning]

It says in the manual, 2. Compensates for vertical camera shake and overcomes blur, effective on subjects moving horizontal to the camera. That is all it says about the second stabilization mode.