Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM for Nikon Digital and Film SLR Cameras

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I won't attempt to reproduce all the images here, but I'll give my overall conclusions and a few samples. At 500mm I found the optical stabilization (OS) system enables me to get pretty sharp handheld shots most of the time down to a shutter speed of around 1/125s, occasionally as slow as 1/60s.

Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM - Canon EF Fit

Wide open at 400mm the Sigma matched or beat the Nikon in sharpness - though the balance tips as you step down. I'd guess what I'm seeing is probably a small amount of uncorrected spherical aberration, but whatever the cause, stooping down by 2/3 stop to f8 bring up the sharpness and contrast. This one is great and i think you would have to do some very close scrutiny to tell the difference in the photograph produced. The zoom ring turns through 120 degrees in the other direction than Sony users are used to and has a 54mm wide rubber surface with a good grip. Two stabilization modes are available, one for static subjects and one for moving subjects where the camera is panning to follow them.But even if you have OS/IS/VR in your lens you better do your very best to keep the lens as stable as you can to make the action of the image stabilization as easy as possible. The tripod collar can be rotated freely after loosening the locking knob and is notched every 90 degrees. For mid-range subjects, the shorter zoom range of the Sigma actually helped me pick up birds in flight a little bit easier as the field-of-view was broader.

Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM Review - BobAtkins Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM Review - BobAtkins

From Sigma lens literature) The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new APO 150-500mm F5-6. It’s notably sharper at 300mm wide-open than the Sigma at the same focal length, with only slight softness at the far reaches of the frame, albeit with higher lateral chromatic aberration. Naturally the less ambitious zoom range of the Pentax favors that model when it comes to image quality and so it’s not much of a revelation to see the DxOMark lens score is higher than that of the Sigma. Even after post-processing, I liked the Tamron produced files better than those from the Sigma 150-500mm OS. It is fastened with a screw and has a rubberized front end to prevent dinks and scratches when the lens is set down on it.I had the newer version of the 80-400 G for a long time, but I eventually replaced it with the Sigma 150-600 Sports, which, although it is much more cumbersome, focuses faster, and is far easier to zoom in and out with (simply a pull-push operation, no twisting needed), and is definitely sharper in the long end! So there is a "hit or miss" to consider in regards to whether you get a very sharp, sharp, or unsharp copy of new lens. is ultra telephoto zoom designed for Full Frame sensors but may also be used with smaller APS-c size sensors with a corresponding effective increase in focal length to about 255mm to 850mm on the Sigma SD format. The exterior finish of the 150-500, being mostly plastic instead of painted metal, holds up very well.

150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS - Sigma UK 150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS - Sigma UK

Sealing: All lenses have a rubber grommet at the lens-mount plus further special weather-sealing throughout the construction. Center performance is still pretty good already wide open although the corners suffer from low contrast and astigmatism at f6. It doesn’t have the same high peak sharpness of the Sony nor does it have the consistent sharpness wide-open, at least at the longer focal lengths (from 250mm upwards).

Finally at 500mm, the resolution of the lens drops off noticeably, although the results are just acceptable at maximum aperture. While not as fast or as sharp as a premium telephoto prime, these lenses often provide good value for money and they have a number of advantages over a prime lens. One thing I would say is that the copy-to-copy variability between a given lens is quite large (and this goes for the Nikon 200-500 also -reference photography life's review where they had to go through 3 copies to find a sharp one). Center sharpness wide-open is good up to 300mm but above that sharpness progressively falls away with the longer focal lengths. It did take some time to develop a technique for carrying and handholding the lense/camera combination, which weighs 2.