Sigma 5,0-6,3/150-600 DG OS C/AF HSM Contemporary Nikon

I have had this lens for 2/3 weeks now. I have taken over 500 images with it already. And I have to say it is fantastic. Well worth the money. 1st thing I noticed was the size, it's huge. Especially at 600mm. Now I knew it was big, but using it daily I realised how big. And heavy... When I 1st went out with it I thought how can you hand hold it? Now I'm a big bloke, and I felt the size and weight. However, as time has gone by, I don't notice it any more, odd what you get used too. Build is ok, very plastic. But feels sturdy and strong. The lens lock is invaluable, as it prevent lens extending as you walk. I use with a nikon D7200. And I can't quite fit the assembled lens / camera into my lowpro sling bag. I will upload some images of the issue later. If you want to carry around fitted then you need a bag that allows the m to be packed vertically, not horizontal across the bag. Focus is excellent, really fast. And zooming is a bit of a chore, in that you have to twist to zoom then release and twist again to full zoom. Not great if you need to zoom fast. But in general ok. Image quality is far better than my old tamron 70-300mm. (still a great cheap lens by the way). At this time focus at 600mm is slighty soft. So I neeed to tune it to the camera. Looks like another purchase coming up for the sigma tuning thingy. I have bought a gimble for my tripod to help . But all the images except the moon were hand held. And I did take moon shots hand held. the image stabilisation is very good, does seem to pust hand held shots slightly to the right. You can feel the motor working. But its good as you can see. I nearly bought the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E, I tried it at Jessops (lovely lens) but I don't regret buying the sigma. I wanted the extra reach and boy do I like it. It is a slow lens though so brighter light is preferred unless you are happy with high ISO's. the D7200 is great, but I am noticing the high ISO, (so noise when shooting moon was noticable to me) Great lens, well worth a buy.

I've just bought a "contemporary" version for my Nikon D810. I have only had it for a short while but am mightily impressed with both its image quality and the performance of the optical stabilisation (OS) system. Hand-held shots are completely viable, even at the full 600mm focal length. OS does its job well. Autofocus works well and fast, even in poor light, with very little "hunting". Build quality is good, zoom action is smooth. Image quality is excellent. I have bought a lens dock but in fact I don't think I'll need it as focus is spot-on out of the box. I bought this lens because I am frustrated with the performance of my Nikon 28-300 zoom at its long end, it never seems to be quite long enough and the image quality degrades a bit. Comparing images from the two lenses side by side is a revelation: not only do you get over twice as close but the image quality is also massively better. Downsides? It's heavy, but then it's a large lens with a reasonable maximum aperture so it can't be otherwise. I wouldn't want to lug it around all day though. Incidentally just for fun I tried it with my 1.4x teleconverter. Auto-focus mostly worked but it struggled a bit at longer focal lengths on poor contrast subjects. Maybe worth it for a static subject where you can set focus manually but not usable for anything which would require active focus tracking.

I didn't purchase this lens on a whim, I spent months deliberating whether I should spend this sort of money. I've owned this lens for a while now, and I can conclusively say, it's the best photography related purchase I've made. First of all, this thing is a monster. Its big and heavy. But, don't let that put you off. It's ergonomic, and we'll balanced, so shooting handheld isn't an issue, and with the excellent image stabilisation, even shooting handheld at 600mm generates, gorgeous, crisp, images. The lens arrives very nicely packed, in a outer box, the Sigma branded box, and inside that, a soft, padded lens bag. The lens is really well finished, and feels like a quality product. It has a matte finish, and the focus and zoom rings are chunky, grooved rubber. The lens foot is well made, and quick release plates fit perfectly, despite what I had read on a few places. The slider switches on the lens are excellent, and provide access to a range of settings, including focal distance, image stabilisation mode, focus mode, and custom settings (programed through the USB dock). The lens has a zoom lock, which hard locks at 150mm, and will then soft lock at any other focal length. A nice feature is when soft locked, you can manually override the zoom lock by firmly twisting the zoom ring. Initially I had issues with this lens focus hunting when at the longer focal lengths, and I was shooting against a low contrast background (clear blue sky, no clubs for example). This was user error, as I had the focal distance set to "all". As soon as I set that to 10m - infinity, the auto focus acquired focus incredibly quickly, even on birds in flight. The lens hood that comes with this product is massive but very nicely constructed. Overall, a fantastic lens, that gives you unbelievable reach. I can't understand how sigma can produce such an amazing lens, at such a competitive price. 10/10

A very, very good lens, but for non pro’s, it takes a while to get use to. I’ve taken some of my very best shots with this lens. It’s quite amazing how it can give such a sharp focus from so far away, but you need to be careful with aperture, iso and shutter speed. I tried it with a 1.4x adapter, but had to return that as it was very difficult to get a decent shot. I have a Nikon D7200 and the combination has upped my skill level a lot, which I’m really pleased about. Just take your time and practice with it. You won’t be disappointed.

Llevo ya 10 meses con este lente y sigo pensando que es una de las mejores compras que he realizado. A un precio mucho menor que su contraparte de Nikon (200-500 f/5.6) es casi medio kilo más ligero, tiene 150mm más de longitud focal, más funciones, y una calidad óptica similar. Es compatible con Full Frame y APS-C (DX), tiene motor de enfoque integrado por lo que el autoenfoque es compatible con las cámaras más económicas de Nikon (series 3xxx y 5xxx), Optica: - Su nitidez es comparable con la del Nikon, ciertamente no es superior, pero aún así es excelente, sobretodo a cortas distancias (3-15m) y con diafragmas al rededor de f/8 y f/11 - El bokeh que produce es suave y muy agradable a la vista - Los 100 mm adicionales que tiene comparado con el Nikon son de gran ayuda, sobretodo en cámaras con sensor Full Frame donde 500mm aveces pueden sentirse un poco cortos - El recubrimiento de su elemento frontal es muy efectivo contra polvo y grasa, raramente se ensucia y se limpia muy fácilmente Funcionalidad - Este lente es pesado (casi 2kg) pero sigue siendo más ligero que el Nikon 200-500 por aprox. medio kilo lo cual en largas caminatas o excursiones se agradece. - El bloqueo del zoom en todas las posiciones marcadas es una gran función que tiene, puedes seleccionar tu longitud focal y bloquear ahí el zoom, evitando que se extienda cuando apuntas la cámara hacia abajo o se retraiga al estar apuntando hacia arriba. El Nikon solo ofrece el bloqueo en la longitud más corta. - Tiene 3 rangos de enfoque, Completo, 3-10m y 10m a infinito, otras marcas solo ofrecen full y 10m a infinito, y aunque no lo parezca poder bloquear en el rango corto es muy útil - Tiene 2 modos de estabilizador de imagen, para ambos ejes y solo movimientos verticales (para cuando se usa monopie, etc.) - Si tienes el dock de sigma puedes personalizar 2 funciones entre las que se incluyen la velocidad y precisión del autoenfoque y del estabilizador de imagen - Incluye una correa que puedes colocar en el pie del lente, yo recomiendo usarla para repartir el peso y evitar dañar la montura del lente o de la cámara Útil para: - Fotografías de fauna (aves, felinos, etc) - Deportes al aire libre (por su diafragma máximo de 5-6.3 es algo limitado para deportes en interiores o de noche) - Retratos - Fotografía de detalle - Fotografías de la luna Desventajas: - La apertura máxima es variable F/5 - F/6.3 por lo que la exposición puede cambiar al mover el zoom, se puede evitar esto utilizando siempre diafragmas de 6.3 o inferiores, yo recomiendo f/8 para una mayor nitidez - El zoom gira en el mismo sentido que los zooms de Canon, o sea en sentidos opuestos a los de Nikon y uno tarda en acostumbrarse - El pie del lente es algo pequeño y puede llegar a calar en la palma de la mano después de un rato

This lens is incredible for the price. I originally bought the 100-400mm Sigma, which I understand is pretty much the same as this lens other than size/reach, and that lens was really good, but I think this one is a bit sharper. The reason I upgraded was because I loved the 400mm reach and got addicted to it, and figured 600 was better than 400, right?? I will say that this is quite a bit bigger and heavier than the 100-400mm version (twice the weight). Your forearm WILL get tired of you handhold this for too long, but it’s bearable. The autofocus on this is a little slower than the 100-400mm, and it seems to hunt more - but it’s possible it’s because the extra reach compresses the scene more (that’s just a guess, I don’t know if that’s actually how it works). Costwise it’s not much more than the 100-400, so I would base your decision on whether you’re okay with the extra size and weight. I could fit the 100-400 in my camera bag just fine with the hood and camera attached, but I had to upgrade my bag for this. That said, the reach is AWESOME, coming from a 200mm. I’m using it on a Nikon D7500, giving an effective 900mm telephoto reach. The construction of the lens seems very high quality and solid. I couldn’t be happier. The one down side of this lens (and it is a big down side) is that it’s awful in low light. It’s completely fine in daylight, but in shade you’ll be using pretty high ISO to have even a chance at a good shot. On a cloudy day in the shade, you’ll have trouble even at high ISOs. Lastly, I tried this on my old Nikon D5000, which doesn’t do well at higher than 400 ISO, and it was unusable in anything other than bright daylight, so I might not buy this if you have an old camera. That said, if you want anything even close to this kind of reach in a faster lens, you’ll pay 10-20x the price of this, so take that for what it’s worth. There always trade offs. For the price this is an insanely great lens.

el teleobjetivo es de buena calidad, es robusto y las fotografías que se hacen con el, no tienen comparación, la unica pega que le pondré es que para llevarlo por el monte durante largo tiempo, se hace muy pesado y que el aro de goma que viene con el, yo no lo aconsejaría a nadie que lo use, ya que al hacerlo hay que presionar muy fuerte para poder ensamblarlo a la cámara y luego para quitarlo, sucede lo mismo, con lo que no creo que ese sea bueno para el cuerpo de la cámara que tiene que estar soportando la presión que se ejerce sobre el y creo que con su uso, podría dañar la cámara, pero por lo demás es que cuando ves los resultados en las fotografías, me siento muy satisfecho

Dopo alcuni mesi di utilizzo, soprattutto per foto ad avifauna, devo ritenermi soddisfatto. Il peso è sicuramente considerevole, nonostante ciò ho usato questo obiettivo principalmente a mano libera (tutte le foto allegate) con ottimi risultati. Di seguito i miei pro e contro di questo obiettivo. Non commenterò molto sulle prestazioni dell'AF in situazioni estreme, sia perché non sono un professionista, sia perché uso un corpo macchina non professionale, sia perché credo che per altissime prestazioni si debba pagare (purtroppo) molto di più. Sappiate che, per mia esperienza, in condizioni di luce e contrasto non ottimali l'autofocus può risentirne parecchio - ma in queste situazioni l'ultilissimo Manual Override mi ha comunque permesso di ottenere ottime foto. PRO: - Utilizzabile anche a mano libera grazie ad un'ottima riduzione vibrazioni. - Zoom lock, switch AF/MO/MF e switch per il range dello zoom comodi - Gamma di focali ampia, eccellente per fotografia di fauna - AF ben performante, regolabile e personalizzabile con l'apposito dock (purtroppo venduto a parte) - A lunghezze focali fino a 400 mm la qualità delle immagini è davvero eccellente - Funzione MO utilissima soprattutto a lunghezze focali più alte CONTRO: - Sopra i 400 mm ho riscontrato un lieve front/back focus (il mio corpo macchina attuale sicuramente non aiuta); inoltre, le immagini sono tendenzialmente morbide o mosse (ma considerando che molte foto le ho scattate a mano libera, vorrei ben credere) - Ovviamente a 600 mm le immagini tendono ad essere scure - La ghiera dello zoom non è molto morbida, inoltre per passare dalla minima lunghezza focale alla massima la si deve ruotare un bel po', perdendo un po' di tempo e talora lasciandosi sfuggire il soggetto. - Se non si imposta un range di AF, questo può essere un po' lento (possibile personalizzare l'AF con priorità al tempo di messa a fuoco col sopracitato dock) - Staffa per cavalletto molto scomoda da montare e forse un po' piccola Il voto reale che darei è 4,5/5 ed onestamente acquisterei di nuovo queste ottiche. P.S. per altre foto con questo obiettivo potete visitare la mia pagina Instagram @photornithology - può farmi solo piacere!

Brought on a trip to Uganda. Took some time to understand the right match settings body/lens. But outputs are phenomenal.