Description
Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary (Canon) Lens
Item details:
Brand new in retail box
Sold by VAT registered UK company
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Aurelia Valeanu –
For the money, this is a pretty amazing lens. While heavy, compared to virtually anything else with 500 or 600 mm focal length it’s pretty light and as a consequence, given the excellent image stabilisation, it’s certainly possible to use hand-held in reasonably good light. But unless you’ve got quite strong arms – or something to lean on – I’d strongly recommend using a monopod. This will be a lot lighter to lug around than a tripod although obviously the latter will get you the best shots, and is especially recommended if you’re staying in one place such as a hide.As many have pointed out, with its unspectacular maximum aperture the lens isn’t great in low light (a wider maximum aperture would make it much heavier and much more expensive) and ideally it should be paired with a camera body that has really good low light autofocus ability and relatively low noise at high ISO values. If you’re not used to using a supertelephoto lens – and it is quite a steep learning curve – you’re going to find that smaller targets that are some distance away are hard to achieve good focus on using autofocus, especially if there is something else slightly further or nearer to potentially focus on such as water, branches etc. This isn’t a shortcoming of the lens, more a question of technique and the quality of your camera’s autofocus system. In particular, if you’re photographing relatively distant birds on water that aren’t moving around much, you’ll get the best shots on a tripod using either manual focus or the manual override setting (where you can use autofocus and then fine-tune) using the camera’s magnified on-screen view rather than the viewfinder where it can be difficult to see if you have optimum focus. While this isn’t a criticism of the lens, it’s worth knowing so that you don’t think there’s something wrong with it at longer distances when closer shots with autofocus are so sharp. And of course even with perfect focus, as your subject gets further away there is inevitably a law of diminishing returns with regard to detail and any subsequent cropping or sharpening will bring out any noise in the image.From an aesthetic point of view, the background blur (bokeh) of areas of the frame that are out of focus is not very attractive when the background is near to the subject – e.g. if you’re shooting a duck floating on water, the duck may look fine but the water behind and in front of it less so. On the other hand, if the background is some metres behind the subject then the blur looks fine to me. The sharpness when you get a good focus on something is really spectacular – a small bird 5 or 10 metres away will show every filament of its feathers. The focus limiting switch, with three positions of full range, closest focus to 10 metres and 10 metres to infinity is really useful, – if you’re trying to shoot a bird through gaps in branches or reeds or alternatively one perched on a branch quite nearby you can avoid the autofocus locking onto the foreground or background respectively and waste a lot less time hunting for focus.Obviously this lens is far from cheap in absolute terms, but compared to anything better it’s a huge bargain and I would strongly recommend it for shooting birds in your garden or a park, at least as practice for using it in more challenging environments. As an example of what you can achieve when the subject is quite near, the shot of the robin is from about 6 or 7 metres away.
Jay Blayk –
Great for the price. Happy customer.
Herr Arevalo –
Purchased primarily for bird + aircraft photography and used in conjunction with a Canon 90D, this Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary is a brilliant lens. I bought it with the Sigma Dock which I have not yet used for any programming or updating as the lens performed perfectly straight out of the box.It compares superbly alongside my Canon 100-400mm F4.5/5.6 L II IS USM despite not having quite the benefit of the larger aperture. This, in my opinion, is compensated for by having the extra 200mm reach without the need for a teleconverter, which then causes light loss anyway.At less than half the price of the Canon, this lens is well worth its money. No it’s not built like the Canon but that comes at a premium. I still have and will continue to use the Canon, I can find uses for both.
V. jogi –
I read lots of reviews and watched a few review videos before purchasing this lens but was still a bit unsure about the weight and also how well it would work on my crop sensor bodies including with an EOS M6 and EOS M mount adaptor. It is indeed relatively heavy compared to say a 70mm-300mm but that’s obviously the nature of lenses with this zoom range and by all accounts it’s a fair bit lighter than the sport version. So far the quality of the images have been great – even hand held shots – at an appropriate shutter speed. I had also read comments that when purchased from ClickElectronics.co.uk the lens isn’t covered by the Sigma extended 3 year warranty so I checked this with Sigma before opening and as long as it has been supplied by Sigma UK it is covered which I verified before opening by sending them the serial number from the label on the box. My only gripe with the lens so far is that the built-in tripod mount isn’t Arca Swiss and I believe the sport version is Arca swiss. There are 3rd party replacements available for the Contemporary version but this seems like a poor decision by Sigma not to make the mount for this version Arca Swiss too. Having to screw in an Arca Swiss plate just adds to the weight and scope for instability. BTW one of my Canon bodies is the EOS-M6 and I sometimes use the Viltrox 0.7 EOS-M mount focal reducer with that and for stills not just video. So with that combination the exif data reports as 106mm 3.5 – 426mm 4.5 and the auto focus still works fine. Obviously the reported focal lengths and apertures still have to be multiplied by 1.6 to get the FF equivalents but the fact that the Sigma lens works with the Viltrox adaptor is great! Overall very pleased with the Sigma 150-600mm F5.6-6.3 DG Comtemporary so far!
Roman Pedchenko –
Great zoom range and great image quality
pamela pavia –
Fantastic lens for the Money
Neil Cook –
In terms of Zoom lens I have been putting off buying one as the price of a telephoto lens was far too high. But that was because I was looking at Canon lenses and hadn’t considered using another brand. This is a beaut, it has meant I have regained my interest in photography. The lens itself is heavy compared to any other lens I have had but that hasn’t stopped me from capturing some fantastic images of wild birds. I love how the lens is able to focus on the subject and then has image stabilisation for a second or two to enable a crisp image. The deal with ClickElectronics to pay in 5 installments interest free is fantastic. I would like to see more of this kind of offer as for me it makes the difference between buying it or not.The lens comes with the attachment for a tripod, and a rubber protector for when you remove this from the lens. It has two straps, one for the lens bag and one to help support the lens when taking photos.The only thing that I didn’t find worked well was that the warranty said it would only be valid if it has been stamped by the dealer, which of course it has not as it was purchased through ClickElectronics. However, I assume that this 3 year warranty is still valid as I have a record of purchase.Overall a great lens, fits the canon EOS 250 a dream.
itsmenyc –
great for the money but not perfect
L. Massaar –
Superb images and unbeatable value
Darren Bradwell –
For the magnification youre getting at this price its a great lens. I use it mainly to photograph my son playing rugby and unless the light is really low it does a great job.I can get close up shots from a width of a field. I would advise getting a monopod for it if youre planning on holding it for a while as its a heavy bit of kit. Also find I get cleaner images at big magnification.The downside is it does struggle in low light with the minimum F5.6 aperture. Given the price you cant complain. Ive owned this and used it a few times a week, taken thousands of photos and Im very happy with my purchase.Dont get me wrong it doesnt compare to a 2.8 canon for sharpness but thats triple the price second hand so you get what you pay for.