Weighing in at a whopping 1,930g and measuring 26cm in length, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary is a pretty big and heavy lens, although it is almost 1kg lighter than the Sports version. As seen in the photos below, it dwarves even a full-frame camera like the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. This is not a lens that you can hand-hold for too long, being much more at home mounted on a sturdy tripod or monopod. The lens also extends by quite a long way when zoomed out from 150mm to 600mm. Vibration reduction is designed to counteract the slight shaking you get when shooting handheld. It might only be a small amount of shake, but at long focal lengths it’s amplified many times over. With an effective, modern vibration reduction system, you can often get an extra 2-3 stops before the shaking starts noticeably blurring the photos. In my experience, I wasn’t able to get anywhere near that–perhaps 1 stop at most. I shoot in pretty rough environments–especially when I'm shooting wildlife with a long lens like this one. If you see it is hard, then don’t worry, as it is effortless and helps you get the most out of your lenses. It is like something you already do, and you can use your method to do it. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. In the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens, Sigma employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view. We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included several 100% crops for your perusal.

Teleconverters. It’s compatible with two teleconverters. The Sigma Tele Converter TC-1401 is the best bet. It gives 1.4x magnification (and drops a little light), turning the lens to a 210-840mm f/7-9. The TC-1401 is also compatible with AF on some camera (I recommend investigating the combination with your specific camera model further before purchasing). Sigma also offers a 2x telecI am waiting for your response to this problem which leaves me partly unsatisfied with this excellent lens. If this crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 29×43" (2.4×3.6 feet or 0.75×1.1 meters). Used with teleconvertters the combination can be so long that I can photograph local airplanes in the sky and read their tail numbers. More at Teleconverters. Sports photographers would probably never use them, but sometimes wildlife photographers use a polarizer to cut the reflections and glare off leaves.

Even if you go out of your way to turn off automatic correction or are shooting this on film, even without correction there is no visible distortion except at 60mm. There is no visible distortion from 100-500mm, and even at 600mm it's mostly invisible even uncorrected. This is an all-around excellent lens that's absolutely worth the money for E-mount and L-mount users. See our full Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports review. 150-600mm lens alternatives The vignetting from shooting this lens on a APS-C sensor at 150mm (225mm equivalent) wide open, where it would be most apparent, is barely there — emphasis on barely. This was only noticed when shooting an almost white-out snow scene. Anything else you aren't going to see it. From looking around the Internet, full-frame camera owners can probably expect around a one to two stop difference at the corners at 150mm and easing up the more you zoom. This is so easily fixable in post-processing as already mentioned, and stopping down the aperture a little will also remedy it in camera. f/5-6.3: It has a very wide zoom range, from 150mm, which is almost at portrait length, all the way up to extreme telephoto length at 600mm. But the maximum aperture depends on where in the zoom spectrum you are. At 150mm the maximum aperture is f/5. At 600mm, the maximum aperture is 6.3mm. So it’s not the fastest lens out there, but it’s in good company with other super telephotos that aren’t priced in the stratosphere. If you're not getting ultra-sharp pictures with this, be sure not to shoot at f/11 or smaller where all lenses are softer due to diffraction, always shoot at ISO 100 or lower because cameras become softer at ISO 200 and above, avoid shooting across long distances over land which can lead to atmospheric heat shimmer, be sure everything is in perfect focus, set your camera's sharpening as you want it (I set mine to the maximum) and be sure nothing is moving, either camera or subject. If you want to ensure a soft image with any lens, shoot at f/16 at ISO 1,600 at default sharpening in daylight through heat shimmer of rapidly moving subjects at differing distances in the same image.

Conclusion

In the 150-400mm sector of the zoom range, the Contemporary lens exhibits a little more color fringing towards the edges and corners of the image frame. Even so, it’s of a fairly insignificant amount, and automatic correction is available for both lenses in recent and current Canon and Nikon cameras. The Contemporary lens also gives a little more pincushion distortion than the Sports lens at all zoom settings but, again, automatic in-camera correction is available and it's easy to correct at the editing stage, if you feel it’s necessary.

Yes, I use the older -II extenders; they're all the same inside even if Canon changes the paint color on the outside. The Sigma 60-600mm covers a uniquely huge zoom range. It's also super-sharp, even in the center at 600mm, and focuses fast. If you don't mind the huge size, weight and expense, it's a swell lens. The advantage for warranty goes to Tamron, which offers a 6 year one,compared to 4 years with the Sigma. Still, in my opinion, both lenses are well constructed, and I am not convinced how much of an advantage that is, as most warranty issues show up early on. 1.4x Teleconverter If you currently have a Tamron it may not be worth making a switch. But with the addition of the 1.4x TC, the Sigma bundle offers a great setup for full frame cameras, as well as crop sensors for some extra reach. So if you are looking for some extra reach (and we all are) the addition of the 1.4 TC to the Sigma may be a game changer. It was for me!

Intro

Built in OS (Optical Stabiliser) with accelerator sensor which enables panning photography in both vertical and horizontal positions. When used on an APS-C camera, it sees the same angles of view as a 90-900mm lens sees when used on a full-frame or 35mm camera. At the end of the day, the Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens is bigger, nearly a kilogram heavier and about 50 per cent more expensive to buy. The key consideration is whether or not the extra size, weight and money pays off in terms of build quality, handling and performance. The Contemporary lens feels robust but the Sports lens feels even more solid and features a more comprehensive set of weather-seals, which will suit you if you’re not a fair-weather photographer. Above: Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC coverage on a full-frame camera at 150mm (left) and 500mm (right), Distortion Compensation AUTO

The autofocus is excellent, though you'll need to make sure your camera is set up in the optimal way to take advantage of it. The build quality of the lens is also impressive – while no one is going to pretend this is a lightweight lens, it handles well, with tactile zoom and focus rings and a series of on-body controls for functions like AF speed, stabilization intensity, and in a new addition for the mirrorless version, Zoom Torque control to adjust the resistance of the zoom ring. Except for the rare sale that could happen with these lenses, you really won't find the price fluctuating much between retailers. Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of the Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG DN OS under well-lit test conditions is good (measured 96.4% in Reikan FoCal) but shows some focus variation especially when focusing from further away. And there was one clearly misfocused shot over a series of 40 shots. At 200mm focal length the lens focuses in around 0.7 sec from infinity to 2.08m (1:10 magnification). In darker conditions (+5EV) I encountered a lot of hunting at focal lengths of 300mm and beyond. All lenses in this comparison cover full frame sensors or can equally be used on a cropped APS-C camera body. [+] AF: Auto Focus. You have auto focus, and also have instant manual focus override by turning the focus ring at any time. Like all Nikon and Canon lenses, if you're in continuous AF(AF-C on Nikon or SERVO on Canon cameras) the AF system will take over again as soon as you let go of the manual focus ring.Price: The Sigma 150-600 DN comes at a recommended retail price of 1399 EUR (incl. 19% VAT) / 1499 USD / 1199 GBP. The Tamron 150-500 is 1499 EUR / 1399 USD / 1379 GBP, the Sony 200-600 is 1670 EUR / 2000 USD / 1500 GBP. The older DSLR designs currently sell for 1650 EUR / 1850 USD / 1330 GBP (Sigma 150-600 HSM Sports) and 1000 EUR / 1200 USD / 850 GBP (Tamron 150-600). [0]