Sigma 150-600mm F/5-63 Dg Os Hsm Contemporary Lens Review

The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.three DG Os HSM Gimmicky ($1,089) is a big, heavy lens. Only that's no surprise when y'all consider its maximum reach, full-frame sensor coverage, and sturdy build. A strong image stabilization system volition helpyou get crisp handheld shots at slower shutter speeds when dealing with cooperative subjects. Both lab and field tests proved that the lens is quite sharp, with simply a picayune bit of chromatic aberration and pincushion distortion. That's non a huge negative for the wild fauna and sports shooters at which the lens is targeted, and it's tough to fence with the toll-to-performance ratio that information technology delivers. You lot'll be hard pressed finding a meliorate lens with this much achieve at this toll, making the lens an piece of cake pick for Editors' Option.

Design and Controls
The 150-600mm Contemporary ($849.00 at Amazon UK)  is one of a pair of lenses from Sigma covering the same focal range. It'due south smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the 150-600mm f/five-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports ($1,999), but it doesn't look, feel, or perform similar a budget lens. The Contemporary version—available for Canon, Nikon, and Sigma SLRs at printing time—measures ten.2 by four.1 inches (Hard disk) at its 150mm position, weighs most 4.three pounds, and requires you to use a big 95mm filter if doing then suits your fancy. The included reversible lens hood adds about 4 inches of height, and the lens extends by about the same corporeality when zoomed to 600mm. The Sports edition, which likewise includes a reversible hood and extends when zoomed, is eleven.iv by 4.8 inches (Hard disk drive), 6.3 pounds, and has a 105mm filter thread around its front element.

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So, what are you missing out on past opting for the smaller, less expensive of the pair? Bated from some back pain, you lose some optical correction (more on that after), and a pattern that'southward fully sealed against dust and splashes. The Gimmicky lens has a seal around its lens mount, which is fine for moderate weather conditions, but the Sports lens is completely sealed—Sigma has a video that shows the larger lens beingness covered in a thick layer of dust and later drenched past water, with (presumably) no ill effect. The weather was actually adequately cooperative when I was out with the 150-600mm Contemporary, but similar most mod lenses I wouldn't hesitate to employ information technology in moderate rain, though you should invest in a rain cover of some sort if yous're looking to shoot in a downpour.

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With a lens this size yous don't desire to mount your camera directly on a tripod, as gravity will put some unnecessary stress on the lens mount. To that end, Sigma includes a removable tripod neckband. Its sits almost the base of the lens and has a thumb screw to tighten to set it in position; loosening the screw allows you lot to twist the neckband, so you can switch between portrait and landscape orientation when working from a tripod or monopod. Sigma includes a prophylactic ring to cover the indentation in which the neckband sits for protection if y'all opt to remove it.

Ahead of the collar are a number of switches. The Focus switch has three positions—the self-explanatory AF and MF, equally well as MO. The latter stands for manual override, which leaves the lens in autofocus mode, but allows you to adapt the focus manually after the camera has locked focus using the manual focus ring. Below that is a focus limiter—the lens tin be fix to cover the full range, just hunt from x meters to infinity, or only look for close subjects from the minimum two.8-meter focus altitude through ten meters.

The OS switch toggles the optical stabilization mode. Information technology tin can exist turned off completely, or gear up to one of two positions. Position 1 is used when you're holding the lens steady and want to capture a subject that isn't moving, and Position 2 should be used when panning the lens to capture a moving object, like a football game player running across your field of view, or a bird in flying. Our tests showed that the stabilization system was quite constructive. With the lens prepare to 600mm, I was able to get handheld shots at speeds as low as 1/100-2nd with consistently sharp results. At that place was some blur when cutting to 1/50-second, simply images looked fine when viewed at Web resolution. At 1/twenty-second, I was able to get the occasional shot in well-baked focus, only nigh of my test images showed blur, and i/15-second resulted in more consistent, noticeable evidence of camera shake. At 1/six-second, all of the handheld shots were quite shaky. Notwithstanding, consistently sharp results at 1/100-second and reasonably sharp images at i/50-second is nothing to sneeze at. If you're using the lens with a monopod, yous should have no trouble getting splendid results in the field at the shutter speeds you'll use for wild animals photography.

The bottommost switch is marked Custom, with settings for Off, C1, and C2. To apply this control y'all'll need to invest in the Sigma USB Dock ($849.00 at Amazon UK) , an inexpensive accessory that allows you to customize lens beliefs (and upgrade firmware) via your Mac or Windows PC. Y'all tin can accommodate the autofocus calibration, prioritize focus speed versus accuracy, arrange the responsiveness of the stabilization system as it appears in the viewfinder, and set custom focus limits. Sigma didn't provide a dock for review along with the lens, so we tested information technology using default factory settings.

There's a focus scale at the top of the lens. It shows you the distance at which focus is currently set, simply doesn't include depth of field markings—they're not at all useful with a super telephoto, every bit depth of field is narrow even when stopped downward. The manual focus ring sits ahead of the focus calibration. It'due south a trivial narrow for my gustatory modality, but the want to manually focus this lens was seldom, so that's not a huge bargain. The zoom ring is a lot bigger, which is a good thing, and covered in a tough sail of condom, with ridges for easier gripping. It has marks for 150mm, 180mm, 200mm, 250mm, 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm. A lock switch tin set the lens at any of those marked positions, which volition prevent the zoom from creeping when you tilt the lens upwards or downwards. To give yous an idea of how the field of view changes on a full-frame camera, the shot to a higher place was captured at 150mm, and the shot below at 600mm.

Epitome Quality
Sigma provided the lens in a Canon mountain, then I used the xx-megapixel, full-frame EOS 6D ($849.00 at Amazon Great britain) to examination the prototype quality information technology'due south able to deliver. We commonly use Imatest to cheque lens sharpness based on an SFRPlus examination nautical chart, but due to the size of our chart, and the space in our examination lab, we were only able to test to nigh 250mm with this lens. Only the numbers at wider angles are outstanding. At 150mm f/5, the lens shows 2,632 lines per picture height, with very even performance through nigh of the frame and edges that are just a little softer at 2,400 lines. That's improve than the 1,800-line boilerplate nosotros look for in an prototype from edge to edge. Stopping downwards to f/eight improves the overall score to 2,620 lines, and there's a slight dip at f/11 (2,483 lines) due to diffraction. Pincushion distortion is noticeable at 150mm; there's only most one percent, but it does give straight lines the advent of a slight inward curve. That's a business concern if you're using the lens for architectural work, merely it's not a huge deal otherwise. If you utilise Lightroom ($849.00 at Amazon United kingdom) as a workflow application, you lot tin can compensate for lens distortion with a unmarried click.

At 205mm the shapes stay simply nearly the same, just the maximum discontinuity narrows to f/5.six and distortion increases to most 1.5 percent. The numbers line upwardly about the aforementioned at 250mm besides. Beyond that, I used an older, smaller test chart to evaluate lens operation, in concert with shut test of images shot in the field. At 300mm f/5.half-dozen, the lens remains well-baked from edge to border.

Image quality is virtually as stiff at 400mm f/6.three, although y'all do start to see but a trivial flake of blurriness in the corners of the frame. The corners are a chip sharper at f/eight, and crisp at f/11. At 600mm f/six.iii, the softness that was restricted to the corners at 400mm has spread a flake, roofing (roughly) the outer 3rd of the frame. Just sharpness is very strong through the rest of the images. The edges do show some blue color fringing, but nothing that can't be removed with ease in Lightroom. The pixel-level crop of the robin above was converted to JPG from Raw using default settings in Capture One ($849.00 at Amazon United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland) from an 600mm f/6.iii paradigm shot with the Canon 6D. You tin can see an uncropped version of the shot below.

In addition to lab tests, I spent quite a chip of time in the field with the Gimmicky. I shot with 2 cameras, the total-frame 6D and the APS-C Canon EOS 7D Marker II ($849.00 at Amazon Uk) . I was curious to see how the lens focused with the 6D, as its 11-point autofocus organisation isn't every bit robust as higher-end Canon cameras. When using one of the two outlier focus points, the lens could struggle when focusing on a darker area, but that'south more than of a knock on the 6D than on the lens. With the center point active, the lens focused most instantly in normal field conditions, although traveling from the minimum focus distance to infinity could take nearly a second and a half—if you're using a photographic camera with an autofocus system like the 6D, you should utilize the focus limiter office to ensure a speedy focus lock.

The 7D Mark Two has i of the quickest, well-nigh advanced focusing systems this side of the acme-cease EOS-1D X ($849.00 at Amazon UK) . It still takes a beat out to bulldoze the lens from the minimum focus altitude to infinity, only aside from that quibble I had no complaints about focus speed or accuracy. I used the 7D to track birds in flight at its maximum 10fps burst rate, and epitome quality holds up well when paired with the smaller APS-C image sensor. It gives you a bit more effective reach, which is invaluable for photographing wildlife. Image noise was more of an issue with the 7D, as I found myself wanting to shoot at a very short shutter speed to freeze activity, which often pushed the camera to ISO 6400. Shooting in Raw helped preserve detail, merely it did make me wish that the lens offered more light gathering capability. That said, making a zoom lens in this telephoto range with a wider aperture would profoundly escalate toll, size, and weight.

Conclusion
The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-half dozen.three DG Os HSM Contemporary is a lens that delivers image quality and telephoto reach that certainly exceed its asking price. It's tack sharp throughout most all of the frame at its maximum aperture, at all but its most farthermost telephoto bending. At that place is a footling border softness and color fringing at its maximum telephoto setting, and mild pincushion distortion throughout the zoom range, only those are acceptable tradeoffs when you cistron in the price, size, and weight of the lens. If you demand the absolute best, the Sports version of the lens is also worth a look. We've still to review it, simply Sigma is billing it as a zoom with no compromises. If yous're working the sidelines of an NFL game, often shoot in farthermost weather, or simply don't heed spending $ii,000 and schlepping a six-pound lens around on hikes and photowalks, the Sports version may be a better choice for you. Merely the compromises that the Contemporary lens makes in lodge to reduce its price and weight are more than adequate in my eyes, and I'll take a 4-pound lens over a 6-pound lens whatsoever day of the week. It's a fantastic telezoom that's capable of capturing a lot of detail, which is key for wildlife shots. That makes it a clear pick for an Editors' Selection award.

Sigma 150-600mm f/v-6.3 DG Os HSM Contemporary

The Lesser Line

The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG Os HSM Contemporary offers incredible telephoto achieve, fast focusing, and solid image stabilization at a reasonable price.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/sigma-150-600mm-f5-63-dg-os-hsm-contemporary

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