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This lens was purchased as a replacement for a Tamron 500mm Mirror and a Tamron 70-300 zoom. I mainly use this lens for a combination of motor-sport photography (F1, BTCC etc) and wildlife and was looking for an autofocus 500mm lens that would also allow me to add a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter at a later date and retain autofocus. Although I am an experienced manual focus photographer and had used the 500mm mirror to great effect, the manual focus and lack of light (f8) meant that I was unable to capture many of the 'excursions off track' due to the inability to focus quickly enough. It was very much a situation of picking a focus point on the track and blasting away at that point (hardly ideal and meant that a weekend at an event produced some very 'samey' images). The first outing was to the final rounds of the BTCC at Brands Hatch where it produced some stunning images. Focus is fast, silent and accurate and allowed the capture of many more 'incidents' than the previous combination. I was also able to move around the track with more ease and pick varying angles quickly. Images are sharp and snappy at all but the maximum apature, which I would say is is a touch soft, but this is a common issue with such lenses. Other reviews have indicated that this model is on the heavy side but having used it to capture over 5000 images at the Brands Hatch weekend, I could not concur with this opinion. It is well balanced and the tripod mount/handle combination is well thought out and well positioned. I would say that anyone finding it 'heavy' is probably hand-holding which is a bit optimistic with a lens of this length even with shake reduction enabled. It should be used with a monopod at a bare minimum. Overall I am extremely pleased with this lens and am looking forward to the BTCC season starting again next year.Read full review
I bought the sony lense at christmas 2010 and have be very pleased with it, good picture quality from a distance, do find auto focus slow at times which can be a nightmare as wildlife does not wait...expensive lense for the lower end of the market but personally i feel its worth the money for the quality of pictures i have got. Can feel heavy if you are walking about or holding it in one place, good using it will a tripod. A few setting and you can only learn how to use them as you get to work with the lense....I'm still learning and enjoying the lense.
Like; Not huge for a 500mm Reasonably priced, considering the opposition. Optically, I've not had any problems, seems sharp and well corrected. Don't Like; OS doesn't seem to be quite as good as the Nikon VR, Only seems to give me about 1 stop advantage, where VR gives about 3 stops. Seems to need some time to "settle" (upto 1 sec). Silly hood design; Only goes on in one orientation, which might make sense if it was not a round hood, but leads to much faffing about when mounting the hood. It's almost impossible to put the lens cap on with the hood in place, without dropping it on the front element. I have one of the expensive EX DG UV filters (86mm), and it was marked within an hour of purchase because of this. Don't operate this lens without a protective filter for this reason, and I'd buy cheaper (and harder) UV filters that aren't going to get marked by a lens cap. I assume that the front element has a similar coating to the EX DG filter, so be careful with it. Needs to be held very still at 500mm - but that is going to be the same with any 500mm lens. Carry case is OK, but doesn't have any way of attaching it to the outside of a camera bag, which means it is a separate item to carry. Oh, and there is a recall for many of these lenses - but Sigma advised me they didn't need to update it if I wasn't currently having autofocus issues. I wonder if that problem will show up with a future body?Read full review
This long zoom has proven to be easy to handle being fairly short and has a zoom creep lock unlike some earlier models. Reasuringly heavy giving a quality feel. The build quality seems very robust and operates smoothly. Balances well with my Nikon D300. The OS makes it possible to hand hold at max zoom and get very good results. Supported on a tripod this lens has given me exellent results and to me is a great all round long telephoto for nature and wildlife shooting at a more affordable price. As long as the light levels are reasonable the higher apeture of this lens has not proven to be a problem. Overall a good compramise over price and usability for the enthusiast wildlife photographer.
A large and quite heavy lens . When attached to a camera I would ( and many camera shops) advise holding and supporting the lens rather than just the camera to avoid straining the mount , ie the bit which in the camera the lens attaches to . The lens I recived wasn't an optically stabilised version (OS) , despite being advertisied as so . Be careful and pay close attention to details . On some cameras this could make a difference to image quality, usabilty and price