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Product Description
A lightweight hyper-telephoto zoom lens from Sigma, the 150-600mm F5-6.3 Contemporary excels at wildlife and lunar photography—and it’s portable enough to carry easily into the field. It features 20 elements in 14 groups, including one FLD and three SLD glass elements, and has a minimum aperture of F22 and a minimum focusing distance of 110.2 inches Read More
Summary: If you want to do wildlife photography, birding, outdoor sports, or even try some moon photography on a budget, this is a worthy lens.
There are some pro-optics out there that reach nearly as far with better paper specs, but you pay a lot more for those. Tamron has a nearly identical 150-600mm competitor. Pro reviews are mixed on if it is really better than this Sigma or not. Generally they are mostly equal. I have not handled that lens though. The Sigma blows away my previous long lenses, and that includes a Nikon 70-300mm, Nikkor 500mm reflex, and a Tamron 18-270mm superzoom.
The lens is big, extends another 50% in length when fully-zoomed. It has multiple vibration-compensation modes and you will need them if you are hand-holding because it is just a little bit heavier than I like to hand-hold. Tripod or monopod highly encouraged with this lens. Now you don't get a particularly fast aperture with this lens, but for the long focal length, that can be a good thing. A wide-open f4 on Nikon glass may have too narrow of a depth of field depending on the distance to subject. It is even an issue with photographing the moon. A hobbyist amateur like me, this is plenty of lens. I really have not experienced the slow focus except when I was trying to focus on something moving between AF spots against a bright sky. Mostly I am impressed with focus speed and think it does a good job getting it right. If you want to experience a slow, frustrating AF experience, try out an older Nikon 70-300mm sometime.
The tripod mount does allow the lens to be rotated to portrait mode, and is not difficult to remove to allow you to hand-hold even easier. The tripod mount hole is fairly close to the balance point, but a sliding rail system like Arca-Swiss will allow you to get it right. The center of balance is affected by the zoom length.
Oh, and it takes some great photos. The lens is sharp across the zoom focal range. I did not see much vignetting with my DX format D7000 body, but I understand this is more of a thing on FX bodies at low F-stops. Did I forget to mention how sharp it is? See my samples and judge yourself.
This lens is great for wildlife photography. I love whale watching and this lens is my go to lens for that. It is reasonably sharp and has great boka. I recently shot hummingbirds with this lens. I was thrilled with the results.
There are some pro-optics out there that reach nearly as far with better paper specs, but you pay a lot more for those. Tamron has a nearly identical 150-600mm competitor. Pro reviews are mixed on if it is really better than this Sigma or not. Generally they are mostly equal. I have not handled that lens though. The Sigma blows away my previous long lenses, and that includes a Nikon 70-300mm, Nikkor 500mm reflex, and a Tamron 18-270mm superzoom.
The lens is big, extends another 50% in length when fully-zoomed. It has multiple vibration-compensation modes and you will need them if you are hand-holding because it is just a little bit heavier than I like to hand-hold. Tripod or monopod highly encouraged with this lens. Now you don't get a particularly fast aperture with this lens, but for the long focal length, that can be a good thing. A wide-open f4 on Nikon glass may have too narrow of a depth of field depending on the distance to subject. It is even an issue with photographing the moon. A hobbyist amateur like me, this is plenty of lens. I really have not experienced the slow focus except when I was trying to focus on something moving between AF spots against a bright sky. Mostly I am impressed with focus speed and think it does a good job getting it right. If you want to experience a slow, frustrating AF experience, try out an older Nikon 70-300mm sometime.
The tripod mount does allow the lens to be rotated to portrait mode, and is not difficult to remove to allow you to hand-hold even easier. The tripod mount hole is fairly close to the balance point, but a sliding rail system like Arca-Swiss will allow you to get it right. The center of balance is affected by the zoom length.
Oh, and it takes some great photos. The lens is sharp across the zoom focal range. I did not see much vignetting with my DX format D7000 body, but I understand this is more of a thing on FX bodies at low F-stops. Did I forget to mention how sharp it is? See my samples and judge yourself.