Sigma 50-500mm EX DG
 

I have purchased two examples of this lens the first was the non DG and was used on the Canon 10D

Example image

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...500&ppuser=133

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...0&limit=recent

The second version was the newer DG edition which is supposed to reduce internal reflections. This has been used extensively on my Canon 20D it has Sigma's HSM motor for high speed focus and minimum aperture of f6.3 although on a Canon 20D this shows as f5.6

Example images

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...500&ppuser=133

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...500&ppuser=133

The lens is very heavy weighing in at around 1.8Kg but its well built with a twist action zoom and a lock to prevent the lens from extending when not in use. Even though its heavy I can hand hold down to a shutter speed of around 1/90 the deer shot above was taken at 1/180. The lens is sharp all the way through its focal length and much sharper than my last Canon 100-400L also its about half the cost. The sweet spot for sharpness is around f8 but its still acceptable at f5.6 (6.3) when zoomed in to 500mm. Filter size is 86mm and I would recommend the fitting of an EX glass filter the cheaper filters do affect image quality.

For the cost of around £600 new including case and three year warranty (Canon only give one year) this is a superb lens for both wildlife and aviation and well recommended.

Kevin

I used the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.0-6.3 EX APO RF HSM zoom lens for three years and liked it. It was heavy, but most of the time it was the only lens in my pack because of the versatility. I wrote a review on it here that some might find helpful:

http://www.naturescapes.net/092003/hf0903.htm

I agree with all the points above. Heavy but versatile and can be hand held at the long end, in a pinch. On a tripod it's incredibly sharp with nice out of focus effect and great colour rendition. My only complaint is really terrible chromatic abberation showing up as blue fringing on high contrast subjects, seemingly much worse on the D2x than the D100. Mine is non-DG.

The versatility of this lens can be increased by attaching a 13mm extension tube. This will allow focusing down to a few inches, ideal for close-ups of butterflies etc. My technique is to set the lens to minimum focus distance then use the zoom to frame the shot.

There is a big reason for Sigma users to call it Bigma.
No company has yet stand to challange of 50-500mm Sigma.

Now also available in 4/3rd mount and would have the same effect as a 100mm-1000mm on 35mm/full frame! If I get this I may take upbird photography seriously ;)

Paul

Paul I am not clear about 4/3rd mount. Can you elaborate?
Also remember that on full frame you do not get any magnification factor...A negative appearing statement that is actually very much in favor of owner (Minus much higher cost).
If you are referring to 2 x extender then that is a different story.
BTW, remember that when 2x extender is added to this Bigma, the effective focal length is from 200-1000mm. This is because the extender physically is longer than its length and protrudes into the existing empty bore of lens, thus starting minimum focal length of lens with extender on, is from line demarcate 100mm and not 50mm anymore.

Sassan,

The 4/3rds mount is the lens mount used by Olympus, Leica and a couple of other brands. The sensor in a 4/3rds camera is a bit smaller than the more common APS-C sized sensor used in many other dSLRs, this gives a 2x crop factor, instead of the more typical 1.5x digital sensor crop factor found on an APS-C sized dSLR.

Thanks for explanation Duncan.
Yes I remember very well been confused (Deceived:mad: ) by initial advertisements of Olympus using the world "Full Frame Crop".:mad: :mad: Not mentioning it is 1/4 of regular sensor surface area (Considering raise to power of 2 for area measurement).

Yes Duncan is correct, Sassan I do not think Olympus have ever said it is a full frame crop, but advetised it as a 4/3's full frame transfer CCD ( a completely different thing) and yes it gives a 2x crop factor the same as the 30D gives a 1.6 crop or raise to power of 1.6 for area measurement :)

crafty

How about line 11 of the LINK.

Or under 3rd highlight, discussion on Sensor, LINK.

The area of the sensor is not the power of the crop. The crop is based on the diameter of the image circle. You will find the diagonal is the effective crop basis. The relationship does not give area as 1/4 regular sensor any more than APSC sensor is 1/2.5.

Carman, the question here is not what crop is or is not. My point is Olympus deliberately cheats in their advertisement, utilizing the ignorance of consumers making them think they are buying the same "Full frame" sensor that canon on their 5D and 1Ds MII sells from 3000 to 8000 dollar, when in reality they sell even a smaller, cheaper sensor, to be precise, 1/4 the area of a true full frame sensor and even smaller than most other inexpensive DSLRs such as Nikon's D50 D70, Canon's XT etc. What they do is using a smaller sensor that has half of normal old film SLR frame size while keeping the same ratio, meaning 35x24mm (Old film size that is used as standard nomenclature for Full Frame) Olympus' sensor size = 35/2 x 24/2 , both keeping the 4x3 ratio(The almost simplified ratio of 35 and 24), and call the down size version Full frame or at best Full frame crop...
Make a long story short, despite my old deep rooted love for Olympus, must say shame on them or more correctly, shame on their marketing administration.

"Full-Frame Transfer CCD (exclusively designed for still pictures) that optimises the capabilities of the 8-megapixel CCD. "

I suggest you look up what a full frame transfer ccd is , it has nothing to do with sensor size but the technology applied to it!

In the third line down of your second link they give the image size
"Imaging Size 17.3 x 13.0mm " Is this not what the size of the 4/3rds sensor is?

I also use a Canon dslr and film slr and really do find the 4.3 ratio a lot more friendly for composing as well as fitting most standard print sizes without the nedd for much cropping.

A shame you let your misunderstanding of written technology color your judgment of a very good system :)

crafty

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craftysnapper (Post 16034) "

Crafty; Anything when fully studied, known, or explained can be easily understood.
Buzz words are rather different expected to serve a clear role, a “Sine qua non” If you may, and when wrongly used rightly, could be deceiving or serve as a dirty luring technique granted to cause frustration once consumer get aware of all the facts. Yes I know what it means exactly at this point but not the first time I read it and let me tell you that I am a generally careful reader by virtue of being prey and victim of several prior fine prints. In fact I had a full clear idea that Olympus’ cheap camera has a large expensive sensor…. As a common person with limited knowledge, don’t you believe anyone would be easily mislead by the way Olympus tries to take advantage of lack of the prospective consumer’s attention? I don't feel at all stupid ,as in putting this question in a different forum; I got a universal anger toward the way Olympus played with words here, over emphasis on Full Frame the way it makes a different concept in mind of less careful or unequipped reader. I could be wrong but I still feel shame to Olympus’ promotional sector, and this is not only what makes me to say this. From legendary OM SLR series that was once used as the one of exclusive lines for NASA's outer space usage (Indicative of level of precision and excellence they achieved in 1970s), and unlike Nikon's F-3HP or FM that were a boosted gizmo version (Entirely different animal than what consumer could put hand on), OM-1 was chosen of the corner camera store’s shelve for space mission. Enough to say about quality and reputation. In today's DSLR market Olympus has chosen an almost negligible share, virtually doesn't exist in North America's market, not even caring to offer their newer models such as E-400 (That are only sold in Europe). Looking at this weeks’ sale in my local electronic chain store (Frys Electronics sku #4633228) 8MP DSLR with 2 lens (E-500) is advertised at 697 US$ and both lenses are the well made original Olympus glasses Zuiko 14-45 and 40-150mm. The entry level of any other manufacturer even without kit lens, won't come close to this embarrassing price... Still in talking with a sale manager, there is no buyer here....... Olympus has concentrated only on point and shot cameras, forget about those precision medical and technical gadget once made by them.
Olympus needs a revolution in their marketing and many other sectors. Many at higher levels need to be terminated, opening seats for the energetic younger drivers that know where to steer.
If it is still shame on me, then may it as well be…

What Olympus need is a new model in the same price range as the D200. An affordable upgrade for the E-1. If the new E-3 is priced [as some predict] at double the price you'd pay for a D200 or Canon's 30D upgrade then I fear sales will be slow - and there will be some great bargains in a years time when they have to offload them! A good midrange model wlould not only sell to E-1 owners but also to those who bought the E-300/E500 etc. and want to go a stage further. And what it needs is some niche USP to attract new users.
I've used Canon, Nikon and Fuji DSLRs but for me - and I appreciate others have come to a completely different conclusion - Olympus haver proved the best. Everyone has their own priorities in their camera use and I have at least tried most of the options beforem reaching this conclusion. I had decided to return to Nikon by buying a D80 to use alongside my E-1 - faster, better af, bigger buffer, more mp etc. specifically for bird shots - but after using the excellent D50 all last year I was a bit dsappointed viewing my D80 results against my old D50 ones and my E-1 pictures. If I'd persevered I'm sure my technique would have improved and I'm not knocking the D80 - I just was'nt as impressed as I'd hoped with it. So I've swapped it for one of those unsaleable E-500s - becoming obsolete so at bargain prices. One advantage with Olympus is the quality of the lenses. The mid range weatherproofed 14-54 f2.8/3.5 and 50-200 f2.8/3.5 are really very good and even the kit lenses - especially the 40-150 - are good quality.
I agree that it's hard to fathom the Olympus marketing strategy. Not sure how well the tiny E-400 is selling - that is definitely a niche camera but will. of course be compared to the D40/400D etc. and look expensive. Just hope they don't sell the camera making part of Olympus to Pasnasonic - not as bad as having Sony on the front of your camera though!

Olympus deserve a lot of praise for moving to 4/3. Oversized clunky DSLR's with big APS sensors that require massive boat-anchor lenses are in desperate need of downsizing. We mere mortals would like to have FULLY-FEATURED portable cameras, instead of being marginalized to cheap point-and-shoot consumer junk. Whether Olympus is the company with the ability and will to make 4/3 shine is uncertain. Unfortunately the megapixel hype race works against them, unless they're smart enough to wage a direct and successful campaign bucking the trend by emphasising the obvious advantages of compact, affordable, portable cameras. It doesn't look like they're going to do this, though. The 4/3 bodies aren't as small as hoped for yet, either. (I'm not sure about the lenses) :/

Has anybody got any sample shots taken with the Sigma 50-500mm with the Sigma 2x converter attached

Lello, no sample shots, but I was with a customer trying out one on his D80 the other day. I spent some time with him and we had some shots loaded up on the shop PC. Perhaps being over critical now, but we looked at some massively magnified cropped shots using the 1.4 and 2 convertors on this lens. The smaller convertor produced MUCH crisper results for us.
Interestingly, I had put the lens on a D80 for the customer to try, and I had to admit it did 'hunt' around for focus, particularly considering it's an f/2.8 optic. Even more interestingly, the customer came back in again later with his D200 to try again, and focus was better.....still hunting a little, but he was more than happy for his particular application.
There's some faster focus lenses around for similar money, but the versatility of the lense put's it into it's own niche. A nicely finished lens too.
Hope this helps a little

Thanks for the feed back Joe
Were you taking the shots outside? if so was it sunny? I have heard that the lens does like a lot of light, and has a tendency to hunt in darker conditions,
There are a lot of people on the bird-forum using this lens, and most seem quite happy.
Thanks again for your input

Anyone compared the Sigma to the Tamron equivalent?

Lello,
Yes, we tried in the shop (which is quite bright by shop standards), then tried by the door, pointing out to the bright sunny car park. The improved focusing when fitted to the D200 verse the D80 suggests the cameras differing performance. None the less, for an f/2.8 optic it was slow, compared to some others 70-200 f/2.8 Nikkor or 105mm macro sigma for example....but not so when compared to an f/5.6 optic......It's all relative of course, and depends totally on usage. Not much else to choose from with this zoom range in 2.8 guise