Sigma 50-500 lens, any good????

[speckled wood]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Here are a couple of mine taken with the Sigma 50 - 500 tripod mounted with a Canon 350D
I rate it very highly.

Roger

The Yellowhammer shot has to rate as one of the best shots that I have ever seen, would be interested to see the original shot.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Ollie

You have got your sums right as far as I am aware. Some people can use the Sigma 50 - 500 mm lens very succesfully hand holding. Graham (glsammy) have posted some excellent hand held shots with this lens. Myself I find that up to 300mm I can handhold but after that either a tripod or monopod is best. Sure Graham will come in on this and point out some of his hand held shots for you when he comes on line. I don't know where you would find it any cheaper in the UK.

Roger

Thanks Roger. I have got some good hand held shots at surprisingly slow shutter speeds, but I've also got dozens of failures as well! I always try to use my mono-pod if possible, if not, like in flight shots, then hand held it has to be.
So you can use it perfectly well hand held, but if the shutter speed is slow, some sort of support is recommended, as with any lens.

Here's a couple hand held:

This one 1/125sec. F8.0.





In flight:

[AlphaZeroOne]

This is just amazing! The quality of these shots are just spot on. How much of this is down to the lense and how much to your undoubted skill as a photographer. Do you use any flash equipment - the detail is so precise. How do you edit the after shot - PS. Do you shoot in RAW. Oh, and one last question, do you offer field training days cos if so you will have one student just gagging to try to emulate your results and drain you of every last tip and grain of knowledge! Fantastic.

[glsammy]

Crikey, I'm blushing!!

Firstly, I hardly ever use flash with the Bigma. I use it often with the Sigma 150mm Macro, but your normally too far away for it to be effective with the Bigma.
I always shoot in RAW, and use either the Raw converter in Photoshop CS2, or Rawshooter Pro. I generally use Rawshooter Pro. I just convert to jpeg and then do the balancing of levels etc in photoshop. I used to convert to tiff first, but I don't bother with that when doing images for the web. I can always re-use the RAW file if I want to print.

As for field training, I don't regard myself as good enough for that..I'd gladly go on one from Kev Lewis for example..(hint hint Kev!!)

If ever your near Nottingham and wish to go somewhere around here, I'd be glad to go with you.

[geordie1970]

There is one for sale on ebay at the mo for £250 only 4hrs to go!!!!.Seller has no feedback but it could be a bargain

[ron1863]

Your best bet, if you want to save money is ebay. I have bought two lenses through ebay and have had no problems. Anyone owning such a good and expensive lens is bound to have taken care of it.

eBay.co.uk - sigma 50 500, Camera Lenses, Film Camera Accessories, Photography items at low prices

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Your best bet, if you want to save money is ebay. I have bought two lenses through ebay and have had no problems. Anyone owning such a good and expensive lens is bound to have taken care of it.

eBay.co.uk - sigma 50 500, Camera Lenses, Film Camera Accessories, Photography items at low prices

while i agree that ebay is a great place to buy cheap gear i'm afraid that the second half of your post isnt always true - many people owning such a lens will take care of it true , but for everyone of them there will be another who has dropped/scratched/dowsed with salt water etc, his good and expensive lens and will be looking to offload it onto a hapless mug.

for instance i am on little bigma number three - number 1 died when i rolled a floating hide over which photograping grebes , while number 2 was written off by salt spray while photographing gannets from a RHIB at grassholm - I didnt of course put these on ebay - I was fully insured so replacement was not an issue but not everyone has my moral standards

as far as buying a bigma cheap goes i would be suspicious of anything whch is under about 400 notes - also watch out for older series bigmas not being compatible with digital bodies (they would need rechipping which is very expensive if you cant prove you bought the lens new)

you might be better off either buying second hand from a dealer such as mifsuds or camtech - where you will at least get a warranty , or new from an ebay trader for a very competitive price.

[tetsu]

hi i've just registered on this site because i found this link through google when searching to buy a 'Bigma' (Sigma 50-500) I am also looking to buy this lens, and been look for quite some time!!!

Cheapest i've managed to find is £578.99 Uk based or £561.64 importing from Japan but you will have the cost of postage on top.

I have purchased some lenses off of ebay, and you don't always get what you pay for! If you can try and pick up the lens and pay cash on collection, that way you can inspect it and still walk (well run) away if you are not happy, worse that happens is you get bad feedback! Deedums, but it's best to see what your paying for, especially if it's over £200 because paypal won't cover it!

Have noticed that there a few Bigma's on ebay from Japan at £475 but with a postage cost of £50... this still works out cheaper than a UK buy, but i think it's best to pick up.

If any one manages to find the Bigma for under £500 brand new in the UK post asap, or if you have one for sale which has had lots of t.l.c then let us know... i'm sure we'll fight for it!

tetsu

[FungiJohn]

Yes, It's a very good lens .... and only two days old
John

[nightshade]

There were a few in use at Slimbridge but also an equal number
of 100-400 Canon "pumps"
One chap said the first company he approached for his Bigma
wanted to charge seperately for the lens-hood(£30)