sigma 150-500 or 50-500

[pip2356]

i will be buying a new lens for birding, for my eos 50d in the next couple of weeks. i think it will be a toss up between these two as they fit my budget.i,m torn between which one, the 150-500 is about £170 cheaper than the 50-500. any comments or reccomendations would be appreciated .

[Lancashire Lad]

These recent threads may be of interest: -

Best lens - Sigma 150-500mm OS or 50-500MM

sigma 170-500mm or 150-500mm?

Regards
Mike.

[Fourwings]

I own a 50 - 500mm (Bigma) and I'd hate to be parted from it, having said that I know someone who has the 150 - 500mm and he's turned out some absolutely belting images with it.
The 150 - 500mm has the advantage of the OS system which means it can be handheld in reasonable light conditions whereas the Bigma really needs to be fixed to a tripod to get those killer sharp images.
I have heard it said that the glass quality in the 150 - 500mm is inferior to the Bigma but I've seen absolutely no evidence to support this, so really its down to personal choice, they are both excellent lenses.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Ive been debating this in my head for a while now, and the Sigma price increase made up my mind for me. The 50-500 is now £1000+ and the 150-500mm is just about £730, and just as good (as long as you dont need the 50-149mm focal length), as far as I can tell. But I havent actually used either - yet

[alisonthompson]

I deliberated long and hard about this before recently buying the Sigma 150-500. In the end, my decision was influenced by the fact that I wanted a lens that I would have a chance of using without a tripod when travelling, so the fact that the 150-500 has the OS system won the day.

I'm generally very pleased with the lens and have had good shots from it both using a tripod without OS and using it handheld with OS. I find the focussing is fast and accurate. I was a little worried about reports of the excessive noise that it makes when using OS, but I haven't found it a problem and I really don't think it makes enough noise to worry about.

It is terrifically heavy to hand hold though, so impossible to use for very long without a tripod or some sort of support, but nice to have the option when necessary.

Ali

[pip2356]

looks like it could be the 150-500, thanks for your replies pip.

[Geoff F]

Here is a link to some experiments I did with the 150-500 to see if it was possible to use for basic macro photography, with a tripod of course Macro photography with Sigma 150-500?

Agree with the others that, if you can manage without the lower end size capabilities, the OS does work well.

Although if you expect to be working mostly at 500 mm a prime lens might be an alternative.

[DuncanE]

Just got my 150-500 yesterday, first impressions look good... Just need a good day to go out and use it.

[pip2356]

just read an article in what digital camera, and their views say the os degrades the image rather than improve it, but you can read that many reviews it turns your brain to mush.so i am relying on the average photographers rather than the teckies to guide me in the right direction, i don,t expect perfection just reasonable pics.it would be nice to see more pics at the long end.

[Richard G.]

Originally Posted by pip2356

just read an article in what digital camera, and their views say the os degrades the image rather than improve it...

The only circumstances where I could imagine that being the case is where you have the camera pretty well secured by use of a tripod, monopod, beanbag etc. But it's good practice to switch off OS if you feel that you've taken other measures to avoid camera shake or if the shutter speed exceeds 1/500th second.

FWIW, my first 150-500mm had an obviously faulty OS and it did degrade all pictures, I returned it and the replacement exhibited exactly the same problem for the first few hours of use and then the OS sprang into life, since which time I've had no further occurence of this problem, but Sigma have pretty well documented QC issues. I can categorically say that when hand holding or using dubious support the OS definitely works and helps me get sharper pictures.

That said, you get what you pay for in life. Many shots sharpen up nicely in PP, but I was pretty surprised at how soft they look straight from the camera. In general though I'm pretty happy with the lens and it's managed to take my mind off that Nikon 200-400mm... well, most of the time..