Sigma 150-600 f/5-6.3 DG OS Sport Lens Review

Not to mention the 500 f/4's extra stop of light would be very useful, especially in Victoria some days but maybe less of a factor in Arizona - just a thought.

Oh don't worry, I have been through all the pros and cons of replacing my 500 VR with the Sigma many times. In the end, it came down to just demoing the Sigma to see first hand how it would compare. For my needs, here are the pros and cons as I see them.

Sigma Pros

• Zoom feature very versatile and useful for setups and general shooting
• smaller
• lighter
• less expensive (about $7500 less than the Nikon 500 VR in Canada)
• better construction than my Nikon
• dock system for fine tuning & upgrading firmware
• much better company to deal with for servicing in Canada
• 7 year warranty (2 years more than Nikon)
• 600mm (100mm more than my 500, but a little less than 600mm due to breathing)
• mount on my bodies is really tight and secure. (way better than any of my Nikon lenses)
• makes me a profit of about $3000 with the switch (which I could really use)

Sigma Cons

• IQ not as good
• f/6.3 could be limiting in some situations
• AF not as fast for BIF
• Will not work well with 1.4x TC

Feel free to add any if I missed them. If the Sigma was closer in IQ, I probably would have been closer to doing the deal. But I wanted to be very careful and very sure that I wasn't making a mistake and regretting it sometime later. I am all for companies like Sigma coming up with new and improved products for way less $$$ than the Nikon or Canon counterparts. IMHO, their lenses are way overpriced and are putting people like me out of the market to be able to purchase them (I had to convince my wife to agree to remortgage our house in order to get my Nikon 500 VR). The new Nikon 500 VRII is $13,000 here in Canada!!!!!    While I think Sigma's zooms are great for the price, I would love to see them develop and improve their telephoto primes and make them more affordable. The lens waiting for me is a 600 f/5.6 (from any company) that is as sharp as the Canon 400 f5.6 and costs under $5000. At 63 now, it is likely I will never see this lens in my photography lifetime. Nikon used to have a 600 f5.6 in the manual focus days, but they discontinued it and never brought it back.

Tim Zurowski wrote:Oh don't worry, I have been through all the pros and cons of replacing my 500 VR with the Sigma many times. In the end, it came down to just demoing the Sigma to see first hand how it would compare. For my needs, here are the pros and cons as I see them.

Sigma Pros

• Zoom feature very versatile and useful for setups and general shooting
• smaller
• lighter
• less expensive (about $7500 less than the Nikon 500 VR in Canada)
• better construction than my Nikon
• dock system for fine tuning & upgrading firmware
• much better company to deal with for servicing in Canada
• 7 year warranty (2 years more than Nikon)
• 600mm (100mm more than my 500, but a little less than 600mm due to breathing)
• mount on my bodies is really tight and secure. (way better than any of my Nikon lenses)
• makes me a profit of about $3000 with the switch (which I could really use)

Sigma Cons

• IQ not as good
• f/6.3 could be limiting in some situations
• AF not as fast for BIF
• Will not work well with 1.4x TC

Feel free to add any if I missed them. If the Sigma was closer in IQ, I probably would have been closer to doing the deal. But I wanted to be very careful and very sure that I wasn't making a mistake and regretting it sometime later. I am all for companies like Sigma coming up with new and improved products for way less $$$ than the Nikon or Canon counterparts. IMHO, their lenses are way overpriced and are putting people like me out of the market to be able to purchase them (I had to convince my wife to agree to remortgage our house in order to get my Nikon 500 VR). The new Nikon 500 VRII is $13,000 here in Canada!!!!!    While I think Sigma's zooms are great for the price, I would love to see them develop and improve their telephoto primes and make them more affordable. The lens waiting for me is a 600 f/5.6 (from any company) that is as sharp as the Canon 400 f5.6 and costs under $5000. At 63 now, it is likely I will never see this lens in my photography lifetime.

The Sigma 500 f4.5 has always been a good performer, not sure if it still is and whether coatings have been improve but it is substantially cheaper than OEM.

Mike in O wrote:The Sigma 500 f4.5 has always been a good performer, not sure if it still is and whether coatings have been improve but it is substantially cheaper than OEM.

I owned the Sigma f4.5 for a couple of years before I bought the Nikon 500 VR. The Nikon 500 VR is slightly better IQ at 500mm, but way better than the Sigma with the 1.4x TC. The Sigma was unusable with either the Sigma 1.4x or the Nikon 1.4x (I own both). If you can live with 500mm being your longest focal length, then the Sigma 500 f4.5 is a very good lens. It certainly wins on size, weight and price.

You mentioned wanting a zoom for with CL and different size birds...personally I just use a 300 2.8 and crowd the guzzler, the birds aren't shy. The only drawback with crowding is sometimes weasels or badgers (living under the blind) like to drink and they can be shy. I use much less visited spots normally, since CL looks like a tent city now.

Old news, but said I'd feedback after a reasonable shoot.

took this a few days ago in Scotland, in Rothiemurchus.  light flat.  1/500 F8.  iso 1800.  sigma 150-600 sport at 600.  full frame. on a D7100.    Experience with the Sigma, was a good one.  

AF was on the money with no real issues.  (did hunt 4 times in a four hour session which I put down to user error.- me playing around).  Only soft images were due to subject movement with the camera acquiring focus quickly and pretty well where I wanted it to be.  

I seem to have trouble with the download as the vivacity and crispness seems lost when viewed, compared to the original.  

I have just returned from a one week shoot in Hungary. I was photographing White Tailed eagles from hides. I had 3 lenses with me the new Nikon 500mm, Nikon 300mm and the Sigma 150-600 Sport. Guess what? The most used lens on this trip was the Sigma. I love the versatility and flexibility of this lens and the image quality is excellent.
Rene de Heer

found it very versatile too.