greggan's reviews

  • Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Zoom range, price, quality impression, Optical stabilization, zoom lock, not to bulky for the zoom range
    Bulky, heavy, a bit noisy OS, not as sharp as a qualiy prime

    I bought this lens for a trip to Svalbard.
    The reason I went for this particular lens in favor of its competition in the stabilized tele zoom group the Nikon 80-400VR , Sigma 80-400OS and Canon 100-400IS because:
    1. The Canon can't be used on a Nikon camera and I'm a Nikon guy :0)

    2. Nikon 80-400VR had bad reputation for being slow focusing and are starting to get rather old now.

    3. Sigma 80-400OS is also outdated (and now also discontinued) + sharing the Nikon reputation of slow focusing but still a bit faster than the Nikon.

    The 150-500 also have a bit better reach than the competition and since nothing new was seen in the crystal ball from Nikon I decided to get the 150-500 OS

    Look and feel is just the same as the EX series lenses from Sigma.
    A new "Nikon style" lens cap has been developed and is now much better than the old Sigma caps.
    OS function rely works and make it possible to shoot at about the same shutter speeds that would have been possible with a non OS lens and a monopod.

    Image quality and sharpness is good as long as you don,t expect prime lens performance.
    I feel that handheld or on a monopod the OS funktion and this lens would outperform many optical sharper lenses in the regards of actual catched sharpness in most cases and for most people.

    Read more by surfing to my full review:
    http://www.stockholmviews.com/sigma_150-500_os/sigmapage1.html

    reviewed October 23rd, 2008 (purchased for $750)