skaslusky's reviews

Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM Sports

I am a Amateur Bird Photographer. I've owned this lens now for 5 months and I am using it primarily for wildlife and bird photography. I took a leap of faith purchasing this lens after reading a very thorough review from a Canadian Wildlife Photographer. I find the lens to be very sharp creating those 3-d quality prime images. My birds in flight are mostly spot on. Still working on my technique to get a better capture rate. I used the Global dock to adjust focus very slightly as I felt it was forward focusing. This can be adjusted very easily with the dock. I find my images excellent wide open but seem to improve at 4.5 and higher. I was also able to customize the focus speed to faster focus. I have been using the lens on a Nikon D750 with tripod and gimbal head. I've hand held the lens but I can't hold it up for very long (I'm 70 years old) I've taken it on short hikes with a monopod which works very well. The build quality is excellent and I can't imagine the Nikon or Canon equivalents to be worth the additional $5,000+ price tag. Being retired and having put the kids through college, I could have afforded the Nikon at $10,500 however I decided on the Sigma and don't regret it. I bought mine from Adorama - Excellent service.