Mark, had one. This is better and the 60-150 range has proven invaluable on
my D810/D750's working rodeo. No lens change for buckle presentations or
payouts. Have the 200-500/ Sigma 100-400/ 500 f4 VR and this sucker gives
away very little in IQ and creamy backgrounds shot wide open. Just sayin'
After reading the many positives on this forum I took the plunge and bought the new Bigma.
I am loving it.
Noticeably lighter than my 120-300 Sport and the extra reach is great. It needed very little tuning and is very good wide open, stopping down to 7.1 is a bit better and then to f8 very little improvement.
The malmost macro @200mm is a bonus. This is now my "carry around" lense while out for bike rides!
I finally got my hands on one (store demo) yesterday. Surprisingly well balanced, and hand-holdable. Weighs about 50% more than my current 100-400 II + TC (i.e. 560 @ f/8). MFD is a bit longer than my current rig ... but, that's not the main reason for a lens like this anyway.
Here's a test shot in the store @ 600mm wide open.
The 100% crop shows that I was just a touch soft (camera shake) ... BUT, this is 600mm @ 1/10 second.
I figure, I found the "lower limit" ... but I should be good at most anything north of 1/100.
ckcarr wrote:
A thread full of beautiful images then ruined by shaky test charts.
Did we really need those?
Well ...
Will had been so kind to personally advocate to me the hand holding capability of this lens. I simply wanted to share with him that I followed up on his recommendation. Also, to show him (and others who may have such concerns about it) what I learned, specifically about the hand-holding capability of this lens.
Not everyone has the "guns" of the TrenchMonkey. Just because Will can handhold ... well, hopefully you get the gist. The intent was to show that the lens is indeed hand-holdable for mere mortals, "almost" to the levels of unreasonable expectation. Also, most of the images we see are frequently shot with good shutter speeds to help things. Sometimes we may want / need to shoot slower (yes, ISO, etc.). I simply wanted to find out "how slow, can you go", and here's the "too slow" point I found.
Poor store light (they offered me to take it outside in great daylight, I declined), WO & 1/10 sec. Not exactly the same as emulating dusky or overcast conditions, but it does correlate to try and learn the limits. My point here is that even when challenging the lens to perform in poor conditions, it still brings a good showing (even if the motion blur point was exceeded) as to how little the blur actually was @ 1/10 @ 600mm ... a "left-handed" compliment, if you will.
As to "ruined" the thread ... well, we are in the gear forum, not the presentation forum. If one test shot can ruin a thread, my bad.
I hope you can pardon the "interruption". We can now return to the culled world of exceptional imagery, which I'm certain Will can provide without fail.
BTW ... Will, if you prefer, just ask Fred to remove my posts, to "unruin" the thread.
I took the new "Bigma II" out for a test drive last weekend. I was quite impressed. Remarkably sharp for a 10x(!) zoom, it does appear to be optimized for the long end which is often not the case for a super-zoom. At 6 lbs it is somewhat heavy (vs 5 for the 200-500VR), though it's much lighter and easier to handle than my 600E, that's for sure. Compared to the 200-500VR, the zoom action was quick, though stiff with 120-degree+/- twist. AF seemed snappy and OS was quite good I thought.
Overall, I think it's a better performing lens than the 200-500VR, but of course it is more expensive too. Regrettably I returned it since I was looking for a "do-it-all" zoom lens for my Z7 for video work, and the continuous AF chatter was noticeable in the sound track during AFF and the zoom was a tad too stiff for smooth video captures. For stills capture I think it's a really excellent option...remarkable even.
Thanks for your feedback, Gary Mine goes with me everywhere (I don't do video) and
it IS remarkable that peak sharpness at 600mm is @f6.3 wide open. I have the 200-500/500 f4
and the 100-400 C and there's a huge benefit being able to pull back to 60-100mm's. Love it!
I took mine with me everywhere too. AF is quite fast, but not as fast as my 70-200/2.8.
@trenchmonkey
How performs yours with the TC-1401. Mine is somewhat soft at 600mm. Maybe I've to do a AF fine tuning with TC. Without TC mine was perfect out of the box.
W.W. wrote:
I took mine with me everywhere too. AF is quite fast, but not as fast as my 70-200/2.8.
@trenchmonkey@
How performs yours with the TC-1401. Mine is somewhat soft at 600mm. Maybe I've to do a AF fine tuning with TC. Without TC mine was perfect out of the box.
W.W., I usually only use TC's with primes, but it does work well
with my 70-200 Sport when needs be. A fine tune and a good
set of sticks might yield better results. Post a grab or two
when you dial it in. Thx!
