Sigma 5,0-6,3/150-600 DG OS N/AF HSM Contemporary Canon

This is a really great lens for a great price (at least it was going for a great price when I bought it!). I usually only buy Canon lenses, of which I have about six or so, but above 300 mm their lenses are just too expensive. This was my first foray into third party lenses, but it didn't disappoint. It is extremely sharp, and easily matches my Canon 75-300 mm for image quality (over the 150-300 mm range that these two lenses overlap). The lens itself comes with a padded bag (with shoulder strap), rubber ring, a separate strap for the lens itself and a lens hood. The bag seems robust and well made, with foam inserts at either end to ensure that the lens is seated centrally within the bag and can't move around. It's not the fastest lens when it comes to autofocus, and occasionally I find that it fails reach focus, but the manual focus ring is well positioned and can be used very easily. Image stabilisation works well, although at 600 mm it can't do miracles. Hand held it usually requires a couple of shots to make sure that at least one image will be completely motion-blur free (unless you are shooting in extremely bright sunshine of course). The manual states that the IS system should be turned off before the lens is detached. I guess this is to prevent you removing the lens when the IS system is engaged. I don't remember Canon IS systems having this requirement, although I could be wrong. The lens accepts 95 mm filters, which tend to be quite costly. I bought a CP filter along with the lens, but this turned out to be a mistake. At 600 mm there is already hardly any light reaching the sensor and a CP filter cuts out most of it.

The last year of lockdowns and local travel left me without the mountains I used to focus on with photography. I spent most of my time walking around my local loch but when an osprey flew overhead and I only had 250mm of range with my camera I realised it was time to get something with a bit more reach. I paid £749 for this lens, certainly something I wouldn't have been able to afford if I was still paying for train fares right now... However, the lens has opened up a whole new world of photography options. I have paired this lens with a Canon 90D and primarily use it for wildlife photography (I've posted some example shots with this review). Even so, I've managed to get some solid landscape results with this lens too, the extended range allows for creation of some interesting framing. As mentioned in other reviews, this lens befits good lighting - I've found that photos in winter can be a little grainy if you're shooting in woodland, but certainly not to an extent that the photo is no good. On the other hand, if you're shooting on a relatively bright day you can expect brilliantly sharp photographs assuming you've focused where you want to be. I'm out with this lens all the time. I use it so much it prompted me to buy a second camera and lenses with range from 10mm to 150mm just so I could keep this one attached. If you're feeling in need of a post-lockdown workout, the lens is heavy too! The initial 14 mile walk I took with it ached a little, but a few more of those and the lens feels light and you have stronger arms to boot! Initially expensive (though not so compared to many other telephotos) but it pays you back in photos in no time at all.

Naturally this is a big and heavy lens, and with the tripod mount it works extremely well in all lighting conditions as you would expect. The image quality is excellent and I've attached a photo of a robin with some zoomed in insets to give you an idea. If you look carefully you can see the reflection of my house against the blue sky in the Robins Eye. It's that sharp. However, it doesn't stop there. That image was taken hand held at the full 600mm zoom. Yes, the light was good, and I'm using a Canon 6D at 1000 ISO, but to me at least that is pretty impressive. The autofocus was almost instant and spot on. Being a big telephoto, you are having to be at least 2-3 meters from the subject for focus! The other feature I like is the manual focus override. If you have the time, and birds are not very patient usually, you can fine tune the autofocus manually. The second sample was taken at night indoors and also handheld. This was at maximum ISO and the autofocus does hunt around a bit, but not bad for hand held indoors at 600mm. There is a feature to set the autofocus range to basically near or far and that reduces the hunt time in low light. You can see here that at max aperture the depth of field is insanely narrow, so when doing wild life stuff it's better to go up to F11 or so and have a higher ISO unless you have manged to squash your subject flat somehow. So the final picture was hand held at around 500mm with the lens resting on a railing to provide some extra stability. The bottom left inset shows the sharpness that can be delivered, the numbers on the blue container are perfectly readable. Again this was at 1000 ISO. I was a bit worried about getting this in my backpack, but the solid zoom cover is reversible and it all fits in very nicely after a bit of reorganisation. I've not bothered with the USB tuner. The results are amazing without it. But I can see how it might be useful. Finally, don't bother with a 1.4x converter. The images are better if you just crop! Sigma do seem to make very good lenses! My Sigma 12-24mm ultra-wide angle is also excellent!

I read lots of reviews and watched a few review videos before purchasing this lens but was still a bit unsure about the weight and also how well it would work on my crop sensor bodies including with an EOS M6 and EOS M mount adaptor. It is indeed relatively heavy compared to say a 70mm-300mm but that's obviously the nature of lenses with this zoom range and by all accounts it's a fair bit lighter than the sport version. So far the quality of the images have been great - even hand held shots - at an appropriate shutter speed. I had also read comments that when purchased from Amazon.co.uk the lens isn't covered by the Sigma extended 3 year warranty so I checked this with Sigma before opening and as long as it has been supplied by Sigma UK it is covered which I verified before opening by sending them the serial number from the label on the box. My only gripe with the lens so far is that the built-in tripod mount isn't Arca Swiss and I believe the sport version is Arca swiss. There are 3rd party replacements available for the Contemporary version but this seems like a poor decision by Sigma not to make the mount for this version Arca Swiss too. Having to screw in an Arca Swiss plate just adds to the weight and scope for instability. BTW one of my Canon bodies is the EOS-M6 and I sometimes use the Viltrox 0.7 EOS-M mount focal reducer with that and for stills not just video. So with that combination the exif data reports as 106mm 3.5 - 426mm 4.5 and the auto focus still works fine. Obviously the reported focal lengths and apertures still have to be multiplied by 1.6 to get the FF equivalents but the fact that the Sigma lens works with the Viltrox adaptor is great! Overall very pleased with the Sigma 150-600mm F5.6-6.3 DG Comtemporary so far!

I'm pleased to say that this has turned out to be a fantastic buy after lots of agonising over the 'best' long telephoto to get. I'm a keen amateur and therefore photography is for fun and pleasure rather than earning a living; I was torn between saving for the 'real deal' to get a genuine Canon long lens or this Sigma or the Tamron equivalent! For the money, this is a fantastic buy - it sells for the same price as the Tamron, so I read as many reviews as I could both editorial and via purchasers and decided on the Sigma. For the few quick tests so far it has not disappointed - a big smile on my face every time I connect it to my 7d Mk II !! Image quality is great; it includes the lens hood, a great lens case and carry strap! Build quality is superb, the tripod collar and mount is substantial - a very firm and sturdy mount. Autofocus is quick and accurate - even with a (big 95mm!) protector filter screwed on the front. I plan on getting the USB dock - the ability to update the firmware and tweak parameters was a big plus for me; I've been caught out before with lenses needed to be sent for upgrade to work with a new body etc. Will probably try a teleconverter too as I've read that the 1.4 and 2.0 sigma and canon versions both work with the lens!

For the money, this is a pretty amazing lens. While heavy, compared to virtually anything else with 500 or 600 mm focal length it's pretty light and as a consequence, given the excellent image stabilisation, it's certainly possible to use hand-held in reasonably good light. But unless you've got quite strong arms - or something to lean on - I'd strongly recommend using a monopod. This will be a lot lighter to lug around than a tripod although obviously the latter will get you the best shots, and is especially recommended if you're staying in one place such as a hide. As many have pointed out, with its unspectacular maximum aperture the lens isn't great in low light (a wider maximum aperture would make it much heavier and much more expensive) and ideally it should be paired with a camera body that has really good low light autofocus ability and relatively low noise at high ISO values. If you're not used to using a supertelephoto lens - and it is quite a steep learning curve - you're going to find that smaller targets that are some distance away are hard to achieve good focus on using autofocus, especially if there is something else slightly further or nearer to potentially focus on such as water, branches etc. This isn't a shortcoming of the lens, more a question of technique and the quality of your camera's autofocus system. In particular, if you're photographing relatively distant birds on water that aren't moving around much, you'll get the best shots on a tripod using either manual focus or the manual override setting (where you can use autofocus and then fine-tune) using the camera's magnified on-screen view rather than the viewfinder where it can be difficult to see if you have optimum focus. While this isn't a criticism of the lens, it's worth knowing so that you don't think there's something wrong with it at longer distances when closer shots with autofocus are so sharp. And of course even with perfect focus, as your subject gets further away there is inevitably a law of diminishing returns with regard to detail and any subsequent cropping or sharpening will bring out any noise in the image. From an aesthetic point of view, the background blur (bokeh) of areas of the frame that are out of focus is not very attractive when the background is near to the subject - e.g. if you're shooting a duck floating on water, the duck may look fine but the water behind and in front of it less so. On the other hand, if the background is some metres behind the subject then the blur looks fine to me. The sharpness when you get a good focus on something is really spectacular - a small bird 5 or 10 metres away will show every filament of its feathers. The focus limiting switch, with three positions of full range, closest focus to 10 metres and 10 metres to infinity is really useful, - if you're trying to shoot a bird through gaps in branches or reeds or alternatively one perched on a branch quite nearby you can avoid the autofocus locking onto the foreground or background respectively and waste a lot less time hunting for focus. Obviously this lens is far from cheap in absolute terms, but compared to anything better it's a huge bargain and I would strongly recommend it for shooting birds in your garden or a park, at least as practice for using it in more challenging environments. As an example of what you can achieve when the subject is quite near, the shot of the robin is from about 6 or 7 metres away.

Love this lens on my canon camera can be a bit heavy for some , but every time i get great shots . Easy to use comes with a tripod mount and a rather large case a smalke cylindrical case would have been easier the the rectanglar one supplied . But its not the case we're reviewing . Great lens

Arrived yesterday so just initial thoughts. I pondered long and hard, read review upon review and professional field tests too before buying. It is my most expensive lens and my first none Canon purchase so I was concerned not to mess up Reveiws are like statistics in the sense you can read into them what you want. As you read you eliminate options looking for better and the purchase price soars. My choices were the Tamron 150-600, Canon 100-400 Mark 2 or Sigma 150-600 Contemparary. I was tempted by the Canon and the Sigma Sport but dismissed both on price, eventually choosing the Sigma Contemparary. I thought the extra focal length would require less cropping and therefore give better results than the 100-400 and the Canon/Sigma Sport are too pricey for me There are cheaper opions to buy a Sigma C From third parties on Amazon but Ive had problems before so bought supplied and fullfilled by Amazon (no grey imports and no arguements). Glad I did as registering it gives 3yrs warranty and you can claim £50 in their winter promotion*. It arrived 2 days early. The lens is everything I hoped. Its well made with a sturdy, quality feel and although its is heavier than any of my other lens (be surprised if it wasn't) is a usable weight. At least for short periods. I took a few hand held photos at low shutter speeds and the results are very acceptable, clean and crisp. Can't wait to try it propery. So far I am very pleased with my purchase. I could've bought cheaper online but I wanted piece of mind so I bought reputably and saved money anyway. Happy * I have registered for 3yr warranty and will claim the £50 redemption but Sigma haven't confirmed acceptance yet. Good news. As its supplied and fulfilled by Amazon and not bought through a third party seller I get both the 3 year warranty and cashback.

Tengo una Canon EOS 250D y me gusta mucho hacer fotos de aves y naturaleza, llevo un tiempo usando un objetivo Canon 70-300 con buenos resultados pero se me quedaba corto en muchas ocasiones, así que me decidí por comprar el Sigma 150-600. Tenía miedo porque es un objetivo muy oscuro pero cuando lo he probado me ha maravillado con su calidad de imagen. A tener en cuenta: - Es un objetivo grande y pesado, para estar quieto en un sitio, enfocar y disparar. Colgar la cámara del cuello con este objetivo para ir andando con él no es para nada viable. Para eso tienes el 70-300. - Se te va a hacer durillo enfocar y hacer zoom sin un trípode, aunque se puede hacer. Recomendable usar trípode si vas a estar un buen rato haciendo fotos. - La nitidez de las imágenes es una maravilla, lo he probado con aves pequeñas pero me falta irme a un puesto de observación de aves. Aún así el resultado es muy bueno. - En la caja viene una bolsa para transportarlo, correas para la bolsa y el objetivo, el parasol y el objetivo

The product did not match the advertisement specifications (the advertisement says sport lens, but in reality it is from the contemporary category)

The lens covers a focal range from 150mm to 600mm, which is incredibly versatile. On my Canon 7D, the 1.6x crop factor effectively makes it 240mm to 960mm, giving exceptional reach. For example, at 600mm, you can clearly see details on faraway objects. Key features include a Zoom Lock, which locks the zoom at specific marked positions, and a Focus Range Limiter, allowing you to restrict the focus distance for faster performance. Autofocus is fast and reliable, and the Manual Override mode lets you fine-tune focus when needed. Image Stabilization (OS) offers two modes: Mode 1 for handheld shots and Mode 2 for panning or tracking fast-moving subjects. It’s lightweight for a lens in this range, thanks to its aluminum and composite build. The rotating tripod collar adds convenience for tripod use. The aperture ranges from f/5 at 150mm to f/6.3 at 600mm. While it’s not as bright as an f/2.8 lens, the tradeoff is the incredible focal range and excellent stabilization at a price that’s hard to beat. Conclusion: This lens delivers excellent image quality, versatility, and advanced features. While it’s not a bright f/2.8 or part of Canon’s L-series, it’s perfect for wildlife and sports photography at a fraction of the price. I’d rate it 5 out of 5 stars—a fantastic value for the money!

I bought this lens after a lot of contemplating. Ever since I found a new interest in bird/animal photography, I started getting interested in buying a DSLR and I did get a Canon 200D II with both the kit lens. I was getting by with using the 55-250mm (400mm full frame equivalent at the max zoom range) but I had my eyes on this lens but was hesitant on spending so much. But compared to the Canon lenses, this was way affordable. Talking about the lens, it takes a bit of time getting used to. Build - Build quality is amazing and sturdy and it feels a like a well finished product. Usage & weight - The lens is quite heavy and your hands and shoulders will hurt for prolonged use. If you already have shaky hands, think twice about the weight. You should probably rent this first before buying, which I wanted to as well, but I got the best deal on Amazon and I did not want to miss that. It's also a bit hard to zoom in and out with just 1 hand, and I haven't yet gotten used to that. The minimum focusing distance is high (almost 10 ft) and the switch to limit in which distance you want the lens to look for is a very practical addition, but may lead to a bad situation if a bird flies towards you. Packaging - Comes with it's own bag along with a lens hood, tripod mount, extra ring (to fill the gap if you remove the mount) and a few manuals. Picture quality - The picture quality seems a bit on the softer side compared to my Canon 55-250mm lens, but not a huge difference. Or maybe it could be that I may have shot on a lower shutter at the max focal length. A little post processing and you can achieve great results. For still subjects I've been shooting at around 1/500 or 1/640th of a second. For moving birds, with good light, I can go 1/1600th or faster. This made a huge difference in my images to get sharper bird pictures Autofocus - Love the autofocus in this lens especially in high contrast situations. Works amazing with my camera. I've been mostly shooting at the max focal length (960mm full frame equivalent) Over all, this is a really good purchase. I've mostly bought this for wildlife. With amazing light, maybe you could get some amazing portraits with amazing background compression as well. This is probably not for everyone. If you want to avoid cropping in a lot, this really helps. I saw quite a few mixed reviews about this. but end of the day, it all comes down to the person using it. I've attached a few pictures for your reference. These pictures are cropped and post-processed. You can find some of my latest on Instagram @rahul.k.viswanath update (2/5/2025) - It is still an amazing lens and I use it with my Canon EOS R7 with the adaptor now

Wir haben das Objektiv nun seit knapp zwei Wochen. Mein Mann hat es sich für Tierfotografie gekauft und nutzt es nahezu ausschließlich bei 600mm. Die Haptik ist völlig in Ordnung, es fühlt sich wertig an, macht einen stabilen Eindruck, nichts knarzt oder klappert. Auch die mitgelieferte Streulichtblende sitzt einwandfrei (diese muss man sogar mit etwas mehr Druck einrasten, als gewohnt). Wir verwenden das Objektiv an einer Canon EOS 7D. Schon die ersten Testfotos, für welche unser Kater herhalten musste, konnten überzeugen. Der Stabilisator leistet einen sehr guten Job, 1/100 bei 600mm sind machbar, mit etwas Konzentration gehen auch längere Zeiten. Wenn man im sitzen auf dem Knie auflegen kann, geht das wunderbar. In Kombination mit einem Einbeinstativ hält sich das ganze deutlich besser, da das Gesamtgewicht Body + Objektiv nicht zu unterschätzen ist, vor allem auf Dauer. Zum Autofokus: Hier geben wir 4/5, eigentlich müsste es eine 4.5/5 sein, da er präzise sitzt und die meiste Zeit auch flott zuschlägt, aber bei weit entfernten Motiven ab und zu mal etwas pumpt. Eine Boeing 747 am ansonsten leeren Himmel konnte zunächst nicht erfasst werden. Im Unendlich-Bereich kann es also hilfreich sein, mit Manual Override einzugreifen. Ansonsten trifft das Teil zuverlässig, vor allem in unserem Einsatzgebiet, Tiere in der Distanz bis 30m. Auch an der Nahgrenze sitzt der Fokus. Eine minimale Korrektur in der Cam von -1 (also der kleinst mögliche Korrekturwert) brachte im Nahbereich das i-Tüpfelchen. Der Bildstabilisator erhält 5/5 Sterne. Wie schon erwähnt, gehen recht lange Belichtungszeiten bei 600mm noch nahezu problemlos. Auch wird das Sucherbild hervorragend beruhigt. Der wohl mit am wichtigste Punkt - Die Bildqualität. Dazu habe ich ein paar Fotos mit Exifs hochgeladen. Wir haben uns im Vorfeld nach Beispielfotos umgesehen und festgestellt, dass viele dieser Fotos bei 600mm auf f/8 abgeblendet waren. Dazu viele Fotos im Sonnenlicht (da sind auch absolute Einsteigerlinsen scharf). Aber was leistet das Teil offen (f/6.3) bei 600mm, am besten noch bei bewölktem Himmel? Siehe die Spatzenfotos (oder die Kuh)! Eine Menge! Man kann es bedenkenlos offen verwenden. Auf f/8 abgeblendet legt es noch mal etwas zu, aber wie gesagt, f/6.3 sind kein Problem. Natürlich sind die Bilder bearbeitet - Lightroom, Schärfe, Klarheit, und fürs Web verkleinert, also ein ganz normaler Workflow. (Wir haben das USB-Dock dazu gekauft, womit man z.B. Einstellungen am AF und OS vornehmen kann. Man kann einen etwas "sanfteren" AF einstellen, was gerade bei Vögeln, welche sich in einem bestimmten Bereich bewegen, interessant ist. Oder einen moderateren OS. Dazu hat man zwei Custom-Settings am Objektiv, auf denen man seine Einstellungen hinterlegen kann. Selbsterklärend.) = Ist nicht Teil dieser Bewertung! Gesamtwertung 5 Sterne! Man bekommt für 899€ 600mm Brennweite, welche auch eben am langen Ende (dafür kaufen es sich wohl die meisten) nutzbar sind. Ja, auch bei Offenblende. Und das macht Spaß!