Keep Sigma 150-500OS or buy Tamron 150-600 or Canon 400 f5.6?

I know a lot of this has been covered. However, I am still torn. I have a Sigma 150-500OS that I am fairly happy with. My complaints are that the AF is a little slow and its softer than I would like at 500. I am using it for all of my wildlife shots and 90% of the time its at 500 and usually f/8. So essentially I have a 500 f/8 lens.

I have recently seen some impressive results with the canon 400 5.6. My concerns are focal length and non IS. Which brings up the Tamron that has the reach and VC. My local shop is a well established, successful shop with plenty of lens nerds. They are ranting and raving about the Tamron 150-600 and have recommended it over the Canon 400 5.6.

Sooooo,

1. Is the IQ of the Canon 400 5.6 good enought to crop to a 500 or 600mm and maintain superior images?

2. For handheld shots with a Canon 7D will I miss the IS?

thoughts?

Heya,

Depends on what you shoot.

If it's birds in flight, action, lots of tracking and panning, go with the 400 F5.6 prime. Or even hunt down a 300 F4 or a 400 F4 depending on budget.

If it's just stationary wildlife, maybe some flight on larger birds, and you need to maximum reach to get maximum pixels on target, then 600mm is the way to go.

There's lots of debate about 400mm cropped vs 600mm. The reality is, 400mm cropped has less pixels. When you're already reaching out to even begin to fill a frame, having a longer physical focal length is superior to cropping a shorter focal length. This is also very dependent on the camera and it's resolution, as cropping an 8MP file is quite different from cropping an 18~20MP file from one of these lenses.

There's not a huge advantage of 600mm over 500mm since you already have that. Going down to 400mm is something I would not consider, again, unless you really want something sharp at F5.6 and fast to autofocus so you can track things moving quickly, like a bird in flight, or things just running/moving fast. If you want to reach out further and increase sharpness, the Tamron will do this. It's fast enough for birds in flight, but it's more suited to stationary stuff. Also, the VC on the Tamron is quite effective. I can get down into the double digits at 600mm handheld. If you're shooting action and panning, you don't care about IS/VC, so don't worry about it. IS/VC depending on it's type (modes), comes into play depending on whether you're doing stationary stuff, or if you're panning specifically. It's not an always on top thing, it's a tool you use when it's useful. It's not always useful and sometimes needs to be off.

The difference between 400mm and 600mm is pretty significant.

Here's 400/500/600. This is a big great blue heron. It already was very far away (600mm on APS-C and it only fills 20% of the frame? Far away!). This is where longer reach is very important. More pixels on target. And it's a noticeable difference side by side. Not just a little.

150mm to 600mm same target, Series

As for the VC of the Tamron, here's 600mm with VC on, hand held, at 1/40s.

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It looks as though MalVeauX has more than got this covered.

I was going to suggest based on the local guys ravings it should be a good bet. I am planning on getting one soon especially after seeing MalVeauX's pics. Awesome shots BTW.

I have a good copy of the 100-400L v1 and I am finally considering going to the Tamron or Sigma 150-600. It will be a bit of a change for me but I think I'll like it.

Thanks for the info and great shots! VZery sharp. I have decided to go with the Tamron. I am listing my Sigma and whenever it sells ill buy the Tamron. I dont see a HUGE benefit from switcching from the Sigma to the Tammy but it appears to be a slightly sharper lens and of course a little longer too. For $1k its a bargain in photography terms.

bbarnett51 wrote in post #17402726
Thanks for the info and great shots! VZery sharp. I have decided to go with the Tamron. I am listing my Sigma and whenever it sells ill buy the Tamron. I dont see a HUGE benefit from switcching from the Sigma to the Tammy but it appears to be a slightly sharper lens and of course a little longer too. For $1k its a bargain in photography terms.

It certainly is a bargain. It's not the fastest lens, nor the sharpest, or any combination of best. But for value, performance for cost type analysis, it's one of those "bang for buck" raw focal length telephotos that while $1k seems expensive to someone on a lens budget, it's a total bargain for anyone really considering trying to have a physical 600mm focal length that has AF, is fast enough, and doesn't involve TC's and manual focus, etc.

It's fast enough to track birds in flight, even smaller fast ones. And while it's not F4, even stopped down a touch, at 600mm, F8 can still make for interesting bokeh with subject isolation.

@600mm, F8, hand held.

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