Sigma 150-600 contemporary

Gah! I pre-ordered the first night hoping it would ship as indicated. Tempted to just grab a a Tamron 150-600.

gremlin75 wrote in post #17443310
Don't bet on what? The price or the release month?

... pretty good with sticking to their release dates latly.

The release and actual availability! The 150-600mm Sport for instance is still not a off the shelf item.

I still find it hard to believe a big company (Sigma, Canon, etc) has no idea how it will sell or how many. They all seem to be caught by surprise. If you can't fill orders don't announce it until you can.
Maybe they want to see how many orders there is before they start production.

I've not found that to be true at all. This image was with the VR switched on on my Tamron

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qqiC​1b

That shot is at a shutter speed faster than 1/500...his issue with the VC is more about panning at slow shutters

ebiggs wrote in post #17460548
I still find it hard to believe a big company (Sigma, Canon, etc) has no idea how it will sell or how many. They all seem to be caught by surprise. If you can't fill orders don't announce it until you can.

It's better for a manufacturer to have outstanding orders than it is to have idle inventory.

By not having enough to satisfy every order, they create an artificially charged demand for it...

Yes my issues with the Tamron VC is when using it with slow shutter speeds. On the subjects that I could use faster speeds with I did get some keepers, although panning speed did seem to make a bit of a difference. The real problem that I had was when shooting at shutter speeds between 1/60s and 1/160s. That is the range of shutter speeds that suit propellor driven aircraft (1/160s) down to big helicopters (1/60s). The problem is that you need those slow shutter speeds to allow the propellor or rotor blades to show some blur. If you freeze them then the aircraft looks as if it's about to fall out of the sky. The VC on the Tamron seemed to do it's job when the aircraft were out towards the ends of their runs, as by then they are mostly going directly away from you. I guess that if standing facing the center of the display line, then the VC was allowing shots where the aircraft were more than 60 degrees to the left or right of you. The problem is that the VC fails to work in an arc that covers 2/3 of the flight line.

Still I look forwards to Sigma announcing the 150-600 C in the UK, as we as yect have no details on the lens on official Sigma websites, let alone pricing or availability. Looks like the USA is getting all of the available C production for the foreseeable future.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #17461665
Yes my issues with the Tamron VC is when using it with slow shutter speeds. On the subjects that I could use faster speeds with I did get some keepers, although panning speed did seem to make a bit of a difference. The real problem that I had was when shooting at shutter speeds between 1/60s and 1/160s. That is the range of shutter speeds that suit propellor driven aircraft (1/160s) down to big helicopters (1/60s). The problem is that you need those slow shutter speeds to allow the propellor or rotor blades to show some blur. If you freeze them then the aircraft looks as if it's about to fall out of the sky. The VC on the Tamron seemed to do it's job when the aircraft were out towards the ends of their runs, as by then they are mostly going directly away from you. I guess that if standing facing the center of the display line, then the VC was allowing shots where the aircraft were more than 60 degrees to the left or right of you. The problem is that the VC fails to work in an arc that covers 2/3 of the flight line.

Still I look forwards to Sigma announcing the 150-600 C in the UK, as we as yect have no details on the lens on official Sigma websites, let alone pricing or availability. Looks like the USA is getting all of the available C production for the foreseeable future.

Alan

This site seems to believe April, looks like a good pre-order price too, very tempting

Just watched the Promo video done at WPPI. I'd say this lens is going to flat smoke the Tammy. Not only can you hook to the Sigma dock to adjust focus settings, including focus speed, it also has the ability for 2 Custom settings. Yep I think that I'm getting this one. I mean for $20 more than the Tammy, why wouldn't I..

[VIDEO=youtube]o7VwI7P​_sVw?t=1m21s[/VIDEO]

frozenframe wrote in post #17465596
Just watched the Promo video done at WPPI. I'd say this lens is going to flat smoke the Tammy. Not only can you hook to the Sigma dock to adjust focus settings, including focus speed, it also has the ability for 2 Custom settings. Yep I think that I'm getting this one. I mean for $20 more than the Tammy, why wouldn't I..

Nice video. Lens looks good, just wish there were some reviews or sample images from it available though Sigma seem to be putting out some good stuff lately and I don't see this being any different. Very tempted to pre-order this one. Was going to go for the 50-500 as on my crop camera this allows me to get some good airshow pics while also being wide enough to swing round and get some snaps of the kids without changing lens. An extra 100mm would certainly be nice though and as I am saving for a 6D too that would be the wide stuff sorted anyway so the 150mm wide end isn't too much of an issue. Decisions, decisions! Should have stuck with a point and shoot - I was warned DSLR can get expensive once you buy one haha.

We'll see. If it didn't say SIGMA on it, I might agree. For QC, I've had much better luck with Tamron.

The panning OS and software dock will definitely attract folks to it.

I've had such good luck with every Tamron lens I've ever owned (and such bad luck with every Sigma) that it would take a lot to convince me to lay down my Tammy for this one. But I hope those who buy one are happy and they have worked out their QC issues.

Well I've been on the fence for quite sometime. Just pre-ordered it and the USB Dock. Yesterday was the almost, darn-near, had my finger on the trigger, when shooting birds with my longest lens, the Tammy 70-300. Some Canada geese flew into a field behind my house, just a little too far for my lens. Then after watching that video, seeing that it has customizable settings, and Sigma at least throws in a case, well that did it. Finger was just too darn heavy to get it off the order trigger. Now I hope that Sigma does better job than Tamron at getting these out.

One good thing, I do have a loving wife, that did tell me a couple months ago to go ahead and get it, meaning the Tammy.

Just realised my post earlier did not actually include a link, oops

Anyway I am thinking of pre-ordering from here as it seems like a good price, everywhere else is around 200-300 pounds more.

http://www.cliftoncame​ras.co.uk …OS_HSM__Contemp​orary_Lens

One thing that caught my eye was that with the dock the focus limiter distances can be adjusted. That sounds like a really good idea. That's one issue that really bugs me, when using lenses that have it. Often even limiting focus to 10m to infinity still has a very long throw from end to end. If focus misses a subject at infinity, and runs a whole in out cycle it can be enough to lose the subject in the VF during the time you cannot see it. For Airshows it would be great, just reprogram the focus limiter to say 100m to infinity. If you do need to get something closer you can always throw the limit switch out. That price looks good too. I see WEX now have it up, but at RRP, disappointing as they are my local camera shop. Actually Clifton have the 150-600 C cheaper than WEX have the 50-500.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #17465731
One thing that caught my eye was that with the dock the focus limiter distances can be adjusted. That sounds like a really good idea. That's one issue that really bugs me, when using lenses that have it. Often even limiting focus to 10m to infinity still has a very long throw from end to end. If focus misses a subject at infinity, and runs a whole in out cycle it can be enough to lose the subject in the VF during the time you cannot see it. For Airshows it would be great, just reprogram the focus limiter to say 100m to infinity. If you do need to get something closer you can always throw the limit switch out. That price looks good too. I see WEX now have it up, but at RRP, disappointing as they are my local camera shop. Actually Clifton have the 150-600 C cheaper than WEX have the 50-500.

Alan

I'm very tempted by the Clifton deal, it says it's a launch deal so I imagine the price will go up to the same as everyone else after launch. The USB is one of the things that is attracting me to this lens for the same reason you just stated, being able to program in a custom setting for airshows would be great though I must admit part of me just likes the idea of being able to fiddle with custom settings as I do like to tinker with things