But with it mounted, you'll at least increase your chances of shielding the front of the lens from the sun in the first place. Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of the Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG DN OS under well-lit test conditions is good (measured 96.4% in Reikan FoCal) but shows some focus variation especially when focusing from further away. And there was one clearly misfocused shot over a series of 40 shots. At 200mm focal length the lens focuses in around 0.7 sec from infinity to 2.08m (1:10 magnification). In darker conditions (+5EV) I encountered a lot of hunting at focal lengths of 300mm and beyond. Filter-thread: 95mm, like the Sony 200-600 and Tamron 150-600. The Tamron 150-500 has a 82mm thread, the Sigma 150-600 HSM Sports needs huge 105mm filters. [0] Lenses – The lens has dust inside that may affect images. The rubber zoom/focus ring is coming away from the barrel of the lens.

As you zoom in, you'll definitely notice the balance of the lens shifting forwards. It doesn't become too unwieldy, though, as you'll naturally find yourself supporting it with the same hand with which you're operating the zoom ring. With that said, if you plan on shooting handheld often, it's definitely best paired with a body that has a deeper handgrip for more stability. The rearmost lens element is deeply inset, allowing use of Sigma's 1.4x and 2x teleconverters for L-mount shooters. Sadly, E-mount equivalents aren't available. The lens is priced at 1399 EUR / 1499 USD / 1199 GBP and so far only available for Sony E-mount and Leica L-mount. But I’m pretty sure Sigma is working on Z- and RF-mount versions of their lenses too.

Super telephoto lenses can be extremely versatile with the ability to capture tele-macro and close-up detailed images or videos. To this end the 150-600mm includes a very useful maximum magnification ratio of 1:2.9 at 180mm and you can also shoot impressively close at 58cm at 150mm down to 280cm at 600mm. High-precision AF and pro-level functionality The following examples illustrate how close you can get to the subject with the lens set to 600mm to aid magnification. Bokeh

Finally, we have the minimum focus distance. Here the Tamron shows better capabilities by maintaining a similar magnification at 150mm and 500mm. The minimum focus at 500mm especially is much shorter than what the Sigma and Sony can do at 600mm. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports at 600mm (Image credit: Chris George/Digital Camera World) Key features For E-mount owners, however, there are a couple of direct rivals and also some caveats to bear in mind. As noted earlier, the manual focus ring is extremely smooth and well-damped – on a Panasonic L-mount body, you can tell the camera whether you want the focus movement to respond to the speed that you turn the lens ring (non-linear response), or you can have it set so that whatever speed you turn it, the focus shifts proportionally and repeatedly to the amount of turn (linear response).With all of that said, overall we found ourselves very pleased by how this lens renders out-of-focus areas. Flare and ghosting