New Sigma 60-600mm L Mount - First Effort

[drjonb]

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4 hours ago, hdmesa said:

A monopod greatly increased my keepers with this lens and lets me shoot non-moving subjects down to about 1/125 sec. at 600mm.

I know this will sound silly, but make sure you're using the stabilization of the lens and not the IBIS of the camera. The 60-600 comes from the factory with the stabilization switch set to OFF!

Click for sharper version

1/125 sec.; f/8; ISO 100; 600mm; SL2-S

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Many thanks for your comments.  I am using the IS on the lens and camera together, and on stationary targets I find the lens very sharp and have got good images at very slow speeds below 1/125th.  When on tripod I switch off IS in both lens and camera.  I think I am experiencing some ‘motion blur’ on moving subjects when the light is not so good, but nothing to do with the lens as such.  The more I use the lens, the better it is getting.  

[drjonb]

4 hours ago, hdmesa said:

A monopod greatly increased my keepers with this lens and lets me shoot non-moving subjects down to about 1/125 sec. at 600mm.

I know this will sound silly, but make sure you're using the stabilization of the lens and not the IBIS of the camera. The 60-600 comes from the factory with the stabilization switch set to OFF!

Click for sharper version

1/125 sec.; f/8; ISO 100; 600mm; SL2-S

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[drjonb]

Handheld at 1/13th

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Edited April 22, 2023 by drjonb

[michali]

On 4/9/2023 at 8:05 AM, helged said:

Thanks for these images - looking forward seeing more examples with this lens!

Q: How is the af, particularly on the Lumix S5 II since this body have the (improved) af-machinery to be expected in forthcoming incarnations of L-bodies. 

I received my copy of this lens about 2 weeks ago, this morning was the first opportunity that I had to try it out.

Initial observations:  AF is very fast & accurate, the lens is on the heavy side, especially when pointing up above the horizon e.g. at birds in a tree. Images are sharp & crisp. 

It's also got me thinking about which lenses I would take on safaris in future. The additional focal length from 60mm upwards, would probably see the Leica VE90-280mm getting less use. The Canon 400mm USM DOll  is always the first lens to go into my bag....  

Some random shots in my garden this AM with the SL2-S Reporter. All shot @ 600mm hand held. I'm looking forward to trying it out in the field soon.

(please click on images for better res.)

♂ African Grey Hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus)

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Cape Starling  (Lamprotornis nitens)

 

Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

Edited April 23, 2023 by michali

[drjonb]

1 hour ago, michali said:

I received my copy of this lens about 2 weeks ago, this morning was the first opportunity that I had to try it out.

Initial observations:  AF is very fast & accurate, the lens is on the heavy side, especially when pointing up above the horizon e.g. at birds in a tree. Images are sharp & crisp. 

It's also got me thinking about which lenses I would take on safaris in future. The additional focal length from 60mm upwards, would probably see the Leica VE90-280mm getting less use. The Canon 400mm USM DOll  is always the first lens to go into my bag....  

Some random shots in my garden this AM with the SL2-S Reporter. All shot @ 600mm hand held. I'm looking forward to trying it out in the field soon.

(please click on images for better res.)

♂ African Grey Hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus)

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Cape Starling  (Lamprotornis nitens)

 

Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

Beautiful birds and great images.  No birds like that in my garden in England!!  We do have lovely red kites (they haven’t posed for me yet); pheasants and parakeets - I got some of the latter.  Yes the lens is heavy when you point it up, glad you concur on the AF, it is impressive.  Never shot Canon, but years back I did have Nikon and long lenses for sport when I was working abroad.  I think SL2-S and this 60-600mm can hold its own with Nikon AF.  And the big fixed aperture F4 or F2.8 long Nikon (and Canon) are so expensive and much heavier.

[helged]

12 hours ago, michali said:

I received my copy of this lens about 2 weeks ago, this morning was the first opportunity that I had to try it out.

Initial observations:  AF is very fast & accurate, the lens is on the heavy side, especially when pointing up above the horizon e.g. at birds in a tree. Images are sharp & crisp. 

It's also got me thinking about which lenses I would take on safaris in future. The additional focal length from 60mm upwards, would probably see the Leica VE90-280mm getting less use. The Canon 400mm USM DOll  is always the first lens to go into my bag....  

Some random shots in my garden this AM with the SL2-S Reporter. All shot @ 600mm hand held. I'm looking forward to trying it out in the field soon.

(please click on images for better res.)

♂ African Grey Hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus)

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Cape Starling  (Lamprotornis nitens)

 

Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

Thanks Mike - looking forward to hear about your experience. The images are all looking fine wrt sharpness and oof blur.

[jaapv]

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23 hours ago, helged said:

Thanks Mike - looking forward to hear about your experience. The images are all looking fine wrt sharpness and oof blur.

I suspect that it is not really worth it to trade up from the 150-600 for Safari use. The quality appears to be  similar and the weight is a minus. I hope to compare in October  

[michali]

23 hours ago, jaapv said:

I suspect that it is not really worth it to trade up from the 150-600 for Safari use. The quality appears to be  similar and the weight is a minus. I hope to compare in October  

Jaap- I can't comment definitively on the quality until I've tried out it in the field.  However based on initial results, the IQ is good. Images are very sharp & crisp with excellent fine detail & the OOF areas not too busy. I'll try & post some more images in the next couple of days.

Ultimately I think that we'd probably be splitting hairs between the 150-600mm & 60-600mm in trying to discern the subtle differences in IQ.

Yes this lens is definitely heavy, I'm reasonably fit & I do feel the weight, especially when pointing above the horizon. 

AF is very fast, it's impressive -the difference with other lenses is noticeable.

The extra focal length from 60mm to 150mm is the biggest plus for me (one less lens to carry) -if that's not a big deal, then honestly I don't think it's worth trading up. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by michali

[jaapv]

Mike, I think that the CL with 18-56 and 55-135 which I carry anyway as backup could well cover the intermediate focal lengths. 

[jaapv]

7 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Mike, I think that the CL with 18-56 and 55-135 which I carry anyway as backup could well cover the intermediate focal lengths. 

I’ll be pared down anyway. ClL, SL,   150-600 18-56 55-135, Summilux M 24. Probably 35-70 R Maybe Voigtländer 12. 

[hdmesa]

1 hour ago, michali said:

Jaap- I can't comment definitively on the quality until I've tried out it in the field.  However based on initial results, the IQ is good. Images are very sharp & crisp with excellent fine detail & the OOF areas not too busy. I'll try & post some more images in the next couple of days.

Ultimately I think that we'd probably be splitting hairs between the 150-600mm & 60-600mm in trying to discern the subtle differences in IQ.

Yes this lens is definitely heavy, I'm reasonably fit & I do feel the weight, especially when pointing above the horizon. 

AF is very fast, it's impressive -the difference with other lenses is noticeable.

The extra focal length from 60mm to 150mm is the biggest plus for me (one less lens to carry) -if that's not a big deal, then honestly I don't think it's worth trading up. 

Not just faster AF but also better optical image stabilization.

What impressed me most about this lens was minimal vignetting wide open even with lens corrections in Capture One turned off. That giant 105mm element at the end is performing to expectations here. In many situations, I find myself adding vignette to images from the 60-600 for artistic purposes because they have so little to begin with.

With my previous long telephoto zoom, the Canon RF 100-500, vignetting wide open was heavy. In low light shooting wide open, this contributed to a noticeable increase in noise in the outer areas of the image when fully corrected.

Here's the full frame from a 600mm shot at f/8 showing very little vignetting. This is close enough to high end telephoto prime level performance for my purposes.

Click for sharp version:

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Edited April 25, 2023 by hdmesa

[drjonb]

46 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

Not just faster AF but also better optical image stabilization.

What impressed me most about this lens was minimal vignetting wide open even with lens corrections in Capture One turned off. That giant 105mm element at the end is performing to expectations here. In many situations, I find myself adding vignette to images from the 60-600 for artistic purposes because they have so little to begin with.

With my previous long telephoto zoom, the Canon RF 100-500, vignetting wide open was heavy. In low light shooting wide open, this contributed to a noticeable increase in noise in the outer areas of the image when fully corrected.

Here's the full frame from a 600mm shot at f/8 showing very little vignetting. This is close enough to high end telephoto prime level performance for my purposes.

Click for sharp version:

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

I agree the OIS is excellent and allowing me to get good images handheld even pointing the lens straight up.  

[drjonb]

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[Planetwide]

On 4/25/2023 at 5:14 PM, hdmesa said:

Not just faster AF but also better optical image stabilization.

What impressed me most about this lens was minimal vignetting wide open even with lens corrections in Capture One turned off. That giant 105mm element at the end is performing to expectations here. In many situations, I find myself adding vignette to images from the 60-600 for artistic purposes because they have so little to begin with.

With my previous long telephoto zoom, the Canon RF 100-500, vignetting wide open was heavy. In low light shooting wide open, this contributed to a noticeable increase in noise in the outer areas of the image when fully corrected.

Here's the full frame from a 600mm shot at f/8 showing very little vignetting. This is close enough to high end telephoto prime level performance for my purposes.

Click for sharp version:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Would you say that the 60-600mm is sharper than the RF 100-500mm at the long end?

Thanks

[hdmesa]

43 minutes ago, Planetwide said:

Would you say that the 60-600mm is sharper than the RF 100-500mm at the long end?

Thanks

Hard to say because I'm using the 24mp SL2-S with the 60-600 (no AA filter), and I used the 45mp R5 and 20mp R6 (both have an AA filter) with the 100-500. At any focal length, it seems to have the same IQ or better but with much less vignetting. If anything, the 60-600 on the SL2-S seems to resolve slightly more detail in general, and it reminds me of using the Canon 5DsR (no AA filter) with the EF 100-400 II.

The benefit of the 100-500 was its smaller size and lighter weight. For me the 60-600 can only be shot handheld in short intervals with breaks in between. I consider it a monopod lens for extended sessions, and don't skimp on the monopod and head. I'm currently using the Gitzo GM4562 Series 4 Carbon Fiber Monopod with the Really Right Stuff Monopod Head w/Indexing Lever-Release Clamp, and I can highly recommend both. It's very important to use a monopod-specific head – the rotation from a ball head would be difficult to manage since the monopod doesn't stay still like a regular tripod. Further, the lever release clamp is a must-have for monopod use. Since you can't just leave the rig sitting there on a monopod like you would a tripod, it's important to be able to quickly separate them.

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Hallo,

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[Planetwide]

3 hours ago, hdmesa said:

Hard to say because I'm using the 24mp SL2-S with the 60-600 (no AA filter), and I used the 45mp R5 and 20mp R6 (both have an AA filter) with the 100-500. At any focal length, it seems to have the same IQ or better but with much less vignetting. If anything, the 60-600 on the SL2-S seems to resolve slightly more detail in general, and it reminds me of using the Canon 5DsR (no AA filter) with the EF 100-400 II.

The benefit of the 100-500 was its smaller size and lighter weight. For me the 60-600 can only be shot handheld in short intervals with breaks in between. I consider it a monopod lens for extended sessions, and don't skimp on the monopod and head. I'm currently using the Gitzo GM4562 Series 4 Carbon Fiber Monopod with the Really Right Stuff Monopod Head w/Indexing Lever-Release Clamp, and I can highly recommend both. It's very important to use a monopod-specific head – the rotation from a ball head would be difficult to manage since the monopod doesn't stay still like a regular tripod. Further, the lever release clamp is a must-have for monopod use. Since you can't just leave the rig sitting there on a monopod like you would a tripod, it's important to be able to quickly separate them.

Thanks for taking the time to post. Its seems as if the Sigma 60-600mm is sharper at the long end than the Sigma 150-600mm, even though the mtf suggests otherwise.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Planetwide