Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 Contemporary on the M system

R2D2 wrote:

Larry Rexley wrote:

I've had a few days to try out the Sigma 150-600mm f5 - 6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens in EF mount on the M6ii and M200. I got it from B&H Photo when they ran a one-day pre-Christmas special for $699.

The EF-M 55-200 IS STM and EF-S 55-250 IS STM (plus my 'Rexley' Kenko 1.5x SHQ teleconverter) are great for telephoto for the M system... but also I want to shoot birds and wildlife, and astrophotography, and 375mm isn't long enough for those things.

The Kenko 1.5x SHQ teleconverter (with its chip removed) worked as well on this lens as it does on the EF-S 55-250 IS STM, causing only a slight loss of image quality that can be mostly corrected with extra CA and sharpness in DxO Photolab. That being said, the lens was sharpest when used alone with no teleconverter, as expected.

All images below except for the last 7 images were taken with the Sigma 150-600mm plus the Kenko 1.5x SHQ TC -- and most were shot at 600mm. Also, most images were cropped to 50% - 80% of the original image size. Note that the M6ii when cropping to 4k resolution (50% crop) gives a full-frame equivalent of over 2500mm with a 600mm lens and a 1.5x teleconverter! Many of the birds I shot were very far away from me.

All shots were hand-held, no tripod or support was used. Optical image stabilization was used for some shots and worked very well on this lens.

Images shot with Sigma 150-600mm C lens with Kenko 1.5x SHQ TC:

The lens exceeded all my expectations.

Please share your own experiences with this lens, if you have used it.

Larry, why on earth are you shooting trains when you've got all of these magnificent birds at your doorstep??? Egad, I need to pay you a visit!!!

Thanks for posting these. I debated long and hard when deciding on a telezoom for birding (the Canon EF 100-400ii +/- 1.4x iii eventually won out). IQ, AF, and Weight were the biggest factors, but the Canon sure cost a LOT more!

The Sigma C (and certainly the S) can deliver darn good results. I think you'll do OK with it on the M6ii.

However at first blush, I would lose the TC. I think it's hurting your sharpness, and you're losing light (translated into shutter speed). IQ is taking a pretty big hit (and even down-sampled to 2160 the softness (and sharpening halos are evident). The Tricolor Heron above has the best IQ of the bunch (well done!).

With a long telephoto on the (high MP, crop sensor) M6ii, all things have to come together just right in order to consistently produce the highest quality images (this is from my own hard-won experience ). In direct sunlight you have some more wiggle room here with your shutter speeds, and I would definitely raise the SS to 1/3200 sec for BIFs whenever you can.

Try this on your next outing and I think you'll benefit! Happy shooting!

R2

Thanks for the feedback.  Normally there aren't that many birds to shoot at once --- yesterday was a very unusual day --- I think a lot of migration activity combined with a low tide during the morning golden hour. Usually I am lucky to find 5 or 6 birds to shoot and they are usually the same species.

I did a lot of testing with and without the TC.  In so many of the shots from yesterday, the birds were really quite far away --- without the TC the images on the sensor would have been so small I don't think they would have been usable.  There were quite a few I did not use because even with the TC the birds were too far away. Even with the 600 the best solution is still to be close enough in order to get the sharpest images. Cropping too much or using a TC is always going to be a compromise.

Right about the shutter speed --- I can see that 1/1600 wasn't quite fast enough for BIF and even for the tiny sandpipers who move their heads around so fast just while walking!