In my constant quest for affordable yet quality glass beyond 500mm I came across the Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM. Also known as the Bigma. I’ve been shooting with the Nikon 80-400mm for about a year now. I love the lens and it’s a solid performer. It’s stabilized and has a sweet spot at f/8 that just makes you grin. However, there are times where you need more length to reach your subject. Particularly birds lead me to this venture. It also allows me to get closer to my subject with out getting too close where I scare them away. Knowing biology aside, it can’t hurt to have a lens giving you a slight edge. I’ve used two other 500mm lenses in the past. One being the Sigma 150-500mm and also two years ago I gave the Tamron 200-500mm a try. The Tamron was light weight and the 150-500mm brought convenience to the table with optical stabilization. The sigma 50-500mm gave me the most worries. We are talking about a 10x zoom here. This is a massive range. I also had to consider how this will pair to my photography. More often then not when I travel I find myself needing to go long, but also to come back out wide. Ideally we would all like a 600mm f/4 and 200-400mm f/4, but at the cost of a new car I have opted out for right now (more power to you if you have it.)

Over several days I opted to put it to the test in the field. I could shoot brick walls and static distant subjects, but to me that’s all meaningless if it can’t capture the subjects I want in the environment they live in. If I couldn’t get it to perform in the wild then I didn’t want to use it at all. Now although I have used a 500mm (750mm equivalent on DX) I was used to having a stabilized 400mm (600mm equivalent) giving me an easier time hang holding even though I did use it on a tripod often.

Now I am not a big believer normally in getting a good copy of a lens, but for this lens it made me feel it was necessary. My first copy I was not happy using. Overall it was soft and the chromatic aberrations were a tad high on contrasty subjects. It didn’t feel worth the money at all. A little discouraged, but I decided to swap it once more with J&R electronics. They sent me out a new one and I did some more testing. First I checked out a site discussing front and back focus here. I did some lab tests in my basement. It proved to be useful in demonstrating how your front and back focus control in the D300 (also D700, D3, and D3X to my knowledge) and markedly improve your lens. Lots of testing though is needed to get it right. There is one down side to using that built in function however. Nikon designed it solely for Nikon lenses. Only each individual Nikon lens has its own identifier differentiating a 70-200 from a 600mm for example. It’s fair enough that Nikon wants you to buy Nikon, but I wish the 3rd party manufacturers would have reverse engineered more id numbers. When I would attach my Sigma 10-20 or my Sigma 150mm it would read as the same lens. I tried changing identifiers through the menu system with no luck in fixing the problem. Thankfully the 50-500mm has a separate code so your mileage may vary.

Lastly before we get down to business here with some examples I wanted to mention that I feel once you move toward the 400-600mm range extra special responsibility comes into play. Exercising proper long lens technique and providing a stable platform is crucial. As you may already know that the further ut you go the more vibration and shake is amplified. Taking extra precaution and being more aware is crucial. The first day I think I was a little loose when it came to handling the lens. For that reason I came back with a few keepers leading me to think the lens was bunk. However after my second day out I was convinced. As you will see I spent some time with a great egret (as well as some other birds) and was able to make some images happen that I couldn’t with the reach of the Nikon 80-400mm.

So lets dive right into these images shall we? I am providing them on zoomify so that you can really zoom in and see every pixel. I am trying this instead of the usual 100% crops. These images have not been processed in the slightest. No black point, white point, cropping, saturation, you name it and it doesn’t have it. By clicking on the image you will be taken to a new page with the image in zoomify mode. You can click on the plus (+) or minus (-) icons, click and hold to drag it around if zoomed in or use your scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 420mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune +1, Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/640, ISO: 200, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp -1.3, No Flash, WB: Auto

A main subject for me to test contrast were the great egrets. They are a reliable subjects around here and can be found at least once a day on average. He was exhibiting a behavior that I don’t normally catch. He was calling quite loudly and boy was I glad that I had this lens on hand and it came out as sharp as it did.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 500mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune +11, Aperture: f/6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/30, ISO: 400, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp 0, No Flash, WB: Auto

This American robin was digging around for its morning lunch. I shot this out of my car window early in the morning before the light would greet him. I think the f/6.3 aperture was part of the softness seen around the eye, plus I was tweaking the AF fine tune at the time. Also lets not forget I am balancing a 750mm equivalent lens handheld at 1/30th of a second.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 500mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune +1, Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/125, ISO: 400, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp +0.7, No Flash, WB: Auto

This mockingbird would hangout hopping from limb to limb calling around for his mate. I slowly crawled out of the car to remove the distracting asphalt background at window height to get this nice out of focus green background. I had a beanbag (using one of ‘thepod’ bean bags) on my knee photographing the mocking bird on a freshly rained on parking lot floor.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 500mm, AF-S, AF Fine Tune +2, Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/400, ISO: 200, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp 0, No Flash, WB: Auto

This was a pleasant surprise. This green heron stopped in for a visit and hung around for much longer then expected. I chose to share this image as many people wonder how sharp a subject is when it fills less then half the frame. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 50mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune 0, Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/100, ISO: 200, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp -0.7, No Flash, WB: Auto

This mute swan was so close I had to go all the way out to 50mm to make this shot work. In hind site I wish I had a closer eye on exposure, but when a male mute swan is breathing down your neck it gets your attention. His family actually entered the water at another point and I was in his way of him meeting up with them. So I side stepped and he soon swam on by.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 500mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune +2, Aperture: f/7.1, Shutter Speed: 1/60, ISO: 400, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp -0.7, Flash: TTL Front Curtain, WB: Cloudy

Being in upstate New York allowed me to try out flash with the lens. I was very satisfied with the results. Especially reading about how it seems some 3rd party lenses may report false distance information resulting in improper flash usage.

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For this next section I am am using two photographs to show two scenarios. How the lens handles being used wide open and also it’s zoom range.

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 50mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune 0, Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/200, ISO: 200, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp -0.7, No Flash, WB: Auto

There is absolutely nothing special about this image. Simply a plain quick snapped image (no regard for exposure either) to show you how wide the lens is and then in a matter of seconds…

Camera: Nikon D300, Focal Length: 500mm, AF-C, AF Fine Tune 0, Aperture: f/6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/640, ISO: 200, Matrix Metering, Exposure Comp -0.3, No Flash, WB: Auto

…You are this close into the action. This image of the egret also shows how unusable it can be at the open aperture with contrasty subjects. To be fair I haven’t tweaked the lens and I think that would help a little bit. When shooting in such a high contrast scenario I would stop down to at least f/7.1 where the chromatic aberration falls off dramatically. Plus Nikon Capture NX 2 also helps to tone it down as well with out damaging the image.

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My initial impression of the lens is impressive as it is of a decent build in size, but still hand holdable. Not with out a little wrist pain at first if you have the battery grip going with your camera. The finish is very nice. I do enjoy the EX finish on their EX lenses. However I will say that if you use your lenses heavily the finish will wear off. Is this covered under warranty? That I don’t know. According to Sigma’s service department if the coating is removed under normal wear and tear scenarios they will fix it. Not if it is due to abuse. My sigma 150mm macro has been a work horse for several years and I have never desired to have it repainted. However the bigger advantage of choosing an EX lens over their standard lens is that it comes with a 6 year 4 year warranty. The Sigma 150-500mm lens does not (only 1 year) and if you have ever injured a lens it costs a pretty penny.

The lens mount I am a big fan of. Their lens mounts normally have finger like indents so that gripping the lens is much easier. It also has a longer foot then the Nikon 80-400mm lens. Plus I am going from a 77mm thread to an 86mm thread. If you use filters it could be a pain in the butt. Especially considering 86mm threads are more expensive. I don’t normally just use the lens hood as protection and it has served me well for quite a long time now. However I am considering UV or clear filters. I just don’t like shooting through extra glass. The barrel itself comes out of the box a tad stiff. However after the first few turns it rotates like butter. Smooth with no hiccups. They do provide a locking mechanism to prevent lens creep and also to not allow it before 100mm when a tele-converter is attached (I’d hate to the hear that sound.)  When using a tele-converter you are strictly in manual focus mode when using either the 1.4x or the 2x. I have read about tricks to block contacts to get auto-focus to work, but I have not tried that and it should obviously be done at your own risk. Also when it comes to auto-focus speed it is fast. Not as fast as a prime I would say, but a major improvement over the Nikon 80-400mm. This is obviously due in part to the HSM technology built into the lens. It utilizes a rear focusing motor for faster accuracy.

Having a faster auto-focus is also important to me as this is ideally a sunny day lens. Using the D300 helps, but I find the sweet spot of this lens is around f/8. Aperture f/6.3 is usable, but not for high contrast subjects. An immediate quality boost happens as you hit f/7.1 and you finally fall into the right place as you arrive at f/8. I did find myself pushing to ISO 400 to make things happen at times. To be fair I was shooting at dawn or dusk. When working in overcast skies it really isn’t bad.

After sitting down with my images and making an extremely hard decision I opted for the Sigma 50-500mm lens. I felt it provided me opportunities in my local area that I could not get with the Nikon 80-400mm. In all honestly I wish I had both. I loved the Nikon 80-400mm when I was on my expeditions with Lindblad. I do recommend testing this lens before getting rid of your lens your primary lens you are comparing it too. The sharpness is highly impressive to me with such a zoom range and I am very excited at what this lens will allow me to do on future adventures.

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If you felt I left anything out let me know. I will do my best to update the review whenever I discover something new about this lens. All the best!