[stoppingdown]

... now I only have to wait for the Sigma adapter to be available. In the meantime, in a few days, a friend of mine will make me try the lens with his Canon body.

 

For a few euros I've also ordered a manual Canon EOS EF/Sony E-mount adapter... perhaps in one week I'll be able to make the first tests at full aperture.

 

 

As soon as I can do something I'll share my impressions.

 

[stoppingdown]

BTW... it feels heavier than I thought. Thank God I didn't buy the Sport version...

[JJ_SO]

yesterday I updated the firmware of the Sports version. I doubt if AF is 50 % faster (but I think, the term was "up to 50%") but it's feeling faster focusing.

 

[davidmanze]

 The three 150-600s have opened the world of nature photography to many at affordable prices...I'm sure you will have some great fun with it!

[stoppingdown]

Shipping date for the MC-11 is April 22:

 

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sigma-not...ns-review/

 

 

Starting the countdown...

[stoppingdown]

First tests, a couple of days ago, with the Canon 6D borrowed from a friend of mine. Basically useless, because:

1. I had just a few minutes;
   
2. the day was grey and dull;
   
3. I've to re-skill about the long-lens technique (I haven't been practicing for a couple of years)
   
4. I had forgotten how annoying is a slapping mirror :-) for vibrations.
   

So, because of 3 and 4, most test shots were blurred. Indeed, a few ones weren't, and were absolutely badly focused. For a couple of days I was worried about having a broken lens. Then today I got the manual Sony/Canon adapter and at least I could retry with full aperture and manual focus. Now the achieved sharpness looks to be the one I expected. 

 

I can share three points so far about the lens:

1. with the Canon camera I had a very good, even though preliminary, impression about the AF speed - only by manually de-focusing and measuring the time to catch focus again; I didn't try moving subjects. It seems faster than my old Nikkor AF-S 300 f/4.
   
2. the manual focusing ring of the Sigma 150-600 is poor, as I expected having read some reviews: thin and a bit difficult to grip, and too "quick". Nothing that can't be fixed with some exercise, and in any case I think I'll seldom use manual focus with this lens, so a minor point. The "Sport" version, according to reviews, is much better in this respect.
   
3. the tripod collar is definitely bad. Placed too towards the rear end and probably too small. At 500mm you can see lots of motion in the EVF (not mentioning how long the vibration stays after a shot with a DSLR). I expected this too, by just looking at the catalog photos of the lens. And even the Nikkor AF-S 300 f/4 was bad in this respect: I had to work around it with a piece of rubber stuck between the foot of the collar and the lens; and later bought a replacement collar from Really Right Stuff. It was not just a dove-tail plate to adapt to Arca plates, but a global replacement of the collar with a longer foot and another support in the front where the lens could rest; in other words, the lens would rest on two supports. 
   

[JJ_SO]

Thanks for reminding me why I choose the heavier Sports version  ^_^ yes, the focus ring is a pleasure to use.

 

The tripod collar at the contemporary is removable, while the standard one at the Sports might be an improvement...

 



 

 

... but really cool is the additional and pretty expensive TS-81

 

[stoppingdown]

250€?!?!?  :unsure:  :wacko:  :blink:

[JJ_SO]

For a simple piece of cast metal and some thread inserts, yes, that's what I thought, too. I don't say it's worth the price but the lens improves a lot. And if you think about how much RRS is asking for a much simpler camera plate, things get back in proportions.