Camera Labs

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UPDATE: My review is now finished. Have a look here.
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This is to inform you that I finally got my hot little hands around the a.m. zoom from Sigma. A lens I'd always wanted to review.
After my review of the smaller sibling the 120-400 OS here which left me not totally convinced I was waiting for my chance to have a closer look at the 150-500mm because it was always said that this was the better of the pair.
Unpacking this lens from its posh pouch I first noticed its weight and size: It's bigger and heavier than any lens that I have and it certainly is a burden around your neck should you dare to carry it that way: 95x252mm, 1910g! The lenws-hoof alone is so big that you can completely hide a 85/1.4G inside
So the question will be: does this monster deliver the goods? Can it tease the D800 sensor from corner to corner? What good is the OS in praxis?
Don't expect answers too fast, because I'm stuck in the middle of a review backlog. But I'm certainly eager to give you at least some early insights.

The lens was kindly provided by Marcus Hoffmann. Thank you!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

looking forward to your review. Remember to shoot at F8 if you are over 400mm.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

Sure! I'll do the usual aperture series and see when the lens sharpens up.
Expect 150mm, 200mm, 300, 400, and 500mm tests. Phew, that looks like a lot of work. But I'll only do max open, f8, f11 and f16.
So that is 20 Siemens-stars for standard-distance (40x focal length = 6m - 20m) plus the accompanying series for long-distance shots over 1-2km.
For comparisons I have the old Sigma APO macro 300/4.0 and 400/5.6 which performed pretty good on my D300 plus the Nikon 70-200/2.8 VRII for the shorter focal lengths. On the long end only my 500/8.0 mirror lens from Tamron can be compared - a competition it is likely to lose...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

That seems like an unfair battle. I've been shooting with the Sigma over the weekend and I was surprised. I was expected the "soft" image I was reading about but the result are totally the opposite.
-----Edited by Thomas: Deleted the full quote-----

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

Back to testing this lens. Had my Siemens-star target setup at 20m distance, zoomed the lens out to the full, was shocked how shaky the combo was on my tripod. Doing remote trigger plus 3 sec mirror up might not be enough to stabilize the system.
I'm trying to catch the sun this afternoon to achieve shutter speeds faster than 1/200 sec at f/8. This setup is a nightmare - and it currently looks like rain.
First test-shots so far were not convincing...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Ah, finally: some sun and not too strong winds. You wouldn't believe how shaky the live-view looks at 500mm focal length with even a slight wind
My Tripod (Manfrotto 055b) is certainly not the most stable for long lenses. So I had to wait for periods where the wind was still. I also increased ISO to 200 to get shorter shutter times - just to be sure.
Seems I've got some good test-shots. Currently processing...
Prelim inspection looks like a pretty linear fall-off of image quality with focal length: from excellent at 150mm to good at 300mm to mediocre at 500mm.
Stay tuned...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

are you sure you don't have a bad copy ? Step down to F8 is actually pretty good but to maintain a better shutter speed you have to increase to ISO 400. It shouldn't be a problem for modern camera to handle.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

The 36MP sensor of the Nikon D800 is putting quite some stress on this lens. But actually the center at 500mm and f8 is not too bad, DX-corner still has some decent sharpness but haloing is robbing it of contrast, but FX-corners are not good - even at f11. FX-corners are better though at 400mm.
I'm hurrying to bring you some proof and 100% crops so you can make up your own mind on this matter.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I've uploaded the infamous "Unremarkables" now for 150/200/300/400/500mm here.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I didn't know you were using on a Full Frame. When I had mine it was on an APS-C sensor. So I can play devil advocate, let me show you the picture I took with mine.









note :The compression of picasa is washing out the color a little. The original are more vibrant.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

My review is now finished. Gordon has published it here.
Enjoy!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thank you for the review Thomas. It nice to see someone using it on an DX sensor and pushing the lens to its limits. Very well done.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

Thank you Symtex!
The one feature that makes the Nikon D800 such an excellent test-platform for lens-reviews is that you can extract results for 16MP DX-/APS-C sensors and 36MP FX sensors in one test set-up. That makes the chores of testing a zoom through all focal lengths and apertures with different targets a bit easier.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

are you planning an D800 review ?

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

You mean a review of the D800? No, that is already planned by Gordon. He has the D800 sample-images already published here and plans to follow this up with a full review afaik.
I'm just using the D800 as a test-bed for lenses - and for my photography of course

And here is the official thread for the D800 in the forums. So if you have any questions/comments re the Nikon D800, head over there.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses