Pros & Cons
-
- Excellent telephoto reach.
- Very sharp.
- Includes tripod collar and lens hood.
- Focuses quickly.
- Effective image stabilization system.
- Zoom locking mechanism.
- Affordable.
-
- Some chromatic aberration.
- Moderate pincushion distortion.
- Relatively narrow aperture.
- Heavy.
- Not fully dust- and splash-proof.
Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Specs
| 35mm Equivalent (Telephoto) | 600 mm |
| 35mm Equivalent (Wide) | 150 |
| Dimensions | 10.2 by 4.1 inches |
| Lens Mount | Canon EF |
| Lens Mount | Nikon F |
| Lens Mount | Sigma SA |
| Optical Zoom | 4 x |
| Stabilization | Optical |
| Type | Lens |
| Weight | 4.3 |
The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary ($1,089) is a big, heavy lens. But that's no surprise when you consider its maximum reach, full-frame sensor coverage, and sturdy build. A strong image stabilization system will helpyou get crisp handheld shots at slower shutter speeds when dealing with cooperative subjects. Both lab and field tests proved that the lens is quite sharp, with just a little bit of chromatic aberration and pincushion distortion. That's not a huge negative for the wildlife and sports shooters at which the lens is targeted, and it's tough to argue with the price-to-performance ratio that it delivers. You'll be hard pressed finding a better lens with this much reach at this price, making the lens an easy pick for Editors' Choice.
Design and Controls
The 150-600mm Contemporary ($824.00 at Amazon) is one of a pair of lenses from Sigma covering the same focal range. It's smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports ($1,999), but it doesn't look, feel, or perform like a budget lens. The Contemporary version—available for Canon, Nikon, and Sigma SLRs at press time—measures 10.2 by 4.1 inches (HD) at its 150mm position, weighs about 4.3 pounds, and requires you to use a big 95mm filter if doing so suits your fancy. The included reversible lens hood adds about four inches of height, and the lens extends by about the same amount when zoomed to 600mm. The Sports edition, which also includes a reversible hood and extends when zoomed, is 11.4 by 4.8 inches (HD), 6.3 pounds, and has a 105mm filter thread around its front element.
So, what are you missing out on by opting for the smaller, less expensive of the pair? Aside from some back pain, you lose some optical correction (more on that later), and a design that's fully sealed against dust and splashes. The Contemporary lens has a seal around its lens mount, which is fine for moderate weather conditions, but the Sports lens is completely sealed—Sigma has a video that shows the larger lens being covered in a thick layer of dust and later drenched by water, with (presumably) no ill effect. The weather was actually fairly cooperative when I was out with the 150-600mm Contemporary, but like most modern lenses I wouldn't hesitate to use it in moderate rain, though you should invest in a rain cover of some sort if you're looking to shoot in a downpour.
With a lens this size you don't want to mount your camera directly on a tripod, as gravity will put some unnecessary stress on the lens mount. To that end, Sigma includes a removable tripod collar. Its sits near the base of the lens and has a thumb screw to tighten to set it in position; loosening the screw allows you to twist the collar, so you can switch between portrait and landscape orientation when working from a tripod or monopod. Sigma includes a rubber ring to cover the indentation in which the collar sits for protection if you opt to remove it.
Ahead of the collar are a number of switches. The Focus switch has three positions—the self-explanatory AF and MF, as well as MO. The latter stands for manual override, which leaves the lens in autofocus mode, but allows you to adjust the focus manually after the camera has locked focus using the manual focus ring. Below that is a focus limiter—the lens can be set to cover the full range, only hunt from 10 meters to infinity, or only look for close subjects from the minimum 2.8-meter focus distance through 10 meters.
The OS switch toggles the optical stabilization mode. It can be turned off completely, or set to one of two positions. Position 1 is used when you're holding the lens steady and want to capture a subject that isn't moving, and Position 2 should be used when panning the lens to capture a moving object, like a football player running across your field of view, or a bird in flight. Our tests showed that the stabilization system was quite effective. With the lens set to 600mm, I was able to get handheld shots at speeds as low as 1/100-second with consistently sharp results. There was some blur when cutting to 1/50-second, but images looked fine when viewed at Web resolution. At 1/20-second, I was able to get the occasional shot in crisp focus, but most of my test images showed blur, and 1/15-second resulted in more consistent, noticeable evidence of camera shake. At 1/6-second, all of the handheld shots were quite shaky. Still, consistently sharp results at 1/100-second and reasonably sharp images at 1/50-second is nothing to sneeze at. If you're using the lens with a monopod, you should have no trouble getting excellent results in the field at the shutter speeds you'll use for wildlife photography.
The bottommost switch is marked Custom, with settings for Off, C1, and C2. To utilize this control you'll need to invest in the Sigma USB Dock ($42.00 at Amazon) , an inexpensive accessory that allows you to customize lens behavior (and upgrade firmware) via your Mac or Windows PC. You can adjust the autofocus calibration, prioritize focus speed versus accuracy, adjust the responsiveness of the stabilization system as it appears in the viewfinder, and set custom focus limits. Sigma didn't provide a dock for review along with the lens, so we tested it using default factory settings.
There's a focus scale at the top of the lens. It shows you the distance at which focus is currently set, but doesn't include depth of field markings—they're not at all useful with a super telephoto, as depth of field is narrow even when stopped down. The manual focus ring sits ahead of the focus scale. It's a little narrow for my taste, but the desire to manually focus this lens was seldom, so that's not a huge deal. The zoom ring is a lot bigger, which is a good thing, and covered in a tough sheet of rubber, with ridges for easier gripping. It has marks for 150mm, 180mm, 200mm, 250mm, 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm. A lock switch can set the lens at any of those marked positions, which will prevent the zoom from creeping when you tilt the lens up or down. To give you an idea of how the field of view changes on a full-frame camera, the shot above was captured at 150mm, and the shot below at 600mm.
Similar Products
Our Current Picks for The Best Canon EF SLR Lenses for 2021
Image Quality
Sigma provided the lens in a Canon mount, so I used the 20-megapixel, full-frame EOS 6D ($1,999.99 at Amazon) to test the image quality it's able to deliver. We normally use Imatest to check lens sharpness based on an SFRPlus test chart, but due to the size of our chart, and the space in our test lab, we were only able to test to about 250mm with this lens. But the numbers at wider angles are outstanding. At 150mm f/5, the lens shows 2,632 lines per picture height, with very even performance through most of the frame and edges that are just a little softer at 2,400 lines. That's better than the 1,800-line average we look for in an image from edge to edge. Stopping down to f/8 improves the overall score to 2,620 lines, and there's a slight dip at f/11 (2,483 lines) due to diffraction. Pincushion distortion is noticeable at 150mm; there's only about 1 percent, but it does give straight lines the appearance of a slight inward curve. That's a concern if you're using the lens for architectural work, but it's not a huge deal otherwise. If you use Lightroom ($9.99/Month at Adobe) as a workflow application, you can compensate for lens distortion with a single click.
At 205mm the shapes stay just about the same, but the maximum aperture narrows to f/5.6 and distortion increases to about 1.5 percent. The numbers line up about the same at 250mm as well. Beyond that, I used an older, smaller test chart to evaluate lens performance, in concert with close examination of images shot in the field. At 300mm f/5.6, the lens remains crisp from edge to edge.
Image quality is almost as strong at 400mm f/6.3, although you do start to see just a little bit of blurriness in the corners of the frame. The corners are a bit sharper at f/8, and crisp at f/11. At 600mm f/6.3, the softness that was restricted to the corners at 400mm has spread a bit, covering (roughly) the outer third of the frame. But sharpness is very strong through the rest of the images. The edges do show some blue color fringing, but nothing that can't be removed with ease in Lightroom. The pixel-level crop of the robin above was converted to JPG from Raw using default settings in Capture One from an 600mm f/6.3 image shot with the Canon 6D. You can see an uncropped version of the shot below.
In addition to lab tests, I spent quite a bit of time in the field with the Contemporary. I shot with two cameras, the full-frame 6D and the APS-C Canon EOS 7D Mark II ($1,199.00 at Amazon) . I was curious to see how the lens focused with the 6D, as its 11-point autofocus system isn't as robust as higher-end Canon cameras. When using one of the two outlier focus points, the lens could struggle when focusing on a darker area, but that's more of a knock on the 6D than on the lens. With the center point active, the lens focused nearly instantly in normal field conditions, although traveling from the minimum focus distance to infinity could take about a second and a half—if you're using a camera with an autofocus system like the 6D, you should use the focus limiter function to ensure a speedy focus lock.
The 7D Mark II has one of the quickest, most advanced focusing systems this side of the top-end EOS-1D X . It still takes a beat to drive the lens from the minimum focus distance to infinity, but aside from that quibble I had no complaints about focus speed or accuracy. I used the 7D to track birds in flight at its maximum 10fps burst rate, and image quality holds up well when paired with the smaller APS-C image sensor. It gives you a bit more effective reach, which is invaluable for photographing wildlife. Image noise was more of an issue with the 7D, as I found myself wanting to shoot at a very short shutter speed to freeze action, which often pushed the camera to ISO 6400. Shooting in Raw helped preserve detail, but it did make me wish that the lens offered more light gathering capability. That said, making a zoom lens in this telephoto range with a wider aperture would greatly escalate cost, size, and weight.
Conclusion
The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary is a lens that delivers image quality and telephoto reach that certainly exceed its asking price. It's tack sharp throughout almost all of the frame at its maximum aperture, at all but its most extreme telephoto angle. There is a little edge softness and color fringing at its maximum telephoto setting, and mild pincushion distortion throughout the zoom range, but those are acceptable tradeoffs when you factor in the cost, size, and weight of the lens. If you demand the absolute best, the Sports version of the lens is also worth a look. We've yet to review it, but Sigma is billing it as a zoom with no compromises. If you're working the sidelines of an NFL game, often shoot in extreme weather, or simply don't mind spending $2,000 and schlepping a 6-pound lens around on hikes and photowalks, the Sports version may be a better choice for you. But the compromises that the Contemporary lens makes in order to reduce its price and weight are more than acceptable in my eyes, and I'll take a 4-pound lens over a 6-pound lens any day of the week. It's a fantastic telezoom that's capable of capturing a lot of detail, which is key for wildlife shots. That makes it a clear pick for an Editors' Choice award.
Best Lens Picks
- The Best Fujifilm Lenses for 2020
- The Best Leica M Lenses for 2020
- The Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses for 2020
- The Best Pentax SLR Lenses for 2020
- More Lens Reviews
- More from Sigma