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Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN Sports Lens Review: Worthy of Attention
The long-awaited Sigma 150-600mm for mirrorless cameras has finally arrived. Available for Sony E-mount or Leica L-mount, does this redesigned super-telephoto zoom meet the expectations of real-world wildlife photographers?
Build Quality and Design
The Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS is one of the company’s better-looking lenses. There’s no glossy finish anywhere and it’s not gaudily large and over-industrial in style. In my opinion, the matte black finish is an immediate relief compared to the unsightly off-white Sony 200-600mm lens.
In all, the lens weighs four pounds 15 ounces (2.2 kilograms) with the lens hood attached. That weight is spread across the 10.5 inches (26.7 centimeters) length and can be handheld, which is how I photographed with it for my review. At 600mm, the lens physically extends out to about 14.5 inches (36.8 centimeters). The lens diameter is 4.3 inches (10.9 centimeters) which fits well in my hand and it takes 95mm filters screwed to the front. Sigma appears to have done well to ensure there was no extra bulk here.
Sigma 150-600mm DG DN at 150mm. Sigma 150-600mm DG DN at 600mm.
Zoom Ring
The zoom can be operated either by twisting the ring or, by design, pushing and pulling at it directly near the lens hood. There’s a three-stage switch on the left side to which controls the zoom ring tension: locked, tight, or smooth. The locked setting only works at 150mm to prevent zoom creep. I found that the tight setting adds enough tension to avoid accidental shifts in focal length. On the other hand, I felt that the smooth setting was not as smooth as I would have preferred, although this may be more of a physics issue as the weight of the lens physically extending out naturally places a certain amount of tension on the ring.
This lens has a variable aperture that from my testing breaks down as follows: from 150mm to 172mm, the widest aperture is f/5. From 173mm to 365mm, the widest aperture is f/5.6. That leaves f/6.3 being the maximum aperture through the rest of the range from 366mm to 600mm.
For comparison, the Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens switches over right around 300mm, so for those hankering over a third-stop of light, this Sigma is an improvement.
Zoom ring tension control switch.
Focus Ring
Looping back to the focus ring, I’m not a fan of its design. It’s awfully narrow and what is worse is that only a portion of the ring that moves is covered in rubber grip. For such a small area, I wish Sigma could have at least placed the rubber ribbing over as much as possible. For wildlife photography, manual focusing becomes very important in certain situations where there are foreground elements and dense foliage at play, and I use it every day I’m out. On the plus side, it does have smooth rotation to it with an appropriate amount of tension to the glide. In the video section of this review, I will discuss its poor functionality further.
One other complaint about both the zoom and focus rings comes from Sigma's combination of rubber hardness and the wide, triangle-shaped ribbing. After a while, the weight of my camera and this lens starts to dig into my hand and the ribbing starts to feel like little knives. This is in contrast to the Sony 200-600mm I own and Canon telephoto lenses I’ve used where the ribbing is flattened at the edge and doesn’t stick out so far. I’ve never thought of this as a possible issue until using this lens.
Tripod Collar
The tripod foot and collar feature a couple of great design choices. For one, the foot incorporates an Arca Swiss-compatible plate so that no additional add-on is necessary. The collar itself also has notches every 90 degrees so the foot can be set perfectly level by feeling the groove rather than having to eyeball the alignment with markings. This really comes in handy when shooting off a gimbal when I wanted to go from landscape to portrait orientation. Because of it, I did not have to take my eye out of the viewfinder to check level alignment.
A downside I find with the included tripod foot is that it's quite short. As someone who shoots handheld, I still appreciate having the foot there and I use it as a carrying handle for my setup. With this foot, I can only awkwardly cram three fingers in rather than a more comfortable four. Again, with the weight being a factor, I begin to feel the discomfort of carrying like this for longer periods of time. I guess I can always buy the eye-rollingly expensive TS-81 foot that Sigma sells separately.
Image Quality
Inside, the lens uses 25 elements in 15 groups including four “F” low-dispersion elements and two extra-low dispersion elements, plus a dust and moisture resistant coating on the front element.
The image quality of this lens is where you will get your money’s worth. I find that there’s solid clarity and contrast throughout the focal range, good sharpness, well-controlled color fringing and flaring, and the bokeh shape from the nine rounded aperture blades melt away out-of-focus objects pleasingly.
As one would expect for any telephoto lens, there’s heavy vignetting when shot wide open at either end of the zoom range. At 150mm, I found that by f/7.1 the vignetting was largely relegated to the far corners and by f/13 it was completely cleared up. On the 600mm end, by f/9 the vignetting was largely moved to the far corners and by f/13 it was gone.
Likewise, sharpness improves as the aperture is stopped down to its sweet spot. Shooting at 150mm, I find that each third-stop down shows good improvement at the center up until f/7.1 where it starts peaking. By f/14 the center looks as sharp as it did wide open at f/5 and continuing to stop down from there continues to soften the image. Both f/20 and f/22 are really soft in the center. Moving to the corners, I saw that f/11 is where it meets peak sharpness for 150mm.
Looking at the center sharpness while at 600mm, things are a little bit different. My testing showed that there are big jumps in improving center sharpness when clicked from f/6.3 to f/7.1 and then again from f/7.1 to f/8. The improvements from here on out are not as drastic, but it looks like f/11 is the lens’s true peak sharpness in the center at 600mm. For the corners, I saw f/16 as the peak sharpness for 600mm.
600mm at f/6.3. Left: full image. Right: 100% crop. Close focus at 150mm. Close focus at 600mm.
This lens does come equipped with image stabilization which I thought worked adequately as I saw no change in what I’m used to seeing with my Sony 200-600mm. It works well for handheld shooting and I have no complaints as far as this feature goes.
It’s the same story for autofocus, likely thanks to the switch out of the Hyper Sonic Motor from the DSLR models to a stepping motor for this mirrorless-first redesign. From my experience, the Sigma 150-600mm DG DN can competently track birds in flight and quickly sweep the focus plane to hunt down subjects. I never felt I was missing anything due to the autofocusing system during my review period.
Using the Lens for Video
From the older 150-600mm lenses made for DSLR mounts to the 300-800mm f/5.6 Goliath, Sigma has been producing well-favored super-telephoto zoom lenses used by filmmaking enthusiasts and professionals for a long time. A number of pros own these Sigma lenses for their personal setups and then rent out the wildly expensive glass when out on assignment.
I spent a couple of evenings using the lens on my Sony FS5 camera rig to record video. My primary subjects were hummingbirds out in a patch of jewelweed. Everything in the video below was filmed with the Sigma 150-600mm DG DN.
The 150mm to 600mm range was very helpful to create a variety of shots just using one lens (effectively 225-900mm on my FS5). The push-pull zoom was also nice to quickly change focal lengths. While the lens is not parfocal, it does hold itself together enough to where I never lost my subject and simply needed a fine adjustment after zooming in and out.
In the end, I think the downsides outweighed the positives for me when it comes to video. The biggest issue I have is that the focus ring does not have a linear response. This is a massive disappointment, especially when you consider how well-liked Sigma's DSLR lenses have been to wildlife filmmakers. Without a linear response focus ring, no two focus pulls are the same and instead, it all depends on how fast the ring is being twisted. As a result, smooth tracking of subjects was a big problem with this lens.
It’s not a new issue for Sigma super-telephoto zooms, but another problem is the counterbalancing. Having my fluid head balanced for the lens sitting at 150mm is going to be off when it changes to 600mm since it physically extends and the weight of the glass shifts locations. I would up balancing for around 300mm as a compromise which was okay, but not ideal considering it’s nothing I think about with the Sony 200-600mm I own where the physical size is always fixed at any focal length.
The Tradition Continues
Sigma has earned its reputation for building high-end lenses and selling them at mid-tier prices. This continues with the new 150-600mm DG DN where final image quality looks terrific and the $1,500 price makes it hard to overlook it when shopping for a super-telephoto zoom.
Are There Alternatives?
The E-mount version of this lens is clearly taking on the $2,000 Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS that came out a couple of years ago. What I find interesting is how Sigma with this lens and Tamron with its new 150-500mm lens have been picking away at the design and building features to improve certain things over what Sony made. Neither have made everything better across the board, and the Sony 200-600mm still maintains sole ownership over a few things that make it truly special, but the fact that some flaws are being patched and both Sigma and Tamron charge less for it makes coming to a decision among the three much tougher.
The Sigma features variable tension control on the zoom ring, an Arca Swiss plate built into the tripod foot, notched positions on the tripod collar, a screw-down lens hood, and can zoom out to 150mm f/5, all of which improve upon the Sony. On the flip side, the Sony doesn’t telescope and change physical size upon zooming, has a much wider focus ring that is a linear response, has a quick-release tripod foot, and can accept the company's 1.4x and 2x teleconverters.
Should You Buy It?
Yes. Undoubtedly there will always be a question of whether to buy this lens or the other options available, but looking at the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS alone it is well worth the consideration and it will not let you down.
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Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Review: A Little Weird, a Lot Awesome
Tamron released its longest-reaching lens for the Sony E-mount camera system with the 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VXD. After two packed weeks of glorious bird photography, there’s a lot to be said for this new telephoto zoom.
This may technically be the first of its kind for Tamron, but the company does have a history of similar zoom lenses for DSLR mounts. We’ve seen the popular 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens released in 2013 with a well-received second-generation model launched in 2016, plus the 100-400mm F/4.5-6.3 which was introduced in 2017. Now, Tamron hopes to take what it learned from those past successes and make a next-generation telephoto zoom for the most popular full-frame camera system on the market.
Design and Build Quality
My first impression of the 150-500mm is that it’s a great-looking lens. I appreciate the black semi-matte finish on the plastic exterior which blends in much better than the off-white that is not uncommon for these focal lengths. The removable tripod collar is metal and has a texture that matches extremely well with my trusty Sony a7R III camera, which I used for this review.
This lens does extend physically as it zooms. At the short end, it’s 8.3 inches (209.6 millimeters) long and all the way out it’s 11.1 inches (283 millimeters). In total with the tripod collar included, the lens weighs 4.1 pounds (1.86 kilograms). Overall, it has a comfortable balance and throughout my shooting time with it, it was only used handheld (aside from aperture tests). Even more modestly-sized camera backpacks should be able to fit this in with the hood reversed and camera attached.
Taking a closer look, I noted a number of interesting features in the design and functionality that are worth discussing.
Zoom Ring
Starting at the outer end of the lens, there’s a large, rubberized zoom ring that can move from 150mm to 500mm in a 75-degree twist. While there is a zoom lock switch on the side for 150mm, what is less noticeable is what Tamron calls the “Flex Zoom Lock.” By just pulling out the zoom ring, it can lock at any focal length.
The right image shows the zoom ring pulled out, enabling Flex Zoom Lock.
This might be my favorite feature of the 150-500mm. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve inadvertently nudged the focal length out of where I intended it to be with my Sony lens. Before I know it, I’m missing out on over a hundred millimeters of zoom that I now have to recover with cropping. With my Sony lens I made a workaround where I overlap two pieces of neoprene to give the zoom ring some added friction, but what Tamron has done with the Flex Zoom Lock is very smart and extremely handy.
Another great aspect of this zoom lens is the impressive variable aperture breakdown. My testing shows that from 150mm to 237mm, the camera displays f/5, from 238mm to 386mm it’s f/5.6, from 387mm to 479mm it’s f/6.3, and only in the final 20mm of 480mm to 500mm is it f/6.7. This makes the 150-500mm some good competition to the standard 100-400mm lenses that break down similarly but only zoom so far.
Switches
Aside from the zoom lock switch I just mentioned on the righthand side, there’s a panel of switches to be found on the left. These include a focus limiter switch, focus mode switch, vibration compensation (VC) on and off toggle, and a VC mode switch. The switches on this lens are the best tactile experience I’ve had when compared to any Sony or Canon lens. Because of the perfect tension and size, even the three-stage switches easily set to the middle without accidentally skipping to the next setting.
I’ll go over vibration compensation in a more detailed section below, but right now I want to point out the focus limiter. Most focus limiters I’ve seen have three modes: One is for the full focus range, one is for infinity to a certain distance, and the last is for close focus to a certain distance. In contrast, the Tamron 150-500mm forgoes that last close focus option for a second infinity-to-distance mode, which means it offers the full range and either infinity to 15 meters or infinity to three meters.
As a bird photographer, focus limiters are a tricky matter that I don’t ever really use for a few reasons, but paramount is the fear I might miss something spontaneous. What Tamron has done here -- I believe -- is a nod to sports photographers who always have absolute certainty where their subjects will be. If they’re shooting from the sidelines of a game, they will likely need to be back at least three meters for safety. If they’re shooting from the stands, that’s a guaranteed 15 meters away. These are just a couple of easy examples, but taking away a close focus limiter speaks to the type of photographers the company either worked with closely while designing this or the type of shooter it envisioned using the lens.
Focus Ring
Moving toward the lens mount, there’s a focus ring that I have a couple of negative feelings about. First is its thinness. The least Tamron could have done about that was to make the ribbing on it rubberized and more pronounced, but sadly it’s even flatter than the zoom ring and plastic.
Secondly, it is not a smooth operator. It has a cheap glide like there’s sand in it, and at times in the rotation, there are high notes of crunching that make me question if there literally is debris trapped. It makes its use more finicky than it should be.
Tripod Collar
Closest to the lens mount is a removable metal tripod collar that needs to be acknowledged. Tamron has already been doing it in previous telephoto lenses, and this one too features a built-in Arca Swiss tripod plate on the foot. Nothing is more insulting than when lens manufacturers skimp on this and instead ship out a completely useless foot.
On each side of the foot, there are also loopholes for attaching a carrying strap if desired.
Image Stabilization
The Tamron 150-500mm does have an image stabilization mechanism -- Tamron calls its technolgoy Vibration Compensation -- and offers three different modes that are controlled by a switch on the side of the lens.
Don’t skip this part because these are not exactly the modes you might be thinking they are.
Traditionally, Mode 1 would be full compensation vertically and horizontally, Mode 2 would be for panning and compensates only for vertical movement, and then Mode 3 only activates horizontal and vertical stabilization at the moment of capture and does not compensate until only then.
With this lens, Mode 2 is unchanged and is still the mode to use for panning shots. Modes 1 and 3 are different, and a little strange. Mode 1 acts as described above, however, its strength of compensation is not very impressive, especially when shooting at 500mm. I think of it as a soft image stabilizer that allows for a lot more play with the lens and doesn’t tie you down to always making sure you’re in the right mode for the shot.
Mode 3 gets really weird. The level of compensation in both directions is extremely good. It’s much, much better than Mode 1. However, it’s active all the time. Even without half-pressing the shutter or using back-button autofocus -- without touching the camera at all -- it’s on. As you can imagine, this is not ideal for a long-lasting camera battery to be walking around with the lens in Mode 3, but as noted it's also the mode to be in for the best compensation. So, generally, I used it. Ideally, I would like to see Mode 3 only active when I’m ready for it.
One last note is about the constant noise of this lens. Many stabilized lenses have some sort of hum that is produced once that image stabilization kicks in. Oddly enough, the Tamron 150-500mm is noticeably whirring away all the time and only quiets down a touch when it's stabilizing. After two weeks of getting used to it, I’ll admit it's a little less obnoxious now, but it was almost unbelievable when I switched over to this lens initially.
Image Quality
Inside, the lens uses 25 elements in 16 groups including one extra-low dispersion element, five low dispersion elements, and two hybrid aspherical elements. There’s also Tamron’s BBAR-G2 coating. In all, it’s a concerted effort to control aberrations, ghosting, and flaring while promoting edge-to-edge sharpness.
Upfront, I can say that the Tamron 150-500mm image quality holds up beautifully for real-world use and my proof of that is in the photos littered across this review. I did not encounter any sort of aberration or flaw that became an issue in the field or that needed any sort of labored correction in post-processing. Below are a couple of backlit shots with high contrast and there is no dramatic color fringing. The very little I see is either unnoticeable in the full photos or can be solved with a one-click fix in post-processing.
Full images. 100% crops showing minimal color fringing on edges.
As a telephoto lens, vignetting is certainly something that exists. Personally, I embrace it, but it’s always good to know where to expect an even exposure across the frame. Shooting at the 150mm end, I find f/7.1 shows vignetting only on the edges of the frame, and then by f/9 it’s around the corners only, and at f/13 it’s largely under control. On the 500mm end, f/9 is when it encroaches the edges only, f/10 it’s just around the corners, and by f/16 it’s under control.
Sharpness
Overall, I’m very satisfied with the sharpness of this lens for my bird photography. It has the resolving power to achieve fine feather detail and allows for considerable cropping without the photo falling apart.
100% crop.
Peak center sharpness at both the 150mm and 500mm ends is at f/8, according to my comparative testing. It’s worth mentioning to other wildlife photographers that there is no steep falloff of sharpness shooting wide open at 500mm, and in fact, there’s not much difference at the center between 500mm f/6.7 and 500mm f/8.
At the corners, the lens does need some more room to right itself if the details there are important to you. At the 150mm end, peak corner sharpness is at f/14. At the 500mm end, peak corner sharpness is at f/11. To simplify my findings between its vignetting and sharpness, I’d just remember to shoot the lens around f/11 if I wanted the best compromise of edge-to-edge image quality for landscape photography and the like.
Autofocus
First introduced in the 70-180mm f/2.8, the 150-500mm also uses Tamron’s VXD linear autofocus motor. Throughout my review period, I found autofocusing to be snappy and largely reliable for tracking birds in flight. Due to vignetting, autofocus does become less responsive as subjects move towards the extreme edges of the frame. For typical rule-of-thirds style compositions, however, this did not become a noticeable issue.
The minimum focus distance at the wide end is 23.6 inches (0.6 meters) and all the way zoomed in its 70.9 inches (1.8 meters). Considering the lens itself is 8.3 inches, that means at 150mm the subject can be a little more than a foot away and still sharply focus.
Below you can see two full-frame shots of a skipper butterfly that was about the size of my fingernail, one at 150mm close focus and one at 500mm close focus. As you can see, both produce a subject that is very comparable in apparent size although it is slightly larger when close focusing at 150mm than close focusing at 500mm.
150mm, minimum focus distance. 500mm, minimum focus distance.
Thoughtful Ideas, Thorough Execution
The more I think about it, the more I realize that Tamron made something special with the 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VXD. It bridges the gap between 400mm zooms and 600mm zooms and is still relatively portable and lightweight for a telephoto. There is no hiding any sort of poor light-gathering performance behind the variable aperture numbers, though it is actually only f/6.7 for the last 20mm of zoom and can do f/5.6 almost all the way to 400mm. The Flex Zoom Lock feature is a very welcome addition and I wish every telephoto zoom had it. Other little things about the lens were great to see as well -- such as the built-in Arca Swiss tripod plate -- that shows the company is willing to take those few extra steps to make its products stand out.
My main complaint is the stabilization mode inconsistency, with smaller quibbles with regard to the focus ring and constant noise the lens makes. In the grand scheme of things though, minor stuff.
Are There Alternatives?
Based on the features of the Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7, the priority on compactness in the design, and its aperture breakdown in the focal lengths, the lens is most closely related to the Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS and Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary.
The Sony 100-400mm is in the premium G Master line of lenses and costs $1,000 more than the Tamron. Compared to Sony, Tamron loses 100mm at f/4.5 but gains an extra 100mm at the longer end at the cost of some more light loss. On the other end of the zoom, Sony is f/5.6 at 400mm whereas Tamron is neck-and-neck, able to do f/5.6 up to 387mm. The bonus here is that Tamron keeps going, something that users of these mid-telephoto lenses are sure to value a great deal. The $1,000 difference is going to primarily show itself in higher-quality optics and better autofocus performance.
The Sigma 100-400mm is the low-cost option of the three, and costs around $500 less than Tamron is asking. The Sigma’s benefit is that it’s a pound lighter. The Tamron blows past the Sigma in terms of light gathering, though, where the Sigma is already down to f/6.3 at 235mm when Tamron is still wide open at f/5 at that point. Once again, Tamron’s added benefit is that it keeps going after 400mm as well, which makes a big difference for photographers putting in the effort to carry larger lenses like these.
One question I initially had, which I've noticed is shared among those who ask online, is why Tamron cut off 100mm from the 150-600mm DSLR lenses it makes. They question why we are losing 100mm and paying more for the privilege.
I've found that this is a flawed comparison. I really don’t think Tamron made this as a mirrorless version of the 150-600mm, and it’s also not a direct competitor to my all-time favorite lens, the Sony 200-600mm. In fact, what Tamron has done is added 100mm to the traditional 100-400mm lenses and made the resulting optic its own thing, then understandably charged more for that. The company has made similar adjustments to traditional zoom lengths before such as the 24-70mm becoming the 28-75mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm becoming the 70-180mm f/2.8. Obviously, this is more than a tweak of a few millimeters, but Tamron has a history of thinking outside the box when it comes to zoom ranges. Heck, I believe it was Tamron that pulled off of the 150-600mm first too, years before Sigma and Sony did versions of it.
Should You Buy It?
Yes. Tamron manages to make a highly sharp and reliably fast autofocus lens in the 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VXD. Overall, my experience was positive and there’s considerable attention paid to much of the lens's design. This is one worth checking out.
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