fergtography

<p>I recently sent in my Sigma 150-500mm OS in to have the focus adjusted. I decided to send it to C.R.I.S which is a authorized Sigma Service Center because they are much closer to where I live. I called them and got instructions how to send it in. They emailed me when they received it and when it was scheduled for delivery. I received the lens back in 13 days from when I sent it in. All in all very happy with their service. Here is their contact info.</p>

<p>

<p><strong>Authorized Sigma Service Center<a name="1"></a></strong><br>

<a href="http://www.criscam.com/" target="_blank">C.R.I.S.</a> <br />250 N. 54th Street<br />Chandler, AZ 85226<br>

e-mail: <a href="mailto:cris@criscam.com">cris@criscam.com</a><br />Tel: 480 940-1103<br />Fax: 480 940-1329<br>

Store hours: 9:00 AM - 5 PM, M-F Pacific Standard time</p>

</p>

<p>Having had neck surgery myself (ruptured disc).  Here is another vote for the blackrapid strap!!<br>

I can carry it all day long with a big heavy lens and it is very comfortable!  As for the tripod I do not use the attachment that came with the strap.  I bought a couple of extra manfrotto base plates, they have a ring (used to tighten the screw) on the bottom that I connect the strap to.  I have on base plate on my camera/grip and one each on my 2 long lenses that have the tripod foot adapters.  That way no matter have lens setup I am using I can easily attach the camera or lens to my monopod or tripod as simple as unclipping the strap from the tightening ring on the base plate and snapping on to the ball head.</p>

Check out the RS-2 strap at http://www.blackrapid.com/.

Very comfortable and easy access, be sure to watch the video. I really like mine, I use it with my sigma 150-500mm.

Russ

Tom

The lens was $979.00 from Amazon, by the time I added express shipping I ended up paying $1,008. (US Dollars)

Let start by saying that I am not very small 6'5" big frame. That being said I have no problem handholding the sigma

150-500mm, I can hold it pretty stable.

The OS on the lens is very different than the nikon VR that I am use to on 18-200 VR and 70-300 VR. It is in my option

slower to stabilize and I don't think works quite as well as the Nikon VR but does work. It has taken some practice to

get good IQ photo with this lens since I have not shot anything in the 500mm range before. I can not image trying to

take a photo handheld without OS or VR. Even with OS at 500mm it is tricky.

Hope this helps.

Well I have had my Sigma 150-500mm lens for a little over a week now. I have learned a lot about this lens in that amount of time. I was

just about to send it back but forced myself to take a ton of photos with it, I am glad I did.

I have learned that I can not just slap this lens on a shoot like I did with the Nikon 18-200mm VR and my 70-300mm VR. At 500mm things

tend to move quite a bit. I have to pay attention to the shutter speed and how it relates to the subject being photographed. The most

important thing for me I think is learning to wait till OS kicked in. The OS on the sigma behaves quite different than the Nikon VR in my

option.

I have decided to keep the lens as the quality of my photos has drastically improved and since Nikon 200-400VR is out question (as my

wife put it to me). I have even got favorable results using a 1.4x TC with this lens in manual focus.

I have posted some photos on my website if anyone is interested in looking. Be warned I am an amateur that still has a lot to learn. I am

sure in the proper hands this camera and lens would achieve much better results.

All photos were shot in RAW, metdata is provided, then imported in Capture NX2 with minor PP, saved as 16bit tiff, imported into lightroom

and exported into HTML gallery.

Enjoy!

http://www.fergtography.com/sigma2/index.html

I have a dilemma; I just purchased a sigma 150-500 OS lens. I also ordered a Sigma 1.4x TC to go with the lens. I received the lens 2

day ago but the TC has not shown up.

To make a long story short the sigma TC has been lost in shipment. The company is willing to send me an advance replacement however

they do not have another sigma 1.4x TC in stock. They are willing to send me a tamron 1.4x SP Pro TC instead.

So the question is do I get the tamron 1.4x SP PRO TC or get a refund and get the sigma 1.4x from another vendor????

Please advise.

Russ

I have a good tripod but it looks like I should get a good monopod for hiking and sporting events.

Any recommendations?

Like I mention I am no expert by any means...just getting started into photography. This lens arrived at 4:30pm and I had

about 45mins to snap a few shots before I had to leave to go coach baseball.

Please don't let my poor attempt of posting some results with this lens discourage you.

I just thought I would put something up since I could not find any results with the nikon mount myself.

Looking forward to see others results as well!

I will do the same shots of the sign on the brick with tripod and post the results!

Wonder why the html link not work when I posted it originally?

Also note that the in-camera sharpening was set to zero. Post processing of these photos made a world of difference.

All photos were shot handheld (with OS on) and in RAW then converted to JPEG with Capture NX2. No post processing at

all in the photos shown. I have since done some post processing on my copies and details sharpened up nicely. So far I

am really happy with the lens.

Hope this helps.

Copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://www.fergtography.com/sigma/index.html

Make sure that /sigma/index.html is at the end otherwise you just get the main site.

For anyone who is interest I just posted some photos on my website that I quickly took after getting my new Sigma 150-500mm APO OS

HSM lens yesterday.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D300 in aperture priority mode, auto ISO, matrix metering, picture control standard with sharpening 0,

active d-lighting normal. See meta-data for actual photo ISO, Speed and Zoom.

You can also click the link at the bottom of the website to see some of the same photos taken with my Nikon 70-300mm VR lens.

There was no sharpening or touch up done to these photos. I used Capture NX2 to transfer the RAW 12-bit images and then convert them

to JPEG�s.

I then imported the JPEG�s into lightroom for cropping and organization, and then exported them into a lightroom html gallery.

I am by no means an expert photographer, just a guy who likes to take pictures but so far my impression is I am going to really like this

lens!

Please let me know what you think.

Here you go!!

http://www.fergtography.com/sigma/index.html