Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Andy Reid (GB) team Traction Control, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 840mm; 1/800 sec; f9; ISO 400; Shutter priority, with Sigma x1.4 TC-1401 Converter.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Chris Walker (GB) Be Wiser Kawasaki, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 600mm; 1/800 sec; f7.1; ISO 200; Shutter priority.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Chris Walker (GB) Be Wiser Kawasaki, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 600mm; 1/250 sec; f14; ISO 200; Shutter priority.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Chris Walker (GB) Be Wiser Kawasaki, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 600mm; 1/1000 sec; f6.3; ISO 400; Shutter priority.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Phil Wakefield, Sandbach, PWR/Sandbach Scrap Metal Yamaha, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 600mm; 1/640 sec; f8; ISO 200; Shutter priority.

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Review2015 British Superbike Championship, BSB Pre Season Test, Cartagena, Spain. 7th March 2015.<br/>Andy Reid, Newtownabbey, Team Traction Control

Luke Mossey (GB) Quattro Plant Kawasaki, Circuito de Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Canon EOS EOS-1D X, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM, Focal length 600mm; 1/1000 sec; f6.3; ISO 400; Shutter priority.

The Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM is the second zoom lens in the Sports category of the new Sigma Global Vision Range of lenses. However, this is a super telephoto zoom lens, covering an incredible range.

http://www.sigma-global.com/en/lenses/cas/product/sports/s_150_600_5_63/features.html

Straight out of the box, the lens feels solid, tactile and well made. Like the 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM the mount connection area, manual focus ring, customization switch and other controls, switch panels and cover connection areas are all designed to be dust and water-resistant.

Again, the first thing I did was to connect the lens to the docking station and update the firmware.

Now my usual trackside lens is the Canon 500mm f4L IS USM so I had my reservations as to whether this was going to be a fair comparison – a prime lens verses a zoom, an f4 verses an f5-6.3?

The lens felt very comfortable and wasn’t too heavy to hand hold for panning. However, for a normal race weekend, I would attach the lens to a monopod.

The focus lock switch, was useful for not only locking at the 150mm end for carrying, but for also locking at a focal length for panning. It was also easy to switch off and re-engage the zoom.

I was surprisingly pleased with the results; bearing in mind I was shooting in very bright light, across gravel traps and with brown, dusty backgrounds at bikes predominantly running no livery. This would obviously provide little contrast for the AF to latch onto. However, when it did lock on, it was faultless.

I tried shooting at fairly wide apertures and then stopping down a bit and to be honest, there was no discernable difference. Similarly by adding the new X1.4 TC-1401 Converter, the AF continued to function at 840mm! The hit rate was down a bit, but as I have said, I was asking a lot of this lens and Sigma are continuing to tweak the focusing via software updates. Back in the UK I am sure this lens will perform much better under less taxing and extreme conditions. Being old school I found the Manual Override switch to be very useful. As we all know, AF does have its limitations no matter what the camera and/or lens you are using. Sigma is aware of this and again this is where the docking station comes in very useful, as you can adjust the sensitivity of the Manual Override to suit you.

So how does the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM lens compare to a prime lens of the big two? Pretty admirably and when you take into account the performance over the vast zoom range, the portability, weight saving and price, it is in a league of its own. I kmow this lens will prove to be invaluable when I cover the NW200 and Isle of Man TT road races later in the year.