A lens test that left me speechless. Testing the sharpest Bigma I've ever seen!

[stylgeo]

I've been extremely lucky to have used (extensively) quite a few of what most of us call 'dream lenses' (especially birders like myself), and I must be honest in saying that I wasn't expecting much from a used Bigma (50-500mm) I bought recently; but after a couple of shots in the garden at random stuff I realised that it is indeed quite a sharp example of this lens, so I decided to put it through its paces. The results left me speechless to be honest. I just kept on pushing it and it kept on delivering.

At this point I must stress (for those of you who will inevitably point out that this test has nothing to do with real life) that I am actually talking about sharpness here, this test is not analysing this lens' ability to AF with the teleconverters attached (which it doesn't, at least not with the ones I'm using and at least not on the dark subject I pointed it on), it is not testing its AF speed, nor its weather sealing etc etc. It is a SHARPNESS test, and since I am quite the pixel peeper I must admit, I quite like putting my lenses through this test .

As a test subject, HM the Queen was more than happy to pose for me and I thank her for that .

And for now I am just posting the pictures shot OPEN WIDE, not processed at all, no sharpening, no nothing. Shot in RAW, converted to jpeg, cropped to 100%, and posted.


Remember these are 100% crops

1) Bare lens, 500mm f/6.3

2) With 1.4x TC, 720mm f/9

3) With 1.7x TC, 850mm, f/10

4) With 2x TC, 1000mm f/12

5) STACKED 2X AND 1.7X 1700mm f/20

And a 100% crop with stacked teleconverters but sharpened
6)

I must say that I haven't seen anything like it. Trying it with TCs started as a joke - who would use a 10X zoom lens with TCs? But it truly is usable with teleconverters if the light permits.

 

[squishy]

Looks like a "golden" copy for sure!
Odd, the supertele-zooms seem prone to this kind of thing, you'll have a few copies with sub-par performance, the majority with the normal decent performance, then just a very few that are razor sharp like this.

Lucky you
Out of interest, what's it's performance like at the shorter reaches of it's range?

 

[stylgeo]

It does look like a great copy indeed. I must say that I am amazed by the quality achieved by some of Sigma's zooms. Until recently I've been using a super copy of the Sigmonster 300-800mm, and in terms of sharpness it was comparable to a friend's Canon 800mm f/5.6 (OK, the Canon was a much better lens in all the other aspects), but that is no small feat for a zoom. The 120-300mm OS is considered a great lens, again being compared to primes at the same range. On the other hand, the only copy of the Sigma 500mm f/4.5 that I've used left me utterly disappointed. I assume it was a bad copy because it wouldn't get even near to the quality produced by other copies of the lens, as seen on the web. So, in my case, Sigma disappointed me on one of its primes, whereas with its zooms I've been quite pleased.

As for the shorter ranges, to be honest, it's been stuck at the long end since I brought it home, I haven't even thought of trying it at some shorter lengths (birding much? ), from some grab shots I got from the fence across the lawn and a calendar in the kitchen, it looks spot on, but I will give it a proper go and let you know.

 

[Andy77]

Would love to see some some out in the field shots with this, but must say that it looks razor sharp to me, and congrats on a great buy, i hope i can find one like this lol

Andy

 

[stylgeo]

Thanks Andy, I can't wait to get out and about as well, but I'll have to wait a few days for my schedule to clear. Will definitely post as soon as I get some shots with this lens!

 

[Graham00]

I was surprised that Ken Rockwell rates all the Bigma lenses highly. I think mines an average copy but I'd never part with it.

 

[RobY]

My Bigma was sharp, but I sold it and bought the Sony 70-400 "G" because the focus gears broke once and I wasn't going to wait for it to happen again.

 

[stylgeo]

Well, yeah, apparently the new BigmOS is supposed to be sharper. I don't see it being sharper than this tbh.

As for the focus gears, I do hope nothing happens to mine since it was bought SH, but I've had great experience with Sigma UK when a TC needed calibrating.