Nikon D7200 and a Sigma 150 - 600mm

Neilsie

Neilsie

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Neil Greenhalgh
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Hi I have a Sigma 150 - 600 contemporary lens and I bought the dock but I am unable to get my photos sharp. Can anyone suggest what settings to use whilst using a Nikon d7200

Thanks

Neil
 
A few examples would help with exposure details so we have an idea of what element of unsharp you are talking about,back/front focus or camera shake.
 
It depends what your taking pictures of and what settings your using....... you can fine tune in camera...... don't think dock will do that ...... I've never used a dock but my sigma art lenses were fine tuned in camera....
 
And if tripod mounted what tripod and head? (My D7200 with the equivalent 150-600 tamron produces a lot of mirror slap ... I am still experimenting when I remember it).
 
Hand held shot. To be honest I was quite happy with this shot it is mainly when shooting at 600mm none are that sharp rather soft
 
I would increase your shutter speed to something like 1/640 minimum that should give you better results.
 
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Neilsie said:
shot at 1/320 f8 350mm iso 800View attachment 104631
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That shot in particular is because of the slow shutter speed.

For sparrows, the very least you want to use would be 1/640 and with the camera set to Continuous High (CH).

For small birds, I try to stick to 1/1000 as minimum as they're constantly on the move, with lots of micro-movements!
 
I've been using the same set up nearly 12 months and I'm very happy!
Only on phone so stuggling to see photo properly but as Wez says, minimum shutter 1/ 1000th plus, focus set to single point continuous and try follow the eyes, ISO as high as need be, if you're still having problems, post again :)

Also set focus point to show when viewing shots, it'll give you an idea as to whether it's user error.
 
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I would say it was back focusing slightly! Or the bird moved! The twig behind looks sharper to me!
 
I use the same lens with a D7000, and get great results. I always use a tripod, F8 and as high a shutter speed as possible. Iso varies, but does go as high as 1600 regularly, and on occasion 3200.
Your 7200 will handle high iso better.
I was getting varied results initially but it was allows to my poor technique.it doesn't take much movement from you when you're at 600mm to muck up a shot.
I quite often zoom to 600mm then zoom back slightly to 580-590mm as I've heard the lens can be slightly soft at 600mm but I honestly can say I see any difference.
 
I use the 150-600 with a D7200 and am very pleased with it, lovely results even at 600m
 
Ok if anyone uses the Sigma usb dock can you give me a bit of a clue as to what settings you have used.
 
Neilsie said:
Settings used 1/400 F8 500mm ISO 1600
Click to expand...

You're using too slow a shutter speed for birds. Sure, you can get lucky with slower speeds if you shoot in bursts and on a stable tripod but you're better off going for higher shutter speeds for the keepers.

I'd suggest minimum of 1/1000 for stationary birds and 1/2000 for birds in flight (I know you could get the SS quite a bit lower but your first aim is to get nice, sharp shots for starters) (y)
 
My first lens had to go back as it would not adjust. It went back and my second one is pin sharp with no adjustment.

Just bear in mind it might be the lens.
 
What focus settings are you using?

As a minimum for hand holding I would recommend 1/focal length i.e. at 500mm it should be 1/500. If you are a crop like the D7200 you could extend that to 1/effective focal length i.e. 500mm is effectively 750mm so 1/800. Like others have said birds move all the time so 1/1000 is a good starting point.

Neilsie said:
View attachment 104655
Click to expand...
Where was the focus point? What AF area are you using and are you using continuous focusing (AF-C)? Setting the release to CH (continuous high) would let you shoot at the highest frames per second but you still need AF-C set to allow the camera/lens to keep adjusting the focus whilst tracking the subject.

Could you post an image with the exif attached so we can work out the settings you are using and where you are having problems. So far I'm not sure the dock can really solve the problem, you need the right settings before diagnosing a potential back focus issue (which currently there isn't enough evidence). There is no point in looking for front/back focusing issues when there aren't any.

Have you tried a stationary high contrast subject with the camera/lens mounted on a stable fully locked tripod with cable release to check sharp images are possible?
 
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you need to have the shutter speed higher than the focal length for stat objects + a min 1200/s or more for flying birds
should have bought the nikon 200-500 f5.6 constant can also be used with the 1.4tc or the 1.7tc fantastic lens
and guaranteed to work on future nikon bodys not like 3rd party manufacturers
 
Thanks for all the comments. I am visiting a nature reserve tomorrow so hope to get some better results. I will post them up.
 
Neilsie said:
Hi I have a Sigma 150 - 600 contemporary lens and I bought the dock but I am unable to get my photos sharp. Can anyone suggest what settings to use whilst using a Nikon d7200

Thanks

Neil
Click to expand...
It depends entirely on what you're shooting, the conditions and light levels, what you want to achieve, how much DOF you need?
 
Neilsie said:
Settings used 1/400 F8 500mm ISO 1600
Click to expand...
Why are you shooting at f/8? The background sharpness isn't important and this lens is very sharp wide open across the whole focal range. Shooting at f/8 you introducing a lower shutter speed or noise, depending how you compensate.
 
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holty said:
you need to have the shutter speed higher than the focal length for stat objects + a min 1200/s or more for flying birds
should have bought the nikon 200-500 f5.6 constant can also be used with the 1.4tc or the 1.7tc fantastic lens
and guaranteed to work on future nikon bodys not like 3rd party manufacturers
Click to expand...
This lens will work forever on the mount its designed for - you can update the firmware with the dock so its no longer an issue. But as I said in a previous post, I use this lens with a variety of Canon's 10 years apart in design and it works flawlessly on all of them :)
 
sigma got there quality sorted out then
never heard half as many horror stories about canon or nikon products as you do with sigma and tamron
but we won't go into that its all water under the bridge now + and its all been said before
if i was {god forbid :LOL::LOL:} a canon shooter i would buy a canon lens not some 3rd party
not a great believer in interbreeding to much of that going on
 
holty said:
sigma got there quality sorted out then
never heard half as many horror stories about canon or nikon products as you do with sigma and tamron
but we won't go into that its all water under the bridge now + and its all been said before
if i was {god forbid :LOL::LOL:} a canon shooter i would buy a canon lens not some 3rd party
not a great believer in interbreeding to much of that going on
Click to expand...
I have loads of Canon and quite a few Sigmas (I think about 15 lenses give or take...) and I'd put my Sigma 105mm OS above my Canon L lenses in terms of IQ :) I think a lot of people miss out on some very good glass thinking like that (or end up spending twice as much as they need to, lol!).

That said, Canon L glass always give confidence, no doubt about that.
 
i agree the 105mm lens is better than the nikon as well :agree:
but when it comes to big telephoto thats another story
 
holty said:
sigma got there quality sorted out then
never heard half as many horror stories about canon or nikon products as you do with sigma and tamron
but we won't go into that its all water under the bridge now + and its all been said before
if i was {god forbid :LOL::LOL:} a canon shooter i would buy a canon lens not some 3rd party
not a great believer in interbreeding to much of that going on
Click to expand...
Your just a gear snob with too much money :p
 
and your just a popper so get back down to the slum you came from and make me another million :p:p
 
holty said:
sigma got there quality sorted out then
never heard half as many horror stories about canon or nikon products as you do with sigma and tamron
but we won't go into that its all water under the bridge now + and its all been said before
if i was {god forbid :LOL::LOL:} a canon shooter i would buy a canon lens not some 3rd party
not a great believer in interbreeding to much of that going on
Click to expand...

I would have agreed with you a while back, but since owning the nikon 80-400 and finding it not as sharp as I wanted, recently bought the sigma 150-600
and it outshines the nikon
 
I think that the only way to work out the true lens fail rate is to know how many are sold and work out the percentage of failures. I would guess that because of the price of the sigma/tamron lens there will be more of them sold so you tend to hear of more faults. I know of one guy who is on his third 200-500 so nothing is perfect.

I have used the Nikon 200-500 and the sigma 150-600 c and there is no real difference in sharpness etc.
 
I would be more concerned if my Nikon lens failed after 2 years and they didnt want to know,i guess its still 3 and 5 years warranty with Sigma and Tamron.

Nikon only make lenses for Nikon cameras, Sigma make them for a few makes,there is a good chance Sigma sell many more lenses than Nikon so to have a similar failure % they would need to have more fail.
 
Sigma art lenses outshine anything ! Zeiss included
 
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