Nikon D7200/sigma 150-600 contemporary upgrade

Monkeyhanger

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I am currently using the Nikon D7200/Sigma 150-600 contemporary for bird photography.What will be the best upgrade-a D500 or another lens?
 
Hiya Keith, whats your reason for wanting to upgrade?

I'm using the same combination and was talking to me mate about this the other evening. What I did say was upgrading would be a difficult one.

I'm getting 600mm I comfortably carry 5 mile plus, usable ISO up 16000 if correctly exposed and 'cleaned up' in post and like most lenses @500mm plus, good tracking in decent light, all for under £1500
 
Phil-D said:
Hiya Keith, whats your reason for wanting to upgrade?

I'm using the same combination and was talking to me mate about this the other evening. What I did say was upgrading would be a difficult one.

I'm getting 600mm I comfortably carry 5 mile plus, usable ISO up 16000 if correctly exposed and 'cleaned up' in post and like most lenses @500mm plus, good tracking in decent light, all for under £1500
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I have to agree with you,I am finding it difficult to decide if I will get any great improvement without spending mega money.

I would like better focusing for BIF,I don't know if a better body or lens will help.

Thats an excellent set on flickr

My shots on flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/40772283@N06/
 
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Doesn't look to be owt wrong with your shots on flickr Keith. Is it your hit rate you're not happy with?

I've found in good light my hit rate of bif is high but I do spend quite a bit of time, at this time of year, on owls. Low light tracking with no contrasting back ground, I'd say I average a hit rate of 1 in 4/5, not high but would better, more expensive equipment improve that? I really wouldn't know, if it did improve the hit rate is it worth another 3/4 grands worth of equipment?

I shot this the other evening in very poor light. I wanted to keep the shutter speed up so ISO 12,500. A little pp'ing, selective sharpening and noise reduction ect,

I think as long as I can get a few shots like this, upgrading will be a difficult choice ........but it'll be interesting to read what other people think would be the best way forward for an up-grade :)


Long-eared Owl out hunting by Phil D, on Flickr
 
Phil-D said:
Doesn't look to be owt wrong with your shots on flickr Keith. Is it your hit rate you're not happy with?

I've found in good light my hit rate of bif is high but I do spend quite a bit of time, at this time of year, on owls. Low light tracking with no contrasting back ground, I'd say I average a hit rate of 1 in 4/5, not high but would better, more expensive equipment improve that? I really wouldn't know, if it did improve the hit rate is it worth another 3/4 grands worth of equipment?

I shot this the other evening in very poor light. I wanted to keep the shutter speed up so ISO 12,500. A little pp'ing, selective sharpening and noise reduction ect,

I think as long as I can get a few shots like this, upgrading will be a difficult choice ........but it'll be interesting to read what other people think would be the best way forward for an up-grade
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I would like to improve my hit rate-it may be more down to technique than anything else :)
 
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Icee said:
I'm using the same set up as you and for me the only upgrade would be a D500 just for the focus and build quality.
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How much better have you found the focus Iain? I'm presuming you mean tracking in low light?

I've only had a quick play with one, on a tripod with gimbal head and decent light. I was impressed, tracking and focus was quick but it did have a 500 prime stuck on the front putting the value to around 6 grand!
 
Monkeyhanger said:
I would like better focusing for BIF,I don't know if a better body or lens will help.
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The biggest improvement in AF will come from an upgrade to a D500, the difference in AF engine is amazing, assuming your Sigma is fully compatible.
 
Word of warning, I bought the D500 and only the limited AF points work from 520mm to 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm, another member on here is reporting the same and have also heard from a D500 and Sigma 150-600mm C user that it has similar issues. It appears that the wide AF spread of the D500 actually limits it more with smaller aperture lenses (Siggy and Tamron are f6.3) than previous models with a more narrow AF spread. As a result I found that both my D750 and my mate's D7200 actually end up having a wider AF spread at the longer focal lengths of these lenses as all points remain active right up to 600mm. Nikon would not comment but Tamron recently confirmed my suspicions.

Not an issue if you only use centre point, but something worth knowing.
 
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snerkler said:
Word of warning, I bought the D500 and only the limited AF points work from 520mm to 600mm, another member on here is reporting the same and have also heard from a D500 and Sigma 150-600mm C user that it has similar issues. It appears that the wide AF spread of the D500 actually limits it more with smaller aperture lenses (Siggy and Tamron are f6.3) than previous models with a more narrow AF spread. As a result I found that both my D750 and my mate's D7200 actually end up having a wider AF spread at the longer focal lengths of these lenses as all points remain active right up to 600mm. Nikon would not comment but Tamron recently confirmed my suspicions.

Not an issue if you only use centre point, but something worth knowing.
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That's given me food for thought.

I think I will stick with my existing camera/lens combo for now.

Thanks to everyone for their advice
 
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Monkeyhanger said:
That's given me food for thought.

I think I will stick with my existing camera/lens combo for now.

Thanks to everyone for there advice
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Sorry, forgot to put in my post that I have the Tamron but hopefully you got that from me saying I also know someone with the Sigma who's had similar issues ;)

Now edited my post.
 
snerkler said:
Word of warning, I bought the D500 and only the limited AF points work from 520mm to 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm, another member on here is reporting the same and have also heard from a D500 and Sigma 150-600mm C user that it has similar issues. It appears that the wide AF spread of the D500 actually limits it more with smaller aperture lenses (Siggy and Tamron are f6.3) than previous models with a more narrow AF spread. As a result I found that both my D750 and my mate's D7200 actually end up having a wider AF spread at the longer focal lengths of these lenses as all points remain active right up to 600mm. Nikon would not comment but Tamron recently confirmed my suspicions.

Not an issue if you only use centre point, but something worth knowing.
Click to expand...

Wonder if thats a law of focusing ability or if its Nikon trying to make you buy the 200 500mm f5.6,have Nikon found a work round for the 200-500 with a 1.4 ?
 
mikew said:
Wonder if thats a law of focusing ability or if its Nikon trying to make you buy the 200 500mm f5.6,have Nikon found a work round for the 200-500 with a 1.4 ?
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I don't know tbh, when I queried Nikon they just said that they don't test with 3rd party lenses. However I would imagine if all AF points don't work with f6.3 it's not going to work with an f8 effective aperture, which it does say in the manual (see below). However, the D750 and D7200 also have the same stipulations in the manual, but they still work with all AF points af f6.3.

Screen Shot 2017-04-05 at 13.56.10.png
 
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