Sigma 500mm 4.5 question

stylgeo

stylgeo

Suspended / Banned
Messages
832
Edit My Images
Yes
Hey guys,
Was going through various used equipment stores and noticed that some sell the Sigma 500/4.5 quite cheap. But the one I've noticed listed the lens as Sigma 500mm f/4.5 APO. Is this a different lens than the 500mm f/4.5 EX (non-DG) ? If yes, what's the difference?
 
Is the "cheap" one not the old Sigma mirror lens?

The other one does not get you much change out of £4000 at main dealers.
 
Its unlikely to be a mirror lens at F/4.5 I'd say.
 
The DG is an APO lens so you may have to talk to the seller to find out. As long as it is an EX it is a very good lens (I don't know about the earlier one)

They seem to go for about £2k ish used...
 
The important bit is EX. The earlier APO lens looks completely different and probably won't work on recent digital bodies. the older lenses often only work wide open and can't be stopped down. It isn't a mirror lens though.
I had a 500 f4.5 EX and that worked fine on a 20D & 1D mkIII. The DG is the more recent version with different cosmetics and a coating on the rear element.
 
hello stylgeo,


was the lens you saw being advertised at FFORDES.

the 500mm f4.5 apo is an old lens, it will work on Eos film cameras ok.
and it will also work on some of the older digital eos cameras,eg D30,D60, but with the moderner ones possibley not, or if it does, it will only be at f4.5.
i bought one of the older 300mm f2.8 apo ones in eos mount, and could only use it at f2.8.
there was rumours you could send them back to sigma to be rechipped i think, no idea of cost though.

also the AF was very slow on them, well mine was.

cheers paul
 
lammypaul said:
hello stylgeo,


was the lens you saw being advertised at FFORDES.

the 500mm f4.5 apo is an old lens, it will work on Eos film cameras ok.
and it will also work on some of the older digital eos cameras,eg D30,D60, but with the moderner ones possibley not, or if it does, it will only be at f4.5.
i bought one of the older 300mm f2.8 apo ones in eos mount, and could only use it at f2.8.
there was rumours you could send them back to sigma to be rechipped i think, no idea of cost though.

also the AF was very slow on them, well mine was.

cheers paul
Click to expand...

Yeah that's the one! So, there is a non EX model of this lens? I thought there was something wrong at that price! :) I remember before the price rises the cheapest I could find of this lens was around £1500 used on ebay for the non-DG model, and when I saw it for half that I thought that it must be a different lens. The listing says that it works on 1D, 1DS / 1DS MKII and 400D. What does that mean, that it will have all functions with these cameras?
 
So, contacted ffordes and they told me that it retains all functions with the 400D. Can anyone tell me anything about this lens? AF speed, IQ? Is it worth it?
 
i had the 500mm apo on sony a mount for a while and it worked well on the sony a77 mk2 if you turned the focus tracking down, images were good if not very good it worked at all apertures and reported as such, it was of cause on screw drive but i didnt have an issue with that as quite a feww sony-minolta lenses still are
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top