Sigma’s new “Bigma” 50-500mm Super-tele Zoom, Part II
NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Carpet of Cherry Blossoms a common theme in Kyoto this time of year -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95 mm — 1/500 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Carpet of Cherry Blossoms
a common theme in Kyoto this time of year

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about Sigma's updated “Bigma” 50-500mm Super-tele Zoom, mostly to show more samples. Clicking through on the thumbnails brings up full-resolution versions.

What Time Is It? @ 50mm -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 250 — map & image datanearby photos
What Time Is It? @ 50mm
What Time Is It? @ 500mm -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 560 — map & image datanearby photos
What Time Is It? @ 500mm
Rickshaw here's lookin' at you, kid -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — 1/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Rickshaw
here's lookin' at you, kid
Mr. Muramoto I missed focus, but you can still read his name from all the way across the street -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Mr. Muramoto
I missed focus, but you can still read his name from all the way across the street
Iffy Bokeh I'm not a fan of how the fading blossoms show up in this one, or the next -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Iffy Bokeh
I'm not a fan of how the fading blossoms show up in this one, or the next
“Yes, I'm Talking to You ” you get down here this instant -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/10, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
“Yes, I'm Talking to You
you get down here this instant
Portrait-Mode Vertical Desktop-Background Versions
1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560     
Mink Coat a bicycle umbrella attachment, and an Asus computer bag -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Mink Coat
a bicycle umbrella attachment, and an Asus computer bag
Crossing a Road -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/800 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Crossing a Road
Crossing a Bridge -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Crossing a Bridge

I horribly missed focus on this one, as I have on many of these. The depth of focus is pretty thin at 500mm, so I was sometimes trying “C” continuous) focus mode on moving subjects, something that I have little experience or confidence with, so I accept all blame for the missed-focus shots.

“Shrine St.” this one was rotated a bit to correct for a tilted photographer -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6, ISO 250 — map & image datanearby photos
“Shrine St.”
this one was rotated a bit to correct for a tilted photographer
Coventry -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6, ISO 280 — map & image datanearby photos
Coventry

Missed the focus on the one above as well, by just a bit. Adding a smidgen of extra sharpening in Lightroom does wonders to the mushiness you see at full resolution, but like all the photos on this post and most on the previous, I present it here with all the detail-related Lightroom develop settings are at their defaults.

The shots above rounded out those from yesterday. (I've got more already from today, but I'll save those for Part III.)

Once I got the shots loaded into Lightroom, I ran my Data-Plot focal-length-plot plugin on the results, and was not surprised to find that I took half the shots at the extreme long end of the zoom:


Focal-Length Data Plot
using my plugin in Adobe Lightroom

Actually, I was a bit surprised that it wasn't even more. Having that much reach was a new and novel experience, so of course I wanted to play with that aspect of it.

Continued here...


All 4 comments so far, oldest first...

You should pull out your D200, blow the dust off, and put the Bigma on it — 500mm + DX camera == 750mm field of view. You’ll be amused for a little bit before going back to the D700, which can cope with f/6.3 a lot better than the D200, but it’ll be a little fun anyway. 🙂

Don’t have the D200 anymore, but Shimada-san is bringing his D50 over today, so I should be able to get some shots of it to post tonight. —Jeffrey

Update: here it is. —Jeffrey

— comment by Josh on April 16th, 2010 at 3:48am JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Hi Jeffrey,

In you first “What time it is” shot (JF7_030847_sm.jpg) the color aberration is terrible around the post at left. Is this lens always so bad on this?

I just got the lens, so I don’t have any sense of “always” yet, but that’s a situation where most lenses will behave like that. The worst lens I have in this regard is the (fairly pricey, highly esteemed) Nikkor 85mm f/1.4. Anyway, it cleans right up in Lightroom, but I wanted to present these as is. —Jeffrey

— comment by Denis Pagé on April 16th, 2010 at 4:57am JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Amazed how sharp it is @500mm. Were these all hand held shots or what? You should show us a shot of you with the lens to see how big it is.
All are hand-held freestanding on my first outing with it. A friend is bringing over his camera today, so will be able to show some shots of the lens tonight. I’d tried taking some shots of it with my new camera, but my mojo is still not up to snuff with that equipment yet, so I felt too embarrassed with the results to share them. 🙂 —Jeffrey

— comment by Drew on April 16th, 2010 at 6:34am JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

A shot showing the Sigma standing next to the 70-200 would be nice for comparing sizes.

— comment by Zak on April 16th, 2010 at 6:01pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink
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