First Impressions: Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport Lens

Last Updated on 04/24/2015 by Chris Gampat

Product images by Chris Gampat

Over the last few years we’ve seen Sigma steal the show from Canon and Nikon with amazing prime lenses plus its completely unique Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 zoom lens. Now in the pursuit of creating the world’s biggest telephoto lens, Sigma has created a real monster with the Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport.

It’s absolutely massive, bigger in scale most of its telephoto lens compatriots. On the Photo Plus East floor we got a chance to wield the lens and aside from making our arms sore, I came away quite impressed.

Edit: We’ve added new image samples as of April 24th 2015

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the B&H Photo listing of the lens

Aperture Range: f5-6.3 to 22
24 elements in 16 groups
Two FLD and Three SLD Elements
Hyper Sonic Motor AF System
Optical Stabilizer with Accelerometer
Zoom Lock & Manual Override Switches
Minimum Focus Distance: 102.4″
Splash and Dust Proof Mount
Lens Hood & Rotatable Tripod Collar
Compatible with Sigma USB Dock
Filter Thread: 105mm
Dimensions: 4.8 x 11.4″ (12.19 x 28.96 cm)
Weight: 6.3 lbs (2.86 kg)

Ergonomics

The new Sigma 150-600mm is one of the biggest zoom lenses yet. Without the hood the lens normally measures just a little under a full foot. Then consider the external zooming, and the lens extends the barrel even farther out. Zooming the lens to its maximum focal distance of 600mm adds yet anther four inches or so. A Sigma spokesperson said they wouldn’t have been able to keep the lens so small if they went with an all internal zooming lens. Even with the lens mounted on the Nikon D750, it made the full frame camera look tiny by comparison.

Weighting in at 6.3 pounds, the lens is also a little unwieldy to handhold because it’s so front heavy. However, mounting the 150-600mm onto a bigger body like the Canon 1D X or Nikon D4s might help offset this. Plus you’ll definitely want to mount this massive piece of glass onto a tripod at any rate.

Despite these few handling niggles—which really are unavoidable with a lens that’s so large—the 150-600mm handles like a dream. The zoom and focus rings have both been dampened perfectly. As expected there’s also quite a bit of lens creep whether you’re holding the lens upwards or pointed down. The good news is there’s a zoom lock button is located right behind the zoom ring.

One other nice thing is you can rotate the tripod collar 90-degrees to take portrait images. Keep this in mind when you’re using a monopod or tripod.

Build Quality

The Sigma 150-600mm is a solid, fully metal lens. While it adds a bit of heft, the full metal build is completely beast-like, especially when you have the lens fully extended. Meanwhile, just about everything on the lens is beefy including the completely solid metal lens hood and tripod collar.

In addition to making this lens dust and splash proof, Sigma also claims to have added protective coatings on the front and rear glass elements, which can repel things like water and fingerprints. We didn’t get a chance to test these features, but we’ll see how the 150-600mm fares against the elements in our full test.

Autofocus

The 150-600mm finds focus on a dime. Even with the lens zoomed all the way it hones in on a subject in just a second and a half. Of course you could always pre-focus to speed things up. We only had less than 10 minutes with the lens, so we didn’t get a chance to give the lenses focus-zone locking features but I’m looking forwards to giving them a whirl in our full review.

Image Quality

Again we didn’t get a lot of time to shoot with the lens and so here are the four sample images I have so far from the Photo Plus Trade Show floor. Even from this small batch of photos, though, there’s a lot to like. The lens is pin sharp and captures oodles of detail with some amazingly creamy bokeh to boot. The built in optical image stabilization is perhaps the most impressive bit, because my arm was shaking under the weight of the lens while I took these images.

EDIT: New image samples

So far this lens is looking quite good as far as sharpness, bokeh and overall image quality go.