Two light giants in the test, part 2
Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports und Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports
After the first part of the review on the Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, the second part focuses on the Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports. Photographic connoisseurs will savor this lens's specs: a very interesting zoom range for certain photographic areas and a constant aperture of f/4.0. Wow! These technical specifications then provide the lens with physical values that are equally impressive: a weight of 3.97 kg and an overall length of 46.79 cm (L-mount) or 46.99 cm (E-mount) without the lens hood. With the lens hood attached, we're probably somewhere in the region of 60 cm (unfortunately, I forgot to measure the length with the lens hood attached).
Even without a lens hood, the Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports is a really large piece of equipment with a length of almost 50 cm, featuring a lot of metal and glass (Sigma press photo).
"Mommy, just look at the man with his big camera" ... with such a giant tube, you stand out, and as you can see, my tripod is rather marginal for the 4.0/300–600 mm ...
When you walk through the zoo with this lens, you'll get almost as much attention as the animals. While the adults simply stare for a long time as you walk by, the children will say outright, "Mommy, just look at the man with the big camera." So – if you need some attention, buy this lens and take a trip to the zoo with it... But joking aside:
Early morning on the Rhine
A sunrise kayaking on the Rhine is an experience hard to surpass in beauty. Gliding silently across the golden water, and, ideally, with the mist rising from the water. We'll meet early in the morning at 6:00 a.m.—besides myself, there's my wonderful assistant Chiara, the two kayakers Jürg and Thomas, and boat captain Peter, who will guide us into the perfect photo position in his wooden boat. Thank you all so much for getting up so early.
I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to achieve visually: the two kayakers on the water as silhouettes, with the rising sun in the background. Achieving this requires not only good local knowledge but also a long focal length so that the sun appears to be the size of the sun and not a bright pinhead. While Chiara mounts the 200mm f/2.0, I venture closer to the "beast." A tripod makes little sense for photos taken from the boat. While it would support the weight of the camera, it would also be subject to every sway. If I shoot with stabilizers, I can better capture such fluctuations. Our timing is perfect, and we arrive at the right point on the Rhine at the right time. The next 30 minutes are some of the best I've experienced on this river so far, in terms of atmosphere and light. Everything comes together, and we produce magnificent images. Chiara and I both shoot with AF-C and a frame rate of 15 frames per second. Although the two kayakers are trying hard to paddle in sync, they are moving their paddles differently. Yet often – sometimes only for a fraction of a second – the two paddles are at the same angle, and the whole thing looks like synchronized ballet. The slightly underexposed images capture the incredible beauty of this morning. As with the first part of the test, I only corrected all the images for brightness, contrast, and color, but did not sharpen them.
That's exactly how I imagined it... Leica SL3 with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/2000 sec, f 6.3, 500 ISO
Image 1: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 465 mm, 1/4000 sec, f 4, 500 ISO
Image 2: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/2500 sec, f 8, 320 ISO
Image 3: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/2000 sec, f 6.3, 320 ISO
Image 4: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/4000 sec, f 4, 500 ISO
Image 5: Leica SL3-S with Sigma with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/10000 sec, f/2.2, 100 ISO. Chiara was able to capture a slightly wider angle of view with the 200mm lens.
Image 6: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/4000 sec, f 4, 500 ISO
Harley in Action
But how does the 300-600mm perform when we focus on fast-moving objects? My friend Marco rides back and forth on his Harley a few times so we can test its limits. He roars toward us at 70 km/h, and we discover that the SL3-S delivers perfect results with the 300-600mm lens. The perspective is even more extreme than with the 200mm lens, and I personally really like the small depth of field. 1/3200 sec., f/4.0, 400 ISO. To document the difference in perspective and depth of field between the 600mm and the 200mm lens, Chiara shoots with the 200mm lens, also setting the aperture to f/4.0.
Image left: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600mm, 1/3200 sec, f 4, 400 ISO
Image right: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/4000 sec, f 4.0, 400 ISO
The hill climb
Can we top it in terms of speed? Of course. On the second-to-last day of our test period, the race cars roar up the hill in Oberhallau. My wife Ursula and I go on a stalking spree. In the paddock, we manage to capture some exciting shots with the 200cc, which is very easy to work with handheld:
Image 1: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/640 sec, f 2.0, 200 ISO
Image 2: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/1000 sec, f 2.0, 200 ISO
Image 3: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/800 sec, f 2.0, 200 ISO
Images 4 and 5: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/320 sec, f 2.5, 200 ISO
Image 6: Leica SL3-S with Sigma with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/320 sec, f/2.5, 200 ISO. My favorite image because it captures this tender moment before the racer climbs into his bike. Thanks to the 200mm f/2, I was able to photograph the scene unnoticed, and thanks to the wide aperture, the two protagonists are perfectly separated from their surroundings.
The 300-600mm, which is more than twice as heavy and considerably bulkier, isn't as conducive to spontaneous photography ;-). The long tube really comes into its own when it comes to covering distances and photographing the cars on the racetrack. Here, too, we choose the SL3-S for optimal AF performance. The AF switch is again set to AF-C, and the frame rate is set to 15 frames per second. In addition to the ultra-sharp images with a fast shutter speed, I dare to take a short series of shots, panning the camera at a slower shutter speed. The tripod serves as additional stabilization and relieves the strain on my muscles ;-). I appreciate the flexibility of the zoom, which allows me to freely select the image composition depending on my position on the racetrack.
Images 1 and 2: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600mm, 1/2500 sec, f/4, 320 ISO. Zooming in extremely closely, you can see that the cars are slightly out of focus despite the very fast shutter speed, and also that not the entire car is in focus—which is due to the fact that I opened the aperture fully to push the camera to its limits.
Image 3: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600mm, 1/1000 sec, f/4, 200 ISO. This car is on its way back from the finish to the start and is therefore traveling significantly slower. The image is perfectly sharp, demonstrating that the 300–600mm lens delivers excellent results even at the extreme telephoto end.
Image 4: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 476mm, 1/50 sec, f/10, 200 ISO. When panning, the camera movement and the vehicle speed must be perfectly synchronized. This results in a lot of waste. Although I'm not a car photographer, I managed to take a few shots with panning that make me happy.
Image 5: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600mm, 1/50 sec, f/10, 160 ISO
Image 6: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300mm, 1/50 sec, f/10, 200 ISO. This image was taken from the same vantage point as images 4 and 5, but at a different point along the route. Thanks to the zoom, I can be very flexible.
All pictures taken with a tripod.
Clip: AF performance test with the Leica SL3-S, AF-C, 15 fps, with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/2500 sec, f/4, 320 ISO
A little more safari feeling
And then, to conclude our test, we head to the zoo. I love the Masoala Hall anyway, and when you have two such great lenses, you have to make the most of it. At first, I shoot handheld with the 300-600mm and am pleasantly surprised by how well the image stabilizer works. But at some point, my upper arm muscles start asking me if I've packed my tripod, and the rest of the shots are taken with the tripod. In my imagination, I picture myself on safari with this lens, using it with a beanbag chair on the car door with the window rolled down. I'm sure that would be great fun. If I can find a sponsor, I'd be happy to try it out and write a third part of this review ;-).
Image 1: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 461mm, 1/250 sec, f/4, 5000 ISO. I took this photo handheld to test the image stabilizer. It works very well. Because I took the photo right after entering the Masoala Hall and the front lens fogged up, I had to dehaze it quite heavily. The image noise is correspondingly high at 5000 ISO, and I would denoise the background of this photo.
Image 2: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/160 sec, f/9, 1000 ISO, tripod
Image 3: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports lens at 456mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.5, 5000 ISO, tripod, crop. An extremely well-camouflaged Madagascar flat-tailed gecko, difficult to photograph as it's quite far from the trail and completely in shadow.
Images 4 and 5: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.5, 400 ISO, tripod, crop
Image 6: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.0, 640 ISO, tripod
Photographing with such an extreme focal length requires practice, and it's better to take a few shots too many than too few. Even slight blurring of the subject can occur. I captured the ibis in image 6 almost perfectly. Here's a 1:1 crop of this image, unsharpened on the left and as I would finalize it with slight sharpening on the right:
Time is running out, but we wander around the zoo a bit longer. We linger at the koalas and flamingos and try to capture the animals as if they weren't in the zoo, but in the wild. This works better with a long focal length than with shorter focal length lenses. Both the 200 mm f/2.0 and the 300–600 mm f/4.0 deliver great results.
Image 1: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/400 sec, f 2.0, 800 ISO
Image 2: Leica SL3-S with Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | Sports, 1/200 sec, f 2.8, 800 ISO
Image 3: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 300 mm, 1/320 sec, f/4.0, 2000 ISO, tripod
Image 4: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/4.0, 400 ISO, tripod
Image 5: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/4.0, 400 ISO, tripod, crop
Image 6: Leica SL3 with Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports at 600 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/4.0, 320 ISO, tripod
My conclusion on the Sigma 300–600mm F4 DG OS | Sports
Using a variety of switches, the 300-600 can be fine-tuned depending on the application.
This lens is built for very specific purposes, primarily sports and wildlife photography. Anyone who works in these genres will have an excellent lens in their quiver (or backpack) with the 300–600 mm, one that delivers when needed, and at a very attractive price for these specifications. The optical performance is high. Sigma claims it's on par with prime lenses in this range. I can easily imagine that from looking at the images, but I'd have to verify it in a comparison test.
As with the 200mm f/2.0, Sigma has equipped this lens with every electronic feature imaginable. It features excellent image stabilization, freely programmable buttons, internal zoom, dust and splash protection, a drop-in filter holder, and much more. I'd particularly like to highlight the focus range limiter. With smaller objects in the foreground, our cameras' AF detection sometimes had a bit of trouble. Limiting the AF range helps greatly in ensuring the autofocus focuses on the "right" part of the focusing distance. As with the 200mm f/2.0, the only downside for Sony users is that the frame rate is limited to 15 fps, and the two teleconverters (1.4x and 2x) are only available for the L-mount system. For both lenses, I don't know whether Canon and Nikon photographers will sooner or later also be able to enjoy these two excellent lenses.
Special thanks
I do these tests voluntarily for the fun of it. That makes it all the more important that friends participate and support me with the tests in their free time. And of course, I also need people willing to let me take their photo ;-). A big thank you to Ursula, Chiara, Marco, Peter, Jürg, Thomas, Angi, Hannah, Eva and Raphael's wedding party, the people at the hill climb in Oberhallau, and last but not least, the animals at the zoo.
All photos © by Peter and Ursula Schäublin and Chiara Denicolo
