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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you a first look at the exciting new Sigma 60 to 600 millimeter at 4.5 to 6.3 sport lens
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Now, obviously, the 150 to 600 millimeter focal length, which Tamron pioneered, you know, now around five years ago, four years ago, it obviously
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that has proved to be an extremely popular focal length for those who wanted the
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reach ability to reach 600 millimeters with a full frame lens and you know but in an
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affordable way you know prior to that if that kind of reach was going to cost you many
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thousands of dollars and so a lot of people have found these 150 to 600 millimeter variants
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and I've reviewed both both variants of Tamron first generation and then second generation and
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and then also the Sigma contemporary and sport versions. And so all of them had strengths and weaknesses
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but I would say of every one of those lenses that for the price that they commanded
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they were actually extremely competent lenses, optically quite excellent across the board
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Now, Sigma has made a habit of pushing the boundaries with a lot of their lenses, you know
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in terms of combination of focal length, the maximum aperture. In this case, it's not so much about
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aperture but certainly they have stretched what is 150 to 600 millimeters is a four times
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zoom ratio if you bring that back even though it's only 90 millimeters which in the
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big of big scheme of things doesn't sound massive but if you actually do the math
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now starting at 60 millimeters to 600 millimeters that becomes a 10 times zoom ratio
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and obviously it opens up a whole lot of other possibilities of what is possible
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to get when you're carrying this single lens. I would say that now you can really go from everything
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from shooting landscape images to shooting wildlife, all while carrying a single, you know
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how be it bulky and large lens, but certainly a single lens that allows you to do a lot of things
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And of course, the fact that this carries Sigma's sport moniker means a couple of things
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It means that it has a higher grade of weather ceiling than what either the contemporary or art series lenses have
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Beyond that, it also is going to have autofocus that is designed around, well, shooting sports or action
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And so it means that, you know, kind of inherit there is a promise that this lens is going to be able to keep up when it comes to the autofocus
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So obviously we're going to put all those things to the test as a part of this review cycle
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But today we're going to jump in and take a closer look at what you are getting for your in the U.S. market around $2,000
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And so in terms of the build, the features, and, you know, how this compares to, say, the 150 to 600 millimeter sport lens when it comes to its basic build features and handling
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So let's jump in and let's take a look. So let take a closer look at this beast of a lens here And so a few different elements here of the design The actual lens cap as you can see is actually made of nylon
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And so it's actually designed to be put on with the lens, with the lens hood actually reversed
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And so that the locking knob, tension knob, is towards the front
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And so then it actually just sits over that. and you know and then it can Velcro closed leaving room for that knob to come through
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And so, you know, a little bit different maybe type design, but it does the job
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Lens hood itself here is a couple of design elements I want to point out
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It is finally ribbed inside as you can see and as is typical with these really large
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lens hoods like this it actually has a tension knob that will lock it in place
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The actual lens hood itself is lightweight and there is a rubber
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kind of section here at the very front, which is designed. So should you be storing the lens
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with it face down, which is not uncommon with big telephotos. There is a place that is going to
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rest well and prevent either your surface or the lens from being damaged in that case
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Now, obviously, the big news here compared to the very popular lenses in the 150 to 600 millimeter range
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I'll rotate this around so that you can see is that our zoom range
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has a, it already has a pretty full zoom range before you ever get to 150 millimeters
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I mean, you basically have a 2.5 times zoom ratio before you even get to 150 millimeters
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Obviously, in terms of what you can take, in terms of the shots you can take with this lens
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versus the 150 to 600, you've opened up a whole new realm of photography
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starting at 60 millimeters instead of 150 millimeters. And so, I mean, we have a massive, massive zoom range here
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and I'll lock that down. And so you can see there is a tremendous amount of extension
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of the lens barrel, and so it becomes much, much longer, a single extension when you zoom that out
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And so a huge, huge zoom range here. And so now you actually have a 10 times zoom ratio
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which is pretty massive to be sure. A tripod collar, a few things about that
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Obviously, it can be rotated and it's got detents at the different spots on the horizon there
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So that kind of the four points of the compass. But of course, you can lock it down at any point, but it has those detents
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and so that you can get squared up when you're at those things
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Nicely, nice feeling locking mechanism. And on either side, you can see there
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are points to attach the strap that can help to release some of the stress on the actual lens
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mount if you're carrying it. An extra large tripod foot that has a couple of options there
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depending on what kind of tripod that you're mounting down to. And so you have options for that
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mounting point But I always love to see it also ARCA Swiss compatible And so most of the time you not going to have to worry about that unless you adding on another accessory you mostly just going to be able to put that on the tripod and lock it down So as you can see looking at the rear of this lens it got a robust gasket
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The sports series, of course, carries a much higher grade of weather ceiling than what, say, the art series or the contemporary series do
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That's part of the nature of their design. Now, if we look here at some of the actual aspects of the switches, you have got, you know
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This is Sigma style. You've got autofocus, manual focus, and then the middle position is actually manual override
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For whatever reason, Sigma is alone in any manufacturer that I've seen in making that an option
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I think that most people are going to want to have that
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However, if you don't have that turned on, what the difference is is that input is not going to be recognized
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It's not going to override the actual auto focus position. There is also a focus limiter with three positions from full
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You can go starting at six meters to infinity if you're just shooting more distant subjects
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or you have the option of going from minimum focus to six meters
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Now this is one area where this lens really diversifies from the sport lens
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It can only focus down to 2.6 meters, whereas this lens can actually focus down to 60 centimeters
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And so that's that 0.6 in the other 2.6. And so you can go down much, much closer
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So you can actually focus down to right under two feet with this lens
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And so the byproduct has a hugely improved maximum magnification of 0.30 times
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And so it can do a lot of yeoman's work on that end as well
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It's a little bit more complex optical design, 25 elements in 19 groups compared to 24 elements in 16 groups
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And, you know, it has the image stabilization built into it, nine rounded aperture blades
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it has like the 15600 millimeter sport it has a very very large 105 millimeter front filter thread so if you want to use filters you are going to have to use a very large filter size it's a little bit more compact than what the sport lens is the lens itself is a little narrower and diameter but not by much it's 120.4 millimeters instead of 121.9 millimeters or you know the
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Sport 150 to 600 is 4.8 inches. This is 4.74 inches. But it is a little bit shorter in length as well
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This is 10.59 inches or 269 millimeters compared to 289. You can round it up to 290 millimeters because it's a 0.6
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And so it is a considerable amount shorter, almost an inch shorter in length. And it also doesn't weigh quite as much, although it's still a
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hefty lens. It weighs right under six pounds or 2.7 kilos. The 150 to 600 sport weighs 6.3 pounds
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or 2.86 kilos. The other thing I will note just on a practical level of hand holding this lens
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I found that the 15600 sport, it's got a lot of weight really far from the body. Of course
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as does this as well. But I have found that this isn't quite as bad to hand hold and support
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The weight is a little bit more evenly distributed for whatever reason And so byproduct that is I haven found it as fatiguing to use for the long haul There is also a couple of different options for your optical stabilizer
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and so you can set it up with, to shoot in number one kind of standard position
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or number two, if you're wanting to prioritize a panning. You can put it in that option
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You also have a couple of custom mode options that you can help to program by using
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using the Sigma USB doc. This is also compatible with the Sigma MC11, mount converter to Sony
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and I actually found that it worked quite well there. I shot a whole Christmas concert with that
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combination, and I got pretty good results from that, a nice, fast autofocus. I even used it on
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the Canon EOSR via the Canon adapter, and it worked fairly well there as well. I mean, huge focus shifts
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were not quite as fast as what they are using, you know, the 5D Mark 4 that I've got here
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but they came quite quickly still and no real issue. And so autofocus is actually fairly quick with this lens
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and we'll deal more with that as we move ahead. So as you can see, this is actually a very nicely made lens
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that is certainly more akin to the 150 to 600 sport and its build materials and general feel
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than it is to the contemporary. and I found that the Sigma Contemporary, 15600 millimeter
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it had a lot of bang for buck optically, but certainly you could tell it was a cut beneath when it comes to the build grade
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This is a very nicely built lens, and for whatever reason, I'm finding it a little bit easier to balance
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you know, at the limit here than what I did, the original sport lens
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I doubt it's because I've gotten a lot stronger since I did the sport lens review
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And so I think that maybe the balance is just a, it's a little bit better, a balance to a lens than what that was
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We'll be breaking down, of course, the optical performance. And, you know, surely you would expect something to have to give a little bit optically when you extend the focal range by that much
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And, of course, extend the, as mentioned previously, the zoom ratio by that much
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And so we'll try to cover all of those things in a subsequent episode. And I'll also give you some details on autofocus and whether or not I think this lens can keep up
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And so we'll take a look at all those things. So stay tuned. In the meantime, if you look in the description down below, I already have an image gallery
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going, and you can see some images of some variety of subjects, including some sports action
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as a part of that, a high school basketball game. And so you take a look at that
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I also have already tested it on both the Canon EOS R via adapter, you know, the Canon
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adapters there. And I've also used it on the Sony A7R Mark 3 via the MC11 adapter
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And so you may find that information also useful. But there are some images in those galleries
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that have been taken with those combinations as well. So take a look at that. There are buying links if you'd like to purchase one for yourself
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Thanks for watching. Have a great day
