A new toy

[Chataignier]

I've just bought a Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 for wildlife (using a Fringer adaptor on the Fuji X-T3). Got it this afternoon and went out to try it on a group of egrets (I think) on our local lake. This was in appalling conditions : hand held standing on steeply sloping rough ground in a very strong gusting wind and quite poor light, but I got this shot.
It wont win any prizes but I was pleased to get something usable. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, I hope to take it out for a more extensive test.

[Geoff F]

Egrets are one of those difficult birds which are often more tricky in bright sunshine. I find the only hope is to underexpose, with exposure compensation, so as to prevent the white areas from over exposing then attempt to recover the midtones and shadows during editing with masking.

I have the 150-600 Sport and it is a good lens, although I have recently had to send it back for repair to the zooming function. Tested it today on my garden birds. Gives good results at the full 600 end although I find it can be a bit 'soft' nearer to the 150 end. I usually shoot between F8 and F11 with a bit of negative exposure compensation to allow for brighter areas in the overall scene.

Having reached an age where that lens soon gets excessively heavy, I shoot with a tripod and a ball head which is lightly tensioned so it takes the weight but I can still swing the camera around in a similar manner to hand held shooting.

[Chataignier]

Yes, agreed about the over ex problem, this was shot with nearly -2 stops of compensation (the dark background increases the problem) and then sorted out in Lightroom.
As for the Sport version of this lens, no denying that it's a brilliant performer, but I cant afford an assistant to carry it, so this is the contemporary version.