*WANTED* Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 HSM OS APO DG

Evening all,

I'm after a Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 HSM lens to partner me in backpacking India next year.
If you have the above lens and would be interested in selling please PM me. I am open to examples with usage related marks etc.

Thank you in advance.
Matt

I hope you are young and fit Matt. That is a BIG heavy lens for backpacking.

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Regards, Philip

link

Spotted this, don't know if it is a good price or not.

Paul

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Digital

K-30, GX-10, DA 16-45, DA 18-55 and DAL 55 - 300

Film

ME Super, 2 x MX, SP 500 and SP F

and lense or 2

the lens spec on that link is wrong. might be a 120-400 because sigma don't do a 50-500 that is 4.5-5.6. The 120-400 is 4.5-5.6 though but the 50-500 is 4.5-6.3

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Pentax K3, DA 18-55 WR, Sigma 50-500 EX DG HSM, Pentax M-50, a bucket load of SD cards, some lights and a lightbox

Thanks for your replies guys.
We are in our mid 20's so will hopefully cope with the extra weight of the lens. I have a 18-250mm Tamron lens which is great for travel photography but was hoping to find a lens with a longer range for safari/wildlife shots. After reading all the reviews the Sigma 50-500mm 'bigma' appears to be a great lens. I was hoping to get away with paying a bit less than the normal retail price as this would be out of my reach. It is proving to be a difficult lens to find for sale in used condition!! Regards Matt

bump

there is someone on the forum selling a nice condition 150-500 if that is of interest. also a few of the 150-500 have been on ebay in the last week or two at the £400 or so mark plus postage.

also, for around the £250-260 mark has been some of the older 170-500 lenses from sigma.

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Pentax K3, DA 18-55 WR, Sigma 50-500 EX DG HSM, Pentax M-50, a bucket load of SD cards, some lights and a lightbox

Hi Lancer3397,

Thanks for the advice. I will keep a look out.

Regards,
Matt

Bump, still looking Ladies and Gents.

Hey,
I don't have the lens, sold mine a month ago. But I have been hitch hiking and faced the same question of what to take. I would suggest not taking the 50-500, it's a great lens, magnificent IQ and handling, but rather horrible when you need to transport it. I know the 1.5kg or what it weighs doesn't sound much, but after a few days on your back, it will start killing you and unless it gets much use, it's not worth the suffering. Just to compare, I'm in my early 20s, 6'6" and do sports, mountains so not a newby to backpacking. But, my priority is lightness over everything, so I'm biased towards lightweight, but there is a very good reason for this bias.

You haven't said where or how you going, but do you really need such long range telephoto? Wouldn't you be better off taking 55-300 and a 1.4 TC thus giving you similar reach, but in fully weather sealed system? It would be much lighter and budget friendly A monopodor gorillapod might prove to be highly useful. Tripod is rather bulky and heavy to carry, so unless necessary I would skip it.

Also, if you still want to take the 50-500 have a look at the non HSM/OS versions as there is not much difference between them but rather a considerable price saving. Also, you might want to consider a WR lens like 18-135 to accompany you as on long trips accidents happen and killing the lens would be rather annoying.

Good luck with the trip and I hope it will be great!

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Pentax K-5 and co.

Hello Aleks1298,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Its great to hear of some first hand experience with the lens I am currently pursuing.
To expand a little bit on my travel plans, I have just recently got back from 2 months in India and felt that I really missed the range. My favourite travel lens of choice that I currently possess is an 18-250mm Tamron. It is a great lens and in most cases is perfect for backpacking but in India, particularly with the wildlife, I felt I needed more range. On investigating longer range lenses the Bigma kept on appearing as the recommended option. I will be off to Africa in July for a 2-3 month backpacking trip and didnt want to fall short with the range as I had in India.
Thanks also for the advice on the monopod over tripod, that was going to be another question.

Do you think I would notice much diference in performance and image quality between the HSM and NON HSM 50-500mm lenses?

Also, I have read that using a TC can sometimes effect image quality, any advice on that?

Many thanks,
Matt

Not HSM, but I have one for sale. PM me if interested.

If you're going to use a TC, a good TC is more important than a good lens.

Most of them are rubbish and usually give worse results than using the same lens without the TC and cropping in closer. The Pentax 1.7x and the new 1.4x are the only ones I'd ever consider.

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Pentax K-3, DA18-135, DA35 F2.4, DA17-70, DA55-300, FA28-200, A50 F1.7, A100 F4 Macro, A400 F5.6, Sigma 10-20 EXDC, 50-500 F4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Samsung flash SEF-54PZF(x2)
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