"I missed out on one in the UK the other day for UKP250.00, they (?X?? Company, can't remember the exact name) gave me a quote for shipping and when I phoned to place the order someone else had already phoned and reserved it and then bought it".

That was me, Greg. Sorry I beat you to the punch. The only slight defect on the lens was a couple of very small patches where the coating was wearing a bit thin but you had to look very hard to see them.

It's not a bad lens stopped down to F8 or below.

Neil

Can anyone recommend a convertor to go with the above lens? The the Sigma 1.4EX Non-DG convertor (with the screw drive focus) I've got doesn't lock on to the lens. My very old Pentax 1.4s convertor does but the IQ isn't the best. I do a lot of cricket photography and the lack of a convertor for those really tight crop shots is starting to grate.
Cheers,
Neil

As a follow up to my previous e-mail, SRS are sending me another lens from a new batch due in tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a chance to give it a thorough test over the weekend.

While I'm waiting for the delivery, I'd be interested in people's thoughts on the 100% crops below:

link

Both images were taken at 1000th of a second, F8, 400 iso, about three minutes apart.

The one on the left is the new 150-500 lens at 500mm; the one on the right is from my Sigma 600mm mirror lens purchased in 1983 or thereabouts. The only alterations to either picture has been to try and make the 600mm lens shot match the contrast and colour of the new lens.

I realise that there's 100mm difference between the focal lengths, but to my eye the mirror lens shot has more detail in it. Call me naive, but I would have expected the new Sigma lens to have been better than the old lens. I've not posted it, but the comparison between the 150-500 and my old non-DG Bigma is even more noticeable.

Cheers,
Neil

The original only went back on Saturday so Chris probably won't get it back until either today or tommorow.

I've e-mailed some sample pictures to them illustrating the problem so I'm hoping that they won't have to send the lens away for testing. I'll be using the lens for cricket (for the local newspaper) and motorsport (for a couple of work colleagues) and I've got 13 days worth of photography lined up in the next month.

It's just not Scott that's having problems wth the 150-500. I bought the same model from SRS a couple of weeks ago and it's displaying the same problems.

The images are really soft when compared to the Bigma I used to own and the out of focus areas are showing a smeary, colour-bleeding effect. I've actually got better results with a 26-year old 600mm mirror lens I've got.

Needless to say, Chris and SRS have provided their usual excellent service and I have returned the lens.

I'd post some examples of a 100% crop but I'm not sure how to