Hi all, We recently bought a Sigma 150-600mm f/5.0-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Canon EF-mount objectief + TC-1401 for our Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera. We use the correct shutters speed, but images are simply either not sharp (when zooming in on our computer), or the ISO is too low, but if we increase the ISO you get “dots” all over the image. To explain a little better: Yesterday we were outside in the park, trying to photograph horses. Since they move, and we zoomed in to 600 mm, our shutter speed was 1/600 or 1/800. We set the ISO to 800 and F-stop was somewhere around 7 I believe. We have two issues now: The image is very dark, not much light is coming in. We need to increase the ISO way beyond 800, which results in “dots” all over the image. The image is not sharp, even though we used the correct minimum shutter speed compared to our cropping factor and focal point. As said, we were in broad daylight. No direct sun (too many clouds). Can anyone give us some tips on how to fix our issues? We must be doing something wrong. FYI, OS is set to 1.
Yeah, that would be easier indeed haha. Sorry! When we zoom 600mm, our shutter speed is at least 1/600. At 300 zoom it is at least 1/300. So that part should be alright. We try to keep the ISO below 800 at all time. We also used a tripod and a 2 sec delay after pressing the button to decrease camera movement.
are these wit or without the TC, for the purposes of testing don't use the TC test the lens under test conditions ie a cereal box at different distances as it would have fine text on it then you will know what the lenses maximum is i use the 150-600mm on my canon M50 with the ef to efm adapter and i find it sharp enough when shooting stuff like the grebe on a busy background use single box focus rather than multi box if you have it on your body x5 focus aid to confirm you are on target for the focus area shooting in better light helps a lot with any variable aperture zoom, i too try to keep it under 800 iso, if i shoot over 400 iso i don't crop the final image i mostly use this lens on a tripod as its a heavy lens for me, i use the 100-400mm c as my daily walk about hand held wildlife lens while using the focus limiter doesn't add anything to the sharpness it does get you onto your target quicker that having it at full so a moving wildlife subject may be caught a bit quicker and at a better position on my body i found at times one shot can be sharper than servo but that might be body related i only shoot jpeg and found 'fine detail' picture style in the camera body sharper than auto or standard, ignore if you shoot raw. over cropping in post doesnt help whe you ove 400 / 800 depends on the body the lower light problem is what we have to deal with on VA zooms, my 50-150mm ƒ2.8 way out performs the light capabilities of the VA lenses, just a fact of low end high end capabilities, cant afford the ƒ4 + primes or zooms myself, if you shooting burst mode, using slow burst might be better than fast burst on a plane changing subject (moving towards or away from you) as slow burst is supposed to give the system time to adjust focus in servo mode. i do use TC with the 150-600mm but only on bright static subjects like moon / Jupiter of buildings etc where i can use unlimited slow shutter on tripod the TC i use are the canon mkIII i've not used the sigma ones to compare but above all i see TC as a bonus item never an always use item
Good tips. Thanks so much! There is one weird thing. Our Camera is a 1 crop. That means, at 400 zoom our minimum shutter speed should be 1/400. At 600 zoom it should be 1/600. At 600 zoom the 1/600 shutter speed does not give sharp photo's. I have to crank the shutter speed up to at least 1/1000. But then the images are very dark. I can fix that in Lightroom but still... I would prefer to be able to have them a bit lighter. For example F7, 1/1000 at ISO 400 ~ 600 gives sharp images. But it is very dark, even though there aren't any clouds. I will look into it more this weekend and post and update including images.
It sounds like you are purposely underexposing your images to keep settings that you would prefer to have for a couple of reasons. The EV (exposure value) of the light will tell what your settings ranges will be, bright sunny day this will be roughly f16, 100 iso 1/100. You can adjust an a stop according in any direction as the light changes or your other settings change.... Idk if you ever learned the sunny 16 rule but without using a meter its a good place to start with your thinking. so in bright sun iso 1000 would be 1/1000 at f16 ... is partial cloud so f8 would be appropriate. If you want a fast shutter you need a high iso, or you need to go wider to compensate, its all science and math you need to get the light somewhere. Some of the general rules of thumb are getting skipped here, shoot faster than your focal length at the long end... 1/600 of sec minimum to freeze hand held issues. Use a tripod for slower shots or use image stabilization to get a few extra stops. Do not use stabilization on a tripod or above where the shutter can freeze hand holding because it can introduce vibration Your converter is multiplying the issue, so without using the IS your looking at 600*1.4 or roughly 1000 to freeze hand held blur. You have already identified these numbers but I see where they are from without even shooting the image. It also is loosing you a stop of light so your only getting f8 at best. You need stabilization to get a a bit below 1000 of a sec, or you need it sunny, or you need the high iso. NOW... Shooting darker or under exposed and adding exposure compensation in post will make any ISO noise worse. I also have to ask how far your cropping in on these images????. You should never be reviewing an image at more than 30ish % any closer and you will see the pixels. Do you really need the 1.4 converter,? I would venture that in many cases your feet and a 500mm zoom are more than enough. Get closer and zoom a little less and leave the converter off and i bet your results will be much better. Im assuming you not using the IS at less than 1/600 and your have that 1.4 teleconverter on all the time... both make things more problematic. I think you should be able to print without noise at iso 1000 if exposure is nailed, your probably pixel peeping too much or cropping a lot. You should be able to shoot at 1/300 f your using the stabilization correctly and not using the 1.4 TC.. Your ISO can go much higher, i have used 3200 on my 5d2 many times as long as im not printing 16x20 its not an issue... it all depends on print size. ...this is a bit long winded for a response, so I'll call it here
also if you can have the histogram on screen / in the view finder when shooting that will help with the exposure a huge amount, better than the light meter / bar on the camera
Good tips everyone, very much appreciated! I got the hang of it a lot better now! Also, I had the "sun" cap on. When I removed it, it was literally a world of difference. 600 zoom at ISO 300 ~ 400 is crystal clear and extremely sharp. You can see each hair on an animal haha.
Yes I am, sorry for the bad English. It is not my main language But yes, I had it on. Usually on my other camera's and lenses, that is no problem at all. There is literally no difference. But when I use the lens hood (to prevent sun from coming in directly) I need much and much higher shutter speeds and ISO. Maybe it is no more then logic, since less light comes in with the lens hood on
