The SIGMA 50-500 is a challenging lens that can be very difficult to use well. The real secret to it, as I’m sure those of you who have shot it successfully have discovered, is that you need a lot of light. If you don’t expect the SIGMA to be something it isn’t you’ll find you are a lot happier with it.

Here’s how I have had success:

The first thing I determined was that a tripod is ALWAYS needed with this lens–I’ll give you exceptions in a moment. If you shoot the SIGMA 50-500 with a tripod in bright daylight (direct sun is best) you can get good results.

If you must shoot hand-held, you’ll have to live with a functional limit of around f:8; and you’ll need a lot of ambient light.

This lens really took off for me when I began to use it with flash. If you do this, you can get great shots at pretty much any aperture. You can easily shoot hand-held using flash as well. I shoot with a camera-mounted Nikon SB-800 Speedlight (their top of the line at the time this was written) which puts out a lot of light. Studio strobes or constant lights are also an option for some uses.  I have made successful hand-held images of flowers.

The first image below was made hand-held at a f:22 for a 500th at the full 500mm extent of the lens.  I have done no processing on this image.  This is a crop, but if you click on the image here, you’ll see it at 100%.  I did no sharpening or anything except placing my name in one corner.

The next image of Iris buds was shot at f16 for a 500th at 270mm.  This should be just about the sharpest setting for this lens and I did apply some sharpening.

The Petunias below were shot at f:14 for a 500th at 420mm.

If subjects you want to shoot are a good distance from the camera however–the very thing this sort of lens is designed to do–you’ll need to find a way to extend the reach of your flash significantly.

I did this using the Flash Extender from Kirk Enterprises.

This thing does the job very well. Using the extender I have taken some great shots at smaller apertures (f:16 and up) and I have had success projecting flash over sizable distances.  I’ve used it most for shooting Hummingbirds.  It takes a bit of work to be certain the flash extender is directing the light exactly to the place you need it, but once you have it set, it delivers great light.

Small apertures aren’t always necessary.  You can easily shoot a subject like the moon at wider apertures (even wide open) because it is well lit and extremely distant. My moon shots still show evidence of camera shake. I have yet to find a reliable way to eliminate that completely for this sort of shot… but I WILL!