Is anyone here shooting with R5/Sigma 60-600mm like me?

[Tappa]

This is the story: A year ago or so, I wanted to purchase the R5 but it just wasn't in the budget. I had enough cash to purchase the 60-600mm lens and that's what I did. At the time my main camera was the 1DX and my backup was the 1D mkIV so the 60-600 seemed like a great choice. I certainly don't regret purchasing this lens but as luck would have it my 1DX bit the dust and no parts were available for repair. It took some talking on my part to convince my wife that I really needed the R5, so I ordered it along with the lens adapter. At first, I had to figure out what set up to use on the camera and then try to get the lens to work well with it. I updated the camera and lens firmware and it finally came together after many test shots in different situations. Now I couldn't be happier. The lens works very well and is fast to focus and

• Canon EOS R5
• 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports 018
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 3200

• Canon EOS R5
• 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports 018
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 2000

tack sharp.

 

[Hali]

Great shots! I've never used that lens, but it looks great.

 

[Tappa]

Thank you Hali,
I just found an old series 1 1.4 teleconverter and tried it on the 60-600mm and it worked very well. That yields 840mm at f9 which is fairly good. I'm posting a couple of test shots here to see what members might think about them as far as usability and definition etc. The first is without post processing and is full frame. The second is cropped by 60% and the third is cropped and sharpened in LRc. These are all the same image.

• Canon EOS R5
• 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports 018 +1.4x
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/400 sec
• ISO 3200

• Canon EOS R5
• 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports 018 +1.4x
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/400 sec
• ISO 3200

• Canon EOS R5
• 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports 018 +1.4x
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/400 sec
• ISO 3200

 

[Hali]

It's difficult with these little birds but it looks like that 1.4 does a nice job and doesn't soften things too much.

 

[Tappa]

Thanks for taking a look. I'll most likely use this combination when I need that little extra reach. It seems to do a fairly good job and doesn't slow the autofocus or eye detection down that I can tell. For now it will do the job for me.

 

[Tappa]

Here are a few images from last Sunday without the 1.4 TC. I ran these through DxO and then into LRc for final edit. I'm getting much better results using DxO for RAW conversion than Light Room classic.

 

[bozaman]

@Tappa, nice photos and glad everything seems to be working well for you.

I have only just started looking into options for super-telephoto option, but from a value perspective the Sigma's (e.g., 60-600, 150-600) are on my evaluation list, along with the Canon RF100-500. I've seen more than one report of focus "pulsing" with the Sigma's and other 3rd party lenses on the R-series cameras, with mixed feedback on the cause and mitigations.

One update I viewed on YouTube suggested the pulsing or hunting behavior was possibly related to use of eye-detect AF and that the closer the subject to the minimum focus distance the poor performance was amplified. Effectively, increasing the distance between subject and lens would help, if not completely eliminate the behavior.

So, I'm curious - what has your experience been? Your shots look plenty sharp in this web post and I assume your critical eye looking the full image was certainly satisfied to post here, but wondering what AF method you used for your subjects, and approximate distance to the subject? If you did utilize eye-detect AF was the performance better based on subject distance?

In my mind the value potential is non-existent if I can expect to suffer from performance issues and I would likely just step-up and pay the premium for the Canon RF. But if up-to-date firmware and some common-sense approaches to working within the Sigma's limitations would get me reliable results it may still be viable, especially if I consider a used lens.

TIA for any feedback, and appreciate your patience with this long-ish missive.

 

[Snappy St Loes]

I used to own a Sigma 60-600, bought for its' totally bonkers range. This was before I discovered the joys of bird photography. I found it gave superb image image quality across the range but let it go as it was so damn heavy resulting in spending most of it time attached to a monopod. At my age I like to travel light with minimum gear so I replaced the lens with the RF 800. Having a fixed aperture of f11 brings its' own problems but I've learned to work around that.

 

[Tappa]

@Tappa, nice photos and glad everything seems to be working well for you.

I have only just started looking into options for super-telephoto option, but from a value perspective the Sigma's (e.g., 60-600, 150-600) are on my evaluation list, along with the Canon RF100-500. I've seen more than one report of focus "pulsing" with the Sigma's and other 3rd party lenses on the R-series cameras, with mixed feedback on the cause and mitigations.

One update I viewed on YouTube suggested the pulsing or hunting behavior was possibly related to use of eye-detect AF and that the closer the subject to the minimum focus distance the poor performance was amplified. Effectively, increasing the distance between subject and lens would help, if not completely eliminate the behavior.

So, I'm curious - what has your experience been? Your shots look plenty sharp in this web post and I assume your critical eye looking the full image was certainly satisfied to post here, but wondering what AF method you used for your subjects, and approximate distance to the subject? If you did utilize eye-detect AF was the performance better based on subject distance?

In my mind the value potential is non-existent if I can expect to suffer from performance issues and I would likely just step-up and pay the premium for the Canon RF. But if up-to-date firmware and some common-sense approaches to working within the Sigma's limitations would get me reliable results it may still be viable, especially if I consider a used lens.

TIA for any feedback, and appreciate your patience with this long-ish missive.

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to answer most of your questions as best I know how. First off, I owned the lens prior to purchasing the r5 to use with my 1DX body which has now gone to the wayside. At first, I experienced some problems with unsharp images, but I don't think it was the lens/r5 combo. After a bit of learning and trying different settings recommended by other photographers, I hit on a good combination of settings for the camera. I forgot to mention that I updated the firmware on both the camera and the lens shortly after buying the r5 body due to poor image quality. I read and watched more videos on Youtube and experimented with different shooting techniques and exposure settings. I now feel that I have everything set and I'm extremely pleased with the latest results. It was more of a camera learning curve than the lens. I do use animal eye detection combined with spot auto focus set on two different back buttons. Animal eye focus seems to work best at closer ranges but when it can't find the eye it will usually stay focused on the head. If there are more that one bird in the field of view it will jump from one to another which can be frustrating so I have learned to use spot focus in those cases when I want a specific bird in a group to be in focus. This problem also could be from my lack of knowledge of the camera sensitivity setting in that area as well. Learning which one works best for a given subject has taken some time but I now have it down fairly well, but still practicing to get even better. It seems to me that this camera is so advanced that it just takes quite a bit of learning time to develop your own best combination of settings that match your particular shooting style and type of subject matter. I will continue to refine my camera control settings as I go along and find one better than another. Another thing I have noticed, which I think is true with all IS systems and that is to turn IS off on a tripod as I experienced what I would call subject drift when IS was engaged. I don't know if any of my ramblings make sense, but I hope they help you make up your mind. All in all, I'm very happy with my body/lens combo and I'm sure will continue to experiment. After all, that is what keeps me interested and motivated to continue. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

 

[bozaman]

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to answer most of your questions as best I know how. First off, I owned the lens prior to purchasing the r5 to use with my 1DX body which has now gone to the wayside. At first, I experienced some problems with unsharp images, but I don't think it was the lens/r5 combo. After a bit of learning and trying different settings recommended by other photographers, I hit on a good combination of settings for the camera. I forgot to mention that I updated the firmware on both the camera and the lens shortly after buying the r5 body due to poor image quality. I read and watched more videos on Youtube and experimented with different shooting techniques and exposure settings. I now feel that I have everything set and I'm extremely pleased with the latest results. It was more of a camera learning curve than the lens. I do use animal eye detection combined with spot auto focus set on two different back buttons. Animal eye focus seems to work best at closer ranges but when it can't find the eye it will usually stay focused on the head. If there are more that one bird in the field of view it will jump from one to another which can be frustrating so I have learned to use spot focus in those cases when I want a specific bird in a group to be in focus. This problem also could be from my lack of knowledge of the camera sensitivity setting in that area as well. Learning which one works best for a given subject has taken some time but I now have it down fairly well, but still practicing to get even better. It seems to me that this camera is so advanced that it just takes quite a bit of learning time to develop your own best combination of settings that match your particular shooting style and type of subject matter. I will continue to refine my camera control settings as I go along and find one better than another. Another thing I have noticed, which I think is true with all IS systems and that is to turn IS off on a tripod as I experienced what I would call subject drift when IS was engaged. I don't know if any of my ramblings make sense, but I hope they help you make up your mind. All in all, I'm very happy with my body/lens combo and I'm sure will continue to experiment. After all, that is what keeps me interested and motivated to continue. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Thanks for the very detailed reply, @Tappa. Your approach has been methodical and makes great sense. As with most things, it's usually a combination of factors that contribute to issues and mitigations are also likely to involve a combination of actions. You did mention one factor I had overlooked (and had not heard from others) - engaging IS / OIS on the lens when on a tripod / monopod could contribute to the issues. I recall that being a problem with a previous Nikon 70-200 VR zoom I had back-in-the-day.

I'm incredibly intrigued by the Sigma for the range and flexibility it offers at a relative value (compared to the Canon, for example). Not sure yet about the size, bulk, and weight (especially in the Sport version) so I need to consider this carefully. First party options offer a lot of advantages in these areas, but at a significant price premium.

Really enjoy your photos and look forward to seeing more. Thanks again.