I made a mistake in my last.

After emailing them, and asking questions, a friend just bought the Nikon, and he likes it a lot. Should be, "after emailing them, and asking questions, I made my decision".

Same where I live. A lot of members seem to have access to equipment that we do not. I researched, and spoke to the photographer/owner of our only independent photography store, developing a relationship. Ultimately, I did take a chance as I had not tried any of the long telephotos. I did lots of research, as you did. As you can see, there is a lot of opinion out there. The final push for me was talking to a couple who do photo safaris in Africa. They use the Sigma, amongst others, and heavily recommend it. They even review it on their site. After emailing them, and asking questions, a friend just bought the Nikon, and he likes it a lot. I pulled the trigger on the 150-600. I'm happy with it, with the use I have had of it so far. I can't speak to the quality of the other lenses as I have not seen or used any of them. Hope this helps.

There is only so much research and opinion out there. Ultimately, you should go out and find these lenses in a local store and try them out on your camera. Some can be rented for the day, which would be a good option. Regarding the deterioration of the quality of Nikon products, you can read all sorts of things if you look. Don't believe everything you read, or hear.

Best of luck with your research. Let us know what you decide upon.

👍 for me as well. Less shipping cost, or risk of damage.

I have the Sigma Sport and a D850. I have not used it enough to form a solid opinion yet, but am happy some far. My friend has the 200-500, so I'm looking forward to some more comparisons between our two lenses.
The Sigma is solid and weather-sealed. It feels well-built, the zoom is smooth, and I like the fact that I can pull or push to zoom, which is faster. The lens is heavy, and it does extend when zooming, which throws off the balance of my Gimbal Head. Finally, using the USB Dock you can adjust focus speed and focus points, and load updates. Much more testing to come.

You can get some interesting abstract shapes with moving water. Did you use flash (off camera) or constant light and fast shutter speed? Nicely done.

I hear you. Still, good to have available when the scene arises. Take just that lens and your camera and go somewhere to do some shooting. This will force you to explore the capabilities of the lens. You may find it becomes a favourite!

That's looking pretty good evemal. A great deal for the lens. At that price, it would be an easy buy for most. Did you have a specific use in mind for the lens, or just to have and take out to do some creative shooting? It can be used in many instances. Nice!

Not too shabby. Could you post some more images, some landscape perhaps.

Any PP done on image?

Very nice!

I did have a small (8mm) spot metering area set for the shots in front of the house. The shot of the car, which was in shadow, was metered on the front left headlight, which was in the darkest area of the carport. The metering should have exposed for that exact point on the car. It did not. The image was underexposed by 2-3 stops. I used manual exposure. There is no explanation for this that I can think of. There was absolutely no kind of exposure compensation. In this particular case, there would be no advantage to using Matrix metering (Canon's term for the same feature is Evaluative metering).
I have used the technique you mention of taking several spot readings, then averaging the exposure settings from there. I have previously owned an Olympus OM-4, which had this as a built-in feature. You would take several spot meter readings, and the camera would set the correct exposure. In this sort of shot, I now use Highlight metering to expose for the bright areas of the image, then pull up the darker areas in PP.
Yes, I also know how to use and interpret a histogram.

Thanks Steve.

Let's hope we can close this thread for now. Five pages is more than enough, and I think that everyone has had the chance to give their opinion. "Asked and answered".

I will now wait for Nikon to send their report, posting the results here in this thread.

Again, let's move on. Please.🤫

That was one of my first thoughts. No compensation set in menus. Highlight metering not turned on, though it is useful is situations such as you describe.

If bracketing had been turned on, consecutive images shot over a few minutes would show the the + and - exposure in the series. All were underexposed.

Thanks Techrod.

I do have, and have read, the manual for the camera. The camera is on its' way to Nikon now for answers. Most think that I am the problem, not the camera. After 5 pages of replies, I'll wait for Nikon to have a look and I'll report back.

In the mean time, let's move on, shall we?

Thanks😁

Update was done two months ago, which should have cleared any issues (I had not had any since the camera was new). I have used the camera many times since new, in the way I always have, and have never had results like this. My photo store owner suggested I send the camera in for Nikon to look over, and he has done so.

I can live without the camera for a couple of weeks, and it is worth it to me to get to the bottom of this. The sudden appearance of these issues is odd. I'm confident that my technique is sound. I have never seen this behaviour in my 40+ years of photography.

I look forward to the results from Nikon.

If bracketing had been set, the 20+ images that I shot within about three minutes who have exhibited that variation in exposure. All were underexposed.

I did take the shots in front of my house one after another. Yes, I certainly should have been writing down exposure and settings data as I made the images. Chalk it up to anxiety and surprise at the off behaviour of the camera.


I could not read the detailed EXIF data as it was not available. I also noticed that neither the Sigma nor the Nikon lens data was detected in my PP software, where it have always been displayed since the camera was new.