Sigma 150-500: I bought this from Ebay for my Nikon D200 & am having problems - I'd very much welcome sdvice from members who have the lens or you experts who might know! The lens will...

rogerl Loc: UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire)

I bought this from Ebay for my Nikon D200 & am having problems - I'd very much welcome sdvice from members who have the lens or you experts who might know!

The lens will not (except occasionally) focus at full zoom - I have to pull the zoom back in to 150/200, focus & then zoom out again (sometimes, but not often, it will focus). It sometimes loses focus when at 400/500 zoom so I have to pull back, re-focus, & then zoom back out. It won't focus on BIF, at either spot or active focus.

There seems to be four alternatives:
1. I'm doing something wrong;
2. The lens does this - so live with it;
3. The lens is faulty;
4. I need a battery pack to boost the power.

A friend suggested option 4 - when he tried it on his D700 with battery pack it seemed to work fine. This may, indeed, turn out to be the solution but I'm not going to rush out & buy a battery grip without your advice.

Any help will be much appreciated.

PhotoStar Loc: Calgary, Alberta

That would drive me nuts. I have the lens and love it the more I use it. But I have a battery grip and even if I didn't have a big lens on it, I appreciate having the extra real estate to hang on to. Definitely don't need to drop the camera or any lens and I appreciate not having to worry about the battery dying even after a long day.

big d Loc: Rossendale Lancashire

Hi own this lens.They are not the best for latching on to focus!I find I have to pre-focus in the area ,say where the BIF is I used to own the old 170-500 and the 400mm sigma which focused in a different way. You do actually get used to the way they work sort of a learning curve and they do produce great results, images can be soft at 500mm end f8-f11 light permitting also I use BBF spot cluster and slow focus response AI-servo and Hi speed continues.I know exactly what you mean about the focusing issues! One last point if its a very early 150-500mm sigma lens they did have focusing issues up to a certain serial no which was returned and corrected by Sigma.Good luck Roger.

Meredith Images Loc: Stratford, CT

I agree with PhotoStar...love this lens and have never had a problem with focusing even at 500mm. I have a Canon 40D with a battery grip.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The D200 AF sensor is limited to lenses that are F5.6 or smaller maximum aperture. The big Sigma goes to F6.3 maximum aperture at the longer focal lengths and this will cause the D200's AF system to not function. Pulling the zoom back gets the lens into its F5.6 range and it will AF again. Its all a matter of the amount of light reaching the AF sensor in the body, it needs a specific amount to be able to AF.

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

I have both the 120-400 and 150-500 and have never had a focus problem, I have even used the Kenko pro 1.4 converter and it works like a dream on the 120-400

http://www.kenkoglobal.com/TP-PRO300AF-DGX1_4-2X.html

I assume you ARE using JUST the centre focus point not all of them

wonkytripod Loc: Peterborough UK

rogerl wrote:

I bought this from Ebay for my Nikon D200 & am... (show quote)

I use this lens on my D7000 with just a standard battery and have absolutely no problems at all.

rogerl Loc: UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire)

MT Shooter wrote:

The D200 AF sensor is limited to lenses that are F5.6 or smaller maximum aperture. The big Sigma goes to F6.3 maximum aperture at the longer focal lengths and this will cause the D200's AF system to not function. Pulling the zoom back gets the lens into its F5.6 range and it will AF again. Its all a matter of the amount of light reaching the AF sensor in the body, it needs a specific amount to be able to AF.

Many thanks. That makes perfect sense.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

MT Shooter wrote:

The D200 AF sensor is limited....

That was brilliant, MT! :thumbup:

rogerl Loc: UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire)

MT Shooter wrote:

The D200 AF sensor is limited to lenses that are F5.6 or smaller maximum aperture. The big Sigma goes to F6.3 maximum aperture at the longer focal lengths and this will cause the D200's AF system to not function. Pulling the zoom back gets the lens into its F5.6 range and it will AF again. Its all a matter of the amount of light reaching the AF sensor in the body, it needs a specific amount to be able to AF.

A further thought - if I may trouble you again. Do you happen to know if the same is true of the D90 (my wife's camera!)?

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Roger, this probably is not an option, but is there any way to be able to fool the camera/lens as is done when taping the pins of the Canon 100-400? There is probably a way, but certainly the manufacturer will not help, even if they knew the solution. I believe the pins are oriented very differently, possibly making the taping solution impractical. I know the easy solution is to buy a more updated body or a faster lens. Good luck

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

rogerl wrote:

A further thought - if I may trouble you again. Do you happen to know if the same is true of the D90 (my wife's camera!)?

The D70, D90 and D7000 will AF with a lens at max. aperture of F7.2. No issues with the big Sigma on them at all. The D100, D200, D80, D40, D50, D60, and D1 series all had their AF limited to F5.6, maybe some others too.

Digiphot2

The major problem with lenses that lose light by zooming out is that the sensor inside the camera is trying to focus on a dim scene, caused by the F:6.3 max aperture @ the 500mm zoom range. You might see if Nikon has a fix on line that can boost the sensitivity of your auto focus mechanism. If you look at it like this, you are only one half a click from F:8! Wide open! Till then zoom to the 250mm zoom, pre focus then zoom out to the max extent. Another work around, turn off the autofocus, and use the focus screen manually, as best you can to do your focusing..Good luck!

wISOr Loc: Austin, TEXAS

wonkytripod wrote:

I use this lens on my D7000 with just a standard battery and have absolutely no problems at all.

Ditto that.

ejrmaine Loc: South Carolina

Hmm, I have the Sigma 150-500 mm on a Nikon D7000 and I am not having any of the issues you mention.

Have you tried to fine tune the focus for the Sigma?
http://digital-cameras.wonderhowto.com/how-to/fine-tune-your-af-nikon-dslr-334478/