Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM lens review with samples 

my bank account is currently cowering in fear after clicking on this video

i used this lens for about 3 years as a semi-pro sports shooter. Had zero issues with its AF and the images it created were amazing. only sold as I changed systems. Great value for those who want the canon/nikon prime look for a lot less money FYI the sigma dock can be used to change the AF performance

I can not believe how sharp the lens is. This is amazing! A mono/tripod is a must though.

I owned one of these and used it with the mc11 adapter on my a7r3 and loved it, fantastic image quality. My only complaint was after it got wet once the focus went stiff and it had to go in to sigma twice for repair.

The strange thing about this lens is that it has three autofocus speed settings and it does not come standard with the fastest setting turned on. Once you plug it into a Sigma Dock and select the fastest focus speed you will see a big difference. I had one of these to go with my Nikon Z9 for a while and the autofocus was as fast as my 200mm F2 VR GII and that thing is fast. Anyway great lens, super duper sharp and with some very nice rendering. I only changed it out for the 800MM Z lens.

Sigma doesnt have many super telephoto primes, but when they released this one, oh boy.. I'd love to see 400/2.8 or 600/5

I bought this lens like 4 years ago, absolutely excellent. Performs better than the 400 F2.8 G I had. AF speed can be tuned to be faster with the USB dock, also a very nice feature is to be able to set a custom range limiter; keeps the AF from looking for subjects above x meters (get lost on a background). Wake up other manufacturers... There is a reason why it's heavier and bigger than the 500 PF and other telezooms, it just produces a different image... F5.6 or F6.3 will never be F4. I also use that for relatively high res lunar imaging, stacking a Nikon 2x and the Sigma 1.4x TC; using a high res astro camera and proper capture technique, you'd be surprised to see how much details this lens can resolve.

Using it since 2016 with Nikon D500 to do mainly birds in flight, hand helding it... Excellent but heavy. Now I use also the 500/5,6 PF, but it's quality is a bit lower.

I have owned this lens for two plus years, used it with the D500 and D850 for two years, and for close to five months with the Nikon Z9. This lens gives excellent results. I have uploaded a few videos on my channel with this lens. Captures taken with the Sigma 500mm f4 sport and D500, D850 and Z9, different videos with each camera. The autofocus is blazing fast and excellent, and the lens is tack sharp. All my captures are hand held.

the high prices of camera equipment (even the prices of what are considered to be "cheap" lenses) made me give up on this hobby, and yet your presentation, insight and photography skills keep me coming back to these videos

I am using this lense with 1.4x convertor on my D850. Excellent for small birds. Autofocus speed can be moderated through the usb-dock. I always use it on a tripod. There are tests on the web where rhe lense is connected to the Z9. It works flawless. A very underrated lense. Difficult to find new or second hand. If you own one you are happy and lucky.

This lens reminds me so much of the good old Nikkor 500mm f/4 AI-P manual focus lens. I picked one up for about $1,000. For my personal use, paying an extra $5,000 to get autofocus and slightly better image quailty wide open with the Sigma just isn't worth it, and nor could I afford it even if it was for me! Excellent review as always! 🥰

I’ve been researching this lens for the past fortnight and to see a suddenly recent CF’s review of it on my RU-vid feed gave me an absolute heart attack (of joy) 🤭

That lemur shot at 5:53 is great!

Bought this lens as it’s the only logical, non insanely expensive prime lens to use for wildlife photography with the Sony A1, just as sharp as Canons 500 f4 MK2 aswell and works flawlessly with the MC-11. Lens also focuses significantly faster using it on the Sony A1 compared to the R5. *you really should have reviewed this lens adapted to a Sony A1 or A9II, it's a completely different lens on those bodies compared with the R5, this is just a poor representation of the lens.

Clicked on the link and thought it said $599 and I wondered "how have I not heard about this lens before"? So, I took a second look and, *sees $5999* yeah that makes a lot more sense

Just a note. The 's' in Fresnel is silent, it's a common mistake.

At last CF, somebody like you did a review on this lens! Thanks mate! Good review.

Another great review by Christopher Frost. Please consider testing with corrections set to OFF, so we can see the actual lens performance.

Ciao, I had this lens for more than 1 year and was my first very wildlife lens on Nikon system. The optical quality of this lens is not second to anyone, and now that I owe the Nikon 600 f4 fl, I can say it for sure. It gave me some amazing incredible shots. But if the optical quality is outstanding, the price justify the compromise. The weight of the lens is most on the front of the lens, making it harder to carry hand helded , more difficult compare my 600. The VR unfortunately was not helping much. The AF , especially in moving subject was skittish, but even in perching birds I had to shoot several shots with my d850 to get the one, even setting the AF on the camera settings to low values. On the d5 was a bit better but not realible. The faster option was "very" fast but not realiable in my one, the slower was better but as I said, too many shots were "almost" on focus. The worse , and I don't know who was to blame, Sigma never update the firmware since the releasing of the Nikon mount version. Instead, did for Canon. This means that this beauty probably could have been improved to work better. Shame, because, I repeat, the optical is so , so good. Ciao compliment for your channel

This looks like an early Sigma Art lens. I love it. Really nice review as always. I'll keep my eye out for this one. Thank you for always reviewing rarely seen lenses like this one Chris!

I feel like Sigma is gonna make a killing when they get this kind of lens onto mirrorless mounts natively.

Hello Christopher, thanks for the wonderful video (as usual). While you test these kind of long telephoto lenses, may you kindly make a comparison between the Fuji 100-400 and the new Fuji 150-600? That would be very nice. Thanks and keep up the great work ;)

What a beast of a lens. Thanks for your test. Never came across…

Would love to see Sigma make a true mirrorless version of this lens for Sony E. Instant buy

Great review as always, and a great lens for the money. I'm the proud owner of the 120-300 F2.8 love it to bits!!

I believe when it was released it was a very good option, since then a lot have changed... those 150-600 lenses are lighter and 1/3 the price...Nikon 500 pf is less than half the price and weight (although a stop slower) ... And Nikon latest 800mm pf is about 3lb lighter and within the price range ... In the super telephoto regime DSLRs still have extremely sharp lenses... mirrorless versions are only improved regarding the weight

Would love to see more love for f/4. It seems that right now after the 70 to 200 or 120 to 300 2.8 most of the mainstream lenses being made and talked about go straight to 5.6 or 6.3 or 6.7. Of course lens companies know their business and their customers better than I do. And they know they're going to sell more 5.6 plus lightweight lenses. Because people are so focused more on the mm over the f.

What a beautiful specimen indeed...Dear Santa!!

Having owned one of these lenses for 7 years I have had a lot of success with it for wildlife. I started using it on a 1DX, but found the resolution so good I now use it all the time on a 5DS (50 mps) , when the light is poor use a 5d iii. What will be of interest to all its the autofocus is no where near as good on an adapted camera as it is on a native EF body. My wife has a sony A9 and with the MC 11 adaptor its just not as good. I have also found that the best results by miles are obtained on a good solid tripod and gimbal mount.of It negates the use of Image stabilisation anyway (I turn it off). One other good feature about this lens is sigma provides a protection filter 132mm dia which has saved the day a couple of times, With canon you have to replace the front element. As far as I know the front element on canon is plain glass anyway it a shame you cannot change it yourself. Its a steal at 2/3rds the price of the Canon eqivalent its a shame, Sigma do not port this lens to Sony as Im sure it would make the autofocus issues go away. And the if the IS was improved it would be a killer lens.

It would be interesting to see a comparison between this and the Sigma 150-600 Sports, both at 500mm.

Nice!! I was thinking I will not be back here in years because most of the new reviews are related to new mirrorless lenses but I was wrong :D

Thanks Chris!! Realising that R5 + adapter + Sigma 500mm f4 totals $11000 (US) VS Z9 + Z 400mm 4.5 $8750. The level of final detail obtained from Z system is twice superior than the tried set, lighter, centered weight, one battery is enough, better DR. It´s a "cheaper" moment for birding :)

Wow this lovely monster review! Something tells me it's dg dn mirrorless version is coming soon with less than the half of this one's weight! Well let's be hopeful!

"this thing really is more for sports photographers" - well, carrying it around is a certainly a sport in its own right.

Great review!!

If I get a good win on the lotto I'd have one. I'm use to using its slightly smaller sibling the 150-600 sport. Be perfect lens for my hobbyist Motorsport photography.

You need to make sure it has the latest firmware installed for use with the canon R5 ,if not the speed of the auto focus is not very good at all .I have had the lens for about 4 years now fantastic image quality.

I need this to be DG DN OS for Sony.

It's a great lens! Use one with my R6 and couldn't be happier! Great quality with thr 1.4x converter too. Also great book by frank turek!

I had one for a while. Then I got the Canon 500 f/4 II. The Canon is noticeably better, but the Sigma is probably 90% of the performance for 2/3 of the price, and it really is pretty much the "cheapest" way to get into premium super telephoto territory. Pretty poor resale value, though. I ended up selling mine for about half what I paid.

Shiesh, seems like a pretty good offering! I still am far away from spending 6k on a lens, but if i would, a used version of this lens might actually find a place in my camerabag! Thanks for your review, superb as always!

Really wish they make it native for Sony

Amazing lens! How does it fair in continuous autofocus?

Hi Chris, wasn't the AF faster in servo like with Sony AF system? Have you tried that? Thanks

SIGMA always make lenses in beast mode. Have a few myself. Btw Chris, got the R7. A great camera. Magnificent focus. Would be interested to hear your take.

Waiting for Tamron 17-70 f2.8 vs Fuji 16-55 f2.8 vs Fuji 18-55 f2.8-f4 comparison video

how does this lens compare to a canon 500mm f4 ?

Do you think the association between canon R6 and sigma 500mm works well (autofocus)?

wow what a behemoth 😯😯😯

Did you test out the Canon 400mm DO lens? That thing only weighs about 2kg

has any one compared the sigma 500mm f4 vs the canon 500mm ef F4 II and in particular stablisation ???

lol thats cute - my old nikon 600mm f4 is 6.3kg - do some pushups 💪

Dear Chris. I am just curious as to why there hasn't been a video on the Sony 24, 40, 50 tiny G series lenses. I have bought so many lenses after watching your reviews. Thanks.

Got to love it when value lenses are 6 grand 😅

Oft Hard enough carrying the sigma F2.8 70-200mm sports on a Nikon z6ii,

Usd 6k best value 😆 I like the humor

We are Canon people. Stop Sony videos. Enough. We need more RF third part lens videos. Thank you.

6.5K to 8.2K € best value, OMG 😱

was he hacked? Everybody has same message

I would never compare a non Canon L series lens, to an actual L series lens.

it seems to me sigmas os is way inferrior to canons IS.

Sigma does not make lenses for the Pentax system so I no way to use the lens on my cameras so my bank account is protected.

Voir canon reflex