Sigma 1000mm f8 APO
Fact: this lens is enormous and heavy. It dwarfs the camera to which it is attached and challenges the stability of my heaviest tripod. It is also f8. However, looking through the viewfinder on a bright, sunny day, the view is clear and manual focus easily achieved.
I attached a Canon 600 camera to the lens, which worked competently enough. This basic camera body exemplifies the wisdom that you should invest in good glass over and above expensive cameras. The quest remains, however, is this a good lens? Well, it’s okay and it may be better than that if you can control all of the challenges it presents. You must have a solid tripod with a good tripod head to provide a stable platform on which to mount it. A problem that I had was keeping the lens steady for each frame. I mostly shot wide open at 1/250th sec and would have chosen a faster shutter if I could. This meant very shallow d.o.f. but when I tried to shoot at 1/125th sec or 1/60th sec I got some camera movement recorded in the photograph. This is especially the case in close- up’s, which with this lens is around 15 metres and makes for softness in the image at the very least. I think all of my images are slightly soft and this might be the reason.
Another challenge is just what to take with this lens; I think at f8 it might be a bit slow for wildlife, candids don’t bare thinking about and landscapes require the vistas of the African savannah or the pure, cold air and landscapes of Iceland or the Arctic circle. I went to Dartmoor.
Good late afternoon sunshine meant nicely outlined features and good shadow contrast, but this lens is not overly contrasty and not much in the way of bokeh, even though I shot at max aperture. In mitigation, some shots were well over 500 yards and atmospheric haze was strong. Over long distances, the camera’s autofocus searched a lot and I was not always convinced that it nailed it every time; overall, I preferred to use manual focus which allowed me more control over where to concentrate the focal point. Scenes 150 yards away were still relatively close up, but not close enough to single out a specific feature, which you could do at around the 50 to 75 yard mark. I thought that this distance would make for some interesting subjects, but you could achieve similar effects with a much shorter focal length. Out towards infinity, haze meant loss of detail regardless of brilliant sunshine. This could be used to advantage; the image of the bales wrapped in plastic work as a soft image with the faded background. Add a flight of crows and you have a perfect photograph. That picture was taken at around 600 yards and I cropped in slightly. A closer image of the fence post, at around 50 to 60 yards also works, in my opinion and both manually focused. Each of these photographs were taken from different vantage points and camera positions and show a range of capabilities of this lens, but I have exhausted the posibilities thereafter, from my perspective.
This lens has range if you cannot get close to your subject; it is not especially sharp and it needs sturdy support. It is easy to use and manually focus. It weighs a ton, so don’t expect to take it hiking. But, if you need its 1000mm reach it is pretty much okay and for better performance, short focal distance at say f4 / f5.6 expect to pay big. As for f1.4 fuggeddaboutit!
By Richard de Bulat
Richard de Bulat (@arcendeavour) • Instagram photos and videos
