[john1938]

I recently purchased at the marketplace 170-500 Sigma. I know on this forum some people have taken excellent pictures with this lens. I looked at the Bigma and the 150-500, but because of weight and expense I decided to give this lens a shot. I have no experience with long lenses so I would appreciate any comments or suggestions that might help. I received the lens today and attached it to my K5. Played around a little bit with it on a tripod and handheld. Wasn't completely satisfied with the results, but this is most likely the photographer rather than the lens. My logic for purchasing this lens was that with the new K5's dynamic range and high ISO capabilities a slow lens like this wouldn't be as much of a problem as it would be using my K20. The shot is the first one that I consider reasonable. The conditions weren't particularly good. The little guy was under my deck on his/her nest where it is very dark and I had to shoot through lattice. I took three shots and only one I considered satisfactory. I shot raw and made some adjustments in raw and did a crop.

[GaryH]

Looks like you are off to a good start. I use a Monopod or Tripod almost exclusively with the Bigma. Both help to steady it for longer shots at 500mm. Enjoy your new lens.

[john1938]

Thanks for the comment and the advice

[Kailash]

Hi John,

i have this lens and have managed some reasonable shots with it, i have a few up in my pentax album https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/kailash-albums.html need to upload a few more
While this lens will not live up to the fast big glass it is light and portable and if you use it in the right conditions should get you some pretty good images. i tend to use manual focus with this lens as it seems to be a bit off with its autofocus (could just be a matter of calibrating it to the camera) make sure the light is from behind you and bring it back a few stops from wide open. i find f8 to be its sweet spot. also as with any long lens watch the shutter speed, depending on your technique you should be able to pull of shots at 1/125 and faster hand held with shake reduction on. The K5 should get you a let you bump the iso a bit more than i can with the K7 but i would still recommend keeping it as low as possible

Hope this is of some help and good luck with the lens

[RonHendriks1966]

Looks nice. I owned a copy for some time. Used it only on good light conditions. My copy was crisp sharp with f9-f11. Using a tripod is a good advice. Have fun with it.

[jon pafford]

i have the sigma 170-500 dg apo f5.0-6.5. i call the lens my little bigma because it is smaller and lighter than my sigma 50-500 lens. I have the sigma 170-500 on the kr and a tarmon 18-250 on the k7. When I carry the sigma 170-500, i carry it in a holster case. consquently I do not have to switch lens.