Originally posted by kristoffon The point is the 100-300mm sucks at the 500mm focal length. Do you get a better picture cropping from the 300mm or straight from the 500mm lens?
If you really want 500mm I wager there's no more cost-effective option than the sigmas. I've been tempted by them for a long time. OTOH if 300mm is enough for you...
The pictures I took at Shoreham were a bit of a play off of the 150-500 against the DA*300. I was rather surprised to find that there wasn't really a clear winner. I was pleased with the results from both lenses.
The weekend after that, I was at another show where the weather was not as good. This was where the 300 really came into it's own. It is quite happy at F4. To get the 150-500 sharp at 500mm, it has to be stopped down to F9 or smaller.
As to the TC, I have a Tamron 1.4x, and pictures taken witheither lens are definately second division compared with crops without the TC.
I'm sure Mike (Hi Mike) would be able to tell you when the Bigma becomes sharp, but my impression is that it will ultimately give a beter IQ than the 150-500.