Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM review - Autofocus

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Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM

17 May 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

10. Autofocus

The Sigma 50–500 mm f/4.5–6.3 APO DG OS HSM, as the name itself indicates clearly, is equipped with an ultrasonic Hyper Sonic Motor autofocus. Due to that fact the autofocus mechanism works silently and relatively quickly. Running through the whole scale takes about one second. It could be sped up if the manufacturer used a focus limiter. The Sigma boasts a quite nice substitute of a macro mode and its minimum focusing distance is really short. The macro mode is something we won’t always need and a focus limiter, ranging from, say, 3 metres to infinity would allow an additional acceleration of the autofocus and it would make the fans of wildlife and sport photography, as well as spotters, very happy.

The Sigma’s specimen, which fell into our hands, was the first and, for some time, the only one in Poland. Despite this fact, its cooperation with our editorial 50D was flawless. There were no front or back focus tendencies, the lens locked onto the subject with authority at all focal lengths so we didn’t need the autofocus calibrating option, available in the camera’s menu.

When it came to the accuracy, it was the same story. The tested model didn’t cause us any serious problems and the number of misses in studio conditions reached just 3%.

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