Patrick Murphy-Racey shoots the Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM + Sigma MC11 at a football game on the Sony a9 and reports that it performs solidly. The combination doesn’t need to be reset unlike the metabones adapters and will also work very well with the Sony a7RIII. The only downside is that the Sigma 1.4x teleconverter shifts the lens into a AF-S mode, which might be fixed by a firmware update.
When shooting sports Patrick uses expand flexible spot the most and it works very well for him with AF-C. He also uses the Sony 55mm Zeiss on a second body when shooting action up close, which he might blind fire, which is a little odd. It’s also kind of crazy to see how far the ball moves even when shooting at 20fps.
Patrick also does a little mini-review of the Sigma 500mm f/4 at the end and says it’s as good as anything Canon or Nikon have to offer at this time even as adapted glass. It’s less expensive and has a better warranty than the competition and the only lens that might match or beat it is the upcoming Sony 400mm f/2.8.
While the Sigma 1.4x teleconverter won’t AF-C with this setup the Canon 1.4x teleconverter might, but Patrick doesn’t know, so if you do leave a comment for him on the video. It’s always great to help expand the communities knowledge. On a side note, Patrick makes a plea to support local camera shops at the end of his video and while I support this notion be sure you know any local retailer you deal with well because I recently got stuck with an almost 2k junk lens from a small retailer, which isn’t necessarily easy to absorb and even though I am still pretty upset with them I won’t put them on blast, but their name starts with U. Instead, I will say there are still great local retailers like Ace Photo and Dale Photo & Digital that are very helpful, but so are some of the larger online affiliate driven retailers that help support sites like this.
Sony a9: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sony a7RIII: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sigma MC-11: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
