I felt the Contemporary is more than adequate for a hobbyist such as myself. I found the lens performed better with larger sensors than it did with the APS-C sensor in my 7D2. I’ve suspected that this is largely due to he low light performance of the 7D2. You should always get excellent results on bright sunny day. My experience with the 7D2 was not as great on partially cloudy or bright cloudy days. But the 7D2 images always seemed softer than my 1D4.
It is my understanding the the biggest difference between the the “C” and the “S” is build quality. I am told that the image quality is very similar. You will likely find yourself going through a lengthy calibration process to get the best results.
I did not get the best results from the 150-600mm “C” until I performed a focus calibration using the “Dot Tune Calibration” on it. Because I wanted to use the lens with multiple camera bodies, the AFMA was a lengthy process that took several months from late spring to early fall. I was only doing the work on weekends. I had purchased the lens over the previous spring, when it was on sale with the SIGMA DOCK. I needed to do the calibrations outdoors because of the 600mm focal length.
The camera bodies I had at the time were the 6D and 1D4. I purchased a 7D2 in early summer. I purchased a full frame 6D2, over the 5D4, the following summer for its improved AF and lower noise over the 6D and 1D4.
My lens had been calibrated to the 6D with excellent results. My only complaints with the 6D were frame rate and limited AF points. Because I would be using the lens with multiple bodies I cleared out the “in-lens” calibration performed with the 6D back to factory settings.
With the 6D, my copy tended to back focus at the short end and front focus at the long end. After repeated tests with the three bodies, I confirmed similar front and back focus behavior with every camera body. Note, I did not make any focus adjustments at this time, not yet.
I went back into the lens and added a modest amount of correction at the long and short ends. I retested every body to see if they still exhibited front and back focusing. They did, just not as much. I recalibrated the lens and retested the camera bodies until I settled on a set of lens calibrations that seemed to work with each lens.
Note, the lens had not yet been calibrated “in-camera” with each body. Once I found a “generic” calibration in the lens, I began to calibrate to each camera. When it comes to AFMA, I am not “one and done,”. I will retest the lens to see if results are repeatable.
If my test results are not repeatable, then I feel my testing methods are flawed in some way. I discovered that it is far easier to get AFMA wrong than it is to get it right. After a couple of false starts and meticulous patience, I was eventually able to get all three camera bodies calibrated.
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"Fooling computers since 1972."
