My big zoom is back!

I was able to pick up my Sigma 150-600 mm Contemporary lens from the camera shop on Friday afternoon. I am happily back out shooting with it again. The problem with the zoom mechanism locking up is gone, and the repair gave me another fix I wasn’t expecting.

Ever since my Canon R7 arrived several months ago, I’ve had problems with a long lag in the camera turning on when the Sigma lens is attached. I learned to listen for a whirring noise coming from the lens before the camera would turn on — a problem I don’t have with my shorter Canon zooms or my Canon pancake lens.

While panicked at first thinking the camera was the problem, I eventually realized the issue was with the Sigma alone, and I learned to have a little patience each time I’d turn the camera on. I chalked the issue up to an older, large lens doing its best to connect to a new mirrorless camera.

But once I mounted the Sigma on the R7 after the repair, I discovered that the camera now turns on instantly, just as it does with my other lenses. So the lag time with the Sigma pre-repair was truly a problem with the lens, one that needed fixing. I’m thankful that it was solved along with the zoom jams.

The Sigma is now working flawlessly, including the zoom locking switch, which had been balky before.

While bird traffic seems to be picking up, there was not a whole lot of activity at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm or Trenton marsh yesterday, and it was a similar story today at the Millstone River Impoundment and the Dyson Tract along the Delaware and Raritan Canal.

An American robin was surprisingly cooperative at the canal, posing what to me almost seemed as if it were a high school senior portrait session. The bird was on a branch at eye level to me, turning left and right before flying off.

The Pole Farm highlight was a song sparrow singing just off the edge of one of the trails, and one of those images tops this post.