Travel Photography - Sigma Zoom Mounts

how difficult and how expensive is it to swap camera mounts on a Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 APO?

do not yet own the lens or the camera. would probably be between the nikon/canon/olympus groups.

how difficult and how expensive is it to swap camera mounts on a Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 APO?

the short answer is it's not worth it.

the long answer is that it may be possible, but it's not that simple. assuming you can get the parts, you'd have to make sure the flange distance is correct after swapping the mount plate and everything is still properly aligned, but more importantly, the electrical protocol is going to be different so at best you will have a manual focus and manual stop-down aperture lens.

what you can do is get adapter rings for some camera/lens combinations (not all), but you are still limited to manual focus and manual stop-down aperture. however, there is one exception of which i am aware, and that's a nikon lens->canon camera adapter ring that also translates the electrical signals.

do not yet own the lens or the camera. would probably be between the nikon/canon/olympus groups.

maybe i'm missing something but if you don't yet have the lens or camera, why is this a concern? why not just buy the lens in the appropriate mount when you buy the camera?

also, olympus 4/3rds has a smaller sensor and their lenses do not cover as big of an image circle as nikon/canon, so even if you could pull this off, you would have some vignetting. on the other hand, nikon/canon lenses cover a larger image circle than what 4/3rds needs and the 4/3rds cameras have a shallower flange distance (especially micro 4/3), so it's easy to use nikon/canon lenses with adapter rings, but you still have the problem with everything being manual.

In the good old days you could by cheap converters but things are too complicated today with the computers in the cameras and the feedback from the lens.

Pick a system, any system and stick with it. (I picked Canon)

The short answer is, the cheapest solution to changing mounts is to sell the original stuff on ebay and then buy whatever new lenses you want.

thanks. will buy lens first,camera second. is to be a dedicated camera for wife to photograph bluebirds on the deck, about 15-20' from the door. this year the A brood had 5, B had 5 and C fledged yesterday, with 4.

wife has taken over 1000 photos this year using a panasonic FZ-18. want to get a better lens for her.

thanks. will buy lens first,camera second. is to be a dedicated camera for wife to photograph bluebirds on the deck, about 15-20' from the door. this year the A brood had 5, B had 5 and C fledged yesterday, with 4.

wife has taken over 1000 photos this year using a panasonic FZ-18. want to get a better lens for her.You're not going to find a much better lens than the Leica glass on that camera. What you can get, though, is a larger sensor, hence better IQ with a lens of comparable quality. I think you should figure out the best combo for what you want and go from there.