Sigma 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS Review

DCW or DigitalCameraWorld reviewed the Sigma 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS. This lens was a stealthy Canon RF-S mount release, which I was very intrigued by, given how well it performed.

Make no mistake about it, it's a consumer lens - but such a long zoom ratio does have its uses when you just want to grab a camera and a lens and go, knowing that you'll be taking pictures over a very diverse field of view. I've been lectured that the professionals always use their feet. However, I'm sure that won't help you take a picture of a leopard if you have a 50mm lens attached; if you attempt to take that photo, the leopard just may just eat your face, though.

DCW's pros and cons are about what I would expect from a superzoom of this nature.

Pros

Huge 18.75x zoom range
Quick autofocus
Effective optical stabilization
Up to 0.5x macro magnification

Cons

Fairly slow long-zoom aperture
Large physical extension with zoom
Variable closest focus distance
No A/M focus nor OS on/off switches

What impressed me is that under the pros, is all the things you'd want a lens like this to be good at. Decent autofocus and stabilization and a macro magnification as an added bonus.

The resolution charts don't show L glass level of resolution but they look decent. I wouldn't necessarily pixel peep to 100% when you use this lens, but for most use cases, this resolution is perfectly fine.

DCW concludes;

You might question the point of buying an ‘interchangeable lens camera’ if you’re only going to stick one lens on it and use that for everything. And you’d be right. But I really feel that while the Sigma 16-300mm doesn’t preclude the use of other lenses, it’s incredibly attractive as a travel and walkabout lens, when I want to avoid the hassle of carrying a kit back with a variety of lenses in it. Another bonus is that I can react to all sorts of shooting scenarios instantly, for example taking a wide-angle landscape shot and zooming in to photograph a distant animal or bird, without missing the shot because I was swapping between lenses at the time. The addition of up to 0.5x macro magnification is an extra bonus in terms of versatility.

This is, in fact, the primary reason why I'll most likely purchase this lens.