Photography News Issue 66

Photography News | Issue 66 | photographynews.co.uk

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First tests

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DGOS HSM £1899

Specs

Sigma’s 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM offers a unique range of focal lengths – a 10x zoom range reaching 600mm, which makes it suitable for all sorts of subjects. So, is it the ultimate all rounder? It’s available in Sigma, Canon EOS and Nikon F and we tested the latter to find out. Sigma’s Sport series is built for durability and the 60-600mm is no exception. It’s weather sealed and has oil, water and dirt-repellent coatings on the 105mm front element. The lens’s body is made of magnesium alloy and tough thermal resistant plastic, and it feels very solid with no rattling or slack. There’s also a hefty tripod collar with an integrated Arca- compatible base plate, and the latter has 1/4in and 3/8in threads for direct mounting. The collar can be rotated, of course, and helpfully includes stops at 90°. The foot can be reversed or removed entirely if needed using four screws on its underside, and the collar has metal loops, presumably for attaching a strap. The foot also makes a good carry handle. As a heavy lens – 2.7kg – mounting it on a gimbal is a good option, but it’s not so hefty to stop you swinging it about handheld. I spent several hours with it at a time and it wasn’t too tiring, but that was moving, shooting, and moving again – extended hand holding would be a test of endurance. The 60-600mm handles well, despite its size. That said, you certainly feel the additional effort of zooming the front element back and forth. The large, well grooved

Price

£1899

Format Full-frame Mount Nikon F, Canon EF, Sigma Autofocus Yes with manual override Construction

25 elements in 19 groups Special lens elements 3x FLD and 1x SLD Coatings Anti-reflective, fluorine Filter size 105mm Aperture range F/4.5 to f/32 Diaphragm Nine blades Internal focus Yes Minimum focus 60cm Focus limiter Yes, 60cm to 6m, 6m to infinity Maximummagnification 1:3.3 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser Yes Tripod collar Yes Lens hood Included Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (dxl) 120x269mm retracted Weight 2700g Contact sigma-imaging-uk.com

zoom ring sits naturally under your supporting hand, but the ring does take some pushing. Going from 60mm to 600mm is achieved in about 120º of turn, though practically it took me three movements to go from near to far. This was fast enough to switch framing easily. When you’ve found the focal length for the subject, it’s natural to move the left hand to cup the large lens hood, providing extra stability, but at the 600mm setting and with the lens hood fitted, the lens reaches about 43cm long, which is quite a stretch. Conversely, when zoomed back to 60mm and with the lens hood reversed for travel, it actually feels quite compact at about 26cm. Mounted to a Nikon D850 it fitted into my Lowepro Flipside Sport 20L, but took the length of the bag. Such a big zoom is likely to creep when swung about, but helpfully the 60-600mm will lock at each of its marked focal lengths, and though the lock button is easy to find with your thumb, as it’s right behind the zoom ring, a harder turn on the ring will unlock the zoom, too. Further back towards the mount is another large, well-grooved ring for manual focus, which turns lightly and smoothly, though, like the zoom

ring, in the opposite direction to Nikon’s own lenses, which caused me a little grinding of brain gears. There’s a focus distance window, and the minimum is 60cm, rising to 2.6m at 600mm. The shortest distance is actually at 200mm, and you can get some nice close-ups there. Closest to the camera are four switches to control the focus mode, focus range, stabilisation and custom settings, the latter of which includes variable AF speed and is programmed using Sigma’s optional USB dock. Because of the sheer length of the lens, it takes quite a large movement to get from the zoom ring to the switches, and with the tripod foot hanging in its standard position below the lens, I found it blockedmy hand. Fortunately you can swing it away and lock it there, and I found it best in the four o’clock position when handholding. There’s not a big difference in the feel of the buttons, but you soon get to know which is which, and they can largely be set prior to shooting. The focusing switch includes the usual AF and MF, but also an MO (manual override) setting, that allows you to switch to manual focus by rotating the focus ring even when shooting in continuous AF. The lens won’t then return to AF unless you settings, which will probably get the most use, the lens is a great performer, though sharpness does decrease slightly. Again, the wide open setting is good, improving to its peak within a couple of stops. Really then, sharpness depends more on your technique than the optics, which are certainly pulling their weight. Resolution does tail off at the small apertures, as expected, and though the widest apertures do suffer from a little vignetting and fringing, it’s nothing that good processing won’t remove.

Mounting it on a gimbal is a good option, but it’s not so hefty to stop you swinging it about handheld

Image quality

The versatility of the 60-600mm is huge, but of course the all- important factor is how well it can resolve those far off details. Very well, we found. Using a Nikon D850 and shooting through the focal lengths sharpness, fringing and vignetting from the widest to the smallest f/ stop checked. The images on the following page were shot in Raw and processed with default sharpening. The camera and lens were locked onto a Gitzo Systematic 3 carbon tripod.

Images Zooming in from 60mm to 600mm shows the lens’ versatility

Starting wide, centre sharpness was good at f/4.5, improving quickly to f/5.6 and beyond. Edge sharpness caught up quickly, too.

Performance remains very good throughout the zoom range, hitting peak a few stops down from the maximum aperture. At the longest

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