Photography News Issue 68

Photography News | Issue 68 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Sigma70-200mmf/2.8DGOSHSMSports £1349

Specs

Sigma’s 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Sport completes the company’s line- up of cutting-edge f/2.8 zooms, and it’s available in Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts. On paper, its features put it on par with the Canon and Nikon versions, but the 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OSHSMSport costs a lot less. It’s £1349, undercutting the CanonEF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS III and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E VR by over £700. But can it compete in build, handling and results? Broadly, yes. It packs a tremendous punch compared to its price tag. The lens’s build is excellent, with a brass mount, magnesium alloy barrel and bags of weather sealing, but this comes at a cost in weight. At 1800g it’s well above the Canon and Nikon competitors. But its weight is really all there is to criticise. Despite the heft, it handles quite well, with a large, grippy zoom ring. If you’re a Nikon user like me, you might occasionally forget it turns the ‘wrong’ way when composing, but, at less than 90º, the throw is short enough for this not to be a problem. Behind the zoom are three function buttons. Defaulting to AF lock, these can be customised to other functions like AF-On, or specific AF modes, and worked faultlessly with the D850 I used for testing. The 70-200mm f/2.8 Sport includes a tripod collar with a handy Arca- compatible foot, but though the latter canbe removedusingan includedAllen key, the ring itself can’t be. That’s a pity, as it might have shaved a few grams off

Prices

£1349

Format Full-frame Mount Nikon F, Canon EF, Sigma Autofocus Yes with manual override Construction 24 elements in 22 groups Special lens elements 9 x FLD and 1 x SLD elements Coatings Super Multi-Layer Coating, Fluorine on front element Filter size 82mm Aperture range F/2.8 to f/22 Diaphragm 11 blades, rounded Internal focus Yes Minimum focus 120cm Focus limiter Yes, 3m to infinity and full Maximummagnification 1:4.8 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale No Image stabilizer Yes Tripod collar Yes Lens hood Included Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (dxl) 94.2x202.9mm Weight 1805g Contact sigma-imaging-uk.com

Image The 70-200mm f/2.8 Sport puts in an excellent performance at a great price

the weight, and support isn’t as vital on a 70-200mm as longer lenses. I also found the foot got in the way as I moved myhandtowardsthemanualfocusring. The lens felt well balanced on a big DSLR body like the Nikon D850 with MB-D18 grip. On smaller bodies, it felt quite front heavy, but not problematically so. The advantage of using it on an APS-C sensor is you’re getting a 105-300mm f/2.8, which is quite a tasty prospect. At the long end, I’d expect to shoot handheld with confidence at 1/200sec, but with the Optical Stabiliser’s four-

The Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Sport is a high-quality, versatile and comparatively affordable lens when you consider the big name competition. It’s exceptionally well made, handles nicely and gives beautifully sharp pictures at every stage of its zoom. The weight may be an issue for some, but it depends on your shooting style. That said, I did find it more of a drag for extended shooting than I did the Nikon version. Overall, it’s highly recommended. We found sharpness excellent, too. In the centre, at 70mm, it’s brilliant wide open, hits a peak around f/5.6, and tails slowly off from there, but it’s still really good even past f/11. In the corners it’s less good, but not by much, peaking from f/4 to f/8. At 135mm, the lens seemed sharpest wide open, and improved in the corners to f/8. It was a similar story at 200mm, with the lens being sharpest from f/2.8 to f/5.6 right where youwant it. KS Verdict same as the Canon version, but gives up 10cm to the Nikon f/2.8E. That doesn’t sound a lot, but could mean the difference between grabbing a shot and having to move your feet. AF can be limited to 3m to infinity if you have foreground obstructions, and along with AF and MF there’s an MO mode, where the manual focus ring overrides AF.TheMFringoperatesperfectly,with a long throw that improves accuracy whenmakingminor adjustments. Image quality is excellent. The lens uses nine FLD (Fluorite Low Dispersion) and one SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, and their effect is clear. For one thing, there’s almost no sign of fringing, and though there is somevignetting,particularlywideopen, it’s mostly gone by f/5. Flare is minimal, although we did get a few blooms shooting in the sun, but contrast is kept high thanks to the coated elements.

stop advantage, I got almost all shots sharp at 1/13sec, accounting for subject blur. It’s possible to go slower still, and I got sharp results down to 1/4sec, but the hit ratewill dropdepending on your handling skills and subject. There’s an OS mode for panning, accessible from the lens barrel, too. AF performance is excellent, locking onandholdingmovingsubjectsinfocus with the tenacity you’d expect from a pro lens, and it’s speedy, moving from near to far with a real snap. AF is also quiet, so potentially usable in discrete situations. Minimum focus is 1.2m, the

70mm

135mm

200mm

F/2.8

F/4

F/5.6

F/8

F/11

F/16

F/22

Pros Image quality, AF, build, price Cons High weight, can’t remove tripod collar