SIGMA 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C

Sigma upgrades and upsizes its telephoto offering for the budget market sector

£679/$609

In days gone by, Sigma and Tamron were renowned for their third-party 70-300mm zooms, which delivered good performance while heavily undercutting the cost of own-brand alternatives. They also dabbled in smaller tele zooms for Canon APS-C formats, but they’ve fallen by the wayside. As part of its ‘Global Vision’ line-up, Sigma has reinvented the budget tele zoom in the shape of this 100-400mm Contemporary lens, while Tamron followed hot on its heels.

This lens measures 86x182mm and weighs 1160g, making it shorter, but marginally heavier, than the competing Tamron. That said, it’s just 100g heavier than the Canon 70-300mm L-series on test. The Sigma is the only one of the three for which there’s no optional tripod mounting ring.

The optical path includes four SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, AF is of the fast yet whisper-quiet ring-type ultrasonic variety, and the four-stop image stabilizer has a switchable panning mode, for panning in any orientation. Dual-mode switchable

AF can give priority to AF or manual override, there’s a short/ long AF range limiter switch, and two switchable ‘custom’ modes, which you can set up using Sigma’s optional USB Dock.

Performance

Levels of sharpness were a little uninspiring during our tests but, in real-world shooting, the Sigma proved sharp in the 100-300mm section of its zoom, and didn’t drop off much at 400mm. The wealth of switchable modes and customizable options also boosts real-world handling and performance.