The winner is… Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM | S

All this month’s lenses are winners, but one really stands out from the crowd

It’s hard to pick a single winner in this month’s Big Test. The whole idea was select the winning lenses in all of the most popular categories for shooting on DX and FX format DSLRS so, to a fairly major extent, every one’s a winner. If we had to pick just one lens to put on the top step of the podium, however, it would be the Sigma 70-200mm Sports. It’s a phenomenal lens that works brilliantly well for action sports, wildlife and event/wedding photography, and even for portraiture. It’s right at home on Nikon’s FX format DSLRS and works equally well on DX bodies, where it gives a more generous ‘effective’ telephoto zoom range of 105-300mm.

Specifically for DX format DSLRS, Tamron has really upped its game with the latest 10-24mm wide-angle zoom. Build quality, handling and image quality are all superb, making the lens great value at the price. Nikon’s own DX 16-80mm and DX 18-200mm are the best-buy standard zoom and superzoom lenses respectively, whereas the FX format 70-300mm is the perfect compact, lightweight telephoto zoom for both DX and FX DSLRS. In the FX camp, Sigma is all-conquering in the wide-angle, standard, telephoto and super-telephoto categories.