Sigma has pulled the covers off its newest lens and, as the name suggests, the 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport will be of great interest to action photographers looking to gain a longer focal length without breaking the bank.
Designed for Sony’s E-mount and the L-mount used by brands including Sigma, Leica and Panasonic with its full-frame mirrorless cameras such as the S1, the focal length of 150-600mm will be of particular interest to wildlife photographers who wish to capture frame-filling images of subjects from a distance.
Costing around $1500 / £1200, the latest Sigma telezoom boasts some seriously impressive specifications, including Optical Stabilization (OS) technology that offers up to 4-stops of compensation – most useful when using a longer focal length, especially in low light conditions.
Other pro features include a dust and splash resistant construction and a 25 elements in 15 groups design that includes premium glass and coating features to enhance quality. What’s more, at the wide (150mm) end of the focal range, the 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport offers a closest focusing distance of just 58cm.
But what if you need even more focal range? Well, the 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport is compatible with Sigma’s 1.4 and 2x teleconverters, offering up to 1200mm. And if you paired that set-up with an APS-C sensor camera such as Sony’s a6600, then the 1.5x crop factor would increase this focal range to an astonishing 1800mm. Wow!
Sigma’s 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport features a Focus Limiter switch offering three-zone AF modification, which helps to speed up autofocus performance, and on the L-Mount it is possible to set a custom focusing limit via the Sigma’s USB dock. There’s also three AFL buttons which photographers can assign various functions to, which will speed up operation out in the field.
Despite tipping the scales at just 2.1kg, the lens (which is available from late August) comes with a tripod collar, which many photographers will use to steady the lens on a monopod. Other features include a dual action zoom, which supports both straight zoom and ring zoom, along with a newly incorporated Zoom Torque switch, with which you can change the resistance of the zoom ring and lock it at the wide end, ensuring ease of zoom operation as well as elimination of zoom creep.
