Reviewed: Sigma 8-16mm F/4.5-5.6 DC HSM

Verdict: This lens is an exceptionally wide APS-C optic with a very impressive image quality. It’s a solid build and is in fact quite heavy. It mounts with a range of cameras but due to the front element, you can’t use filters with this lens.

It offers a full-frame equivalent focal length of 12-24mm and has a variable maximum aperture of f/4.5-5.6. Internally there are 15 elements in 11 groups – 4 FLD (‘F’ Low Dispersion glass, which performs akin to fluorite) and 3 aspherical elements working together to keep chromatic aberration and lens distortion at bay.

A Super Multi-Layer coating on the glass reduces flare and ghosting. At 555g, this is the heaviest APS-C wide-angle lens on test, and measuring 106mm it’s also the longest too. Focusing is set with the HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) and it has a minimum distance of 0.24m. Due to the front element, it’s not possible to use filters with this lens.

Image quality

This super-wide lens boasts impressive image quality, capturing sharp detail across the frame even with the aperture wide open. There was a slight amount of barrel distortion when the zoom was set to 8mm, but this is simple to rectify when editing. We didn’t detect any chromatic aberration in the test images we shot, and found test pics sharp across the aperture and zoom range.

Spec

Mounts: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony

Min aperture: f/22 Elements: 15/11

Filter size: n/a

DxL: 75x106mm

Weight: 555g