Not Quite Carry-Friendly
Let’s face it, lenses that go to telephoto extremes—and 600mm qualifies—are a size up from zooms that finish around 400mm. But photographers still use them, as the extra reach is useful for wildlife, field sports where you’re positioned far away from the action, and other situations where you want to punch in for a tight view.
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(Credit: Jim Fisher)
Even so, the 60-600mm goes slightly beyond the norm. It measures 11.0 by 4.7 inches (HD) and tips the scales at 5.5 pounds. I’m not ashamed to admit that after a couple of weeks of lugging it around on my morning walk, the arthritis in my strap shoulder was screaming at me to pick up a more sensible lens.
And there are more carry-friendly options to consider—the Tamron 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 is a similarly minded lens that comes in at 2.5 pounds. If you’re after 600mm reach, the Sigma 150-600mm Sports is by no means light, but it’s not quite as much of a strain to carry at 4.6 pounds. The Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 provides a comfortable middle ground at 4.1 pounds.
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Like most zooms, the 60-600mm’s inner barrel telescopes out to zoom (Credit: Jim Fisher)
Tamron makes its competing zooms for Sony E-mount, while Sigma offers up both this 60-600mm and its 150-600mm for two systems: Sony and L-mount Alliance. The type of camera you own has some influence over your options, and Sony owners typically have more choices than photogs using Leica, Panasonic, or Sigma L-mount bodies.
The construction quality is as robust as you’d expect from Sigma’s top class of lens. The barrel is a mix of magnesium, carbon fiber, and thermally stable composite, and is matched with a carbon fiber hood. The hood latches onto the outer barrel and tightens with a thumb screw. It’s reversible for storage, and can be used along with a slip-on soft lens cap to protect the front element. Threaded filters are supported, but you’ll need to save room in your budget as the 105mm size tends to be expensive.
Sony a7R IV, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/500-second, ISO 1000 (Credit: Jim Fisher)
The lens is weather sealed as well. Sigma doesn’t give it an IP rating, but you can use it comfortably in rainy, snowy, or dusty conditions along with a pro camera. The front element is coated with anti-smudge fluorine, a material that repels water drops and makes it easy to wipe away stray thumbprints with just a microfiber cloth.
A rotating tripod collar with an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod foot are integral to the design; the collar supports 360-degree rotation with 90-degree click stops and is secured with a thumb screw.
The dovetail tripod foot mounts directly into Arca-Swiss heads (Credit: Jim Fisher)
Customers buying the lens in L-mount are able to match with a 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter to extend its focal range. It’s a feature missing from the Sony version of the lens—Sigma doesn’t offer its teleconverters for Sony cameras, and the Sigma lens does not work with Sony’s GM series teleconverters.
Sigma 60-600mm: Performance
Autofocus is very quick and effective in the vast majority of cases, with only occasional hunting when trying to acquire particularly tricky targets. The image stabilizer is highly effective for both static and panning shoots. Contrast and sharpness are impressive at all zoom settings, particularly when shooting wide-open, which is pretty crucial given the typically ‘slow’ aperture rating for a super-tele zoom.
Colour fringing is well controlled and, given the extra-large overall zoom range, distortions are of a fairly low order. As with a growing range of Sigma Global Vision lenses, automatic in-camera corrections are available for most current and recent Canon SLRs, including lateral chromatic aberrations, peripheral illumination and distortion.
Getting acquainted
To get familiar with the lens I mounted my Canon-fit sample to the Sony A7 III via a Sigma MC-11 adapter (updated to version 1.12 firmware) before grabbing it by its permanently fixed tripod collar handle and making a dash to a local game of rugby. In my rush to arrive in time for kick-off it suddenly dawned on me that I’d left my monopod at home – not ideal when you have a lens weighing 2.7kg slung across your shoulder. With no time to nip home and back again, I’d use this as my opportunity to find out how it performs handheld.
AP’s Michael Topham reverted to using the lens handheld at a local game of rugby after accidentally leaving his monopod behind. Image courtesy of Martin Batley
A few minutes into the game I noticed the action was rarely within a 6m range of where I was standing so I changed the focus limit switch from its full position to 6m-infinity. By preventing the lens focusing across its full focus distance I was immediately aware of an improvement in both the speed and accuracy of autofocus. Focus limit adjustment is just one of the settings that can be customized on this lens using Sigma’s USB dock and is well worth taking advantage of if you know roughly how far your subject is going to be from the lens. For sports like rugby, setting the range to around 10m-infinity can yield a better set of results. If you later find you want to disable it, it’s simply a case of turning the assigned custom switch on the barrel (whether it be C1 or C2) to Off.
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport @ 600mm, Sony A7 III with MC-11 adapter, 1/400sec at f/6.3, ISO 640
During spells of action, I supported the front of the barrel in my left hand and operated the zoom using the push/pull method. This got me to where I needed to be in the zoom range faster than using the zoom ring, which isn’t easy to throw from 60mm to 600mm in a single movement when you’re supporting the barrel underneath. I discovered slightly more effort is required to shift the heavy elements to full telephoto than is needed retracting the zoom. That said, the motion back and fourth throughout the zoom range is consistently smooth.
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport @ 600mm, Sony A7 III with MC-11 adapter, 1/1000sec at f/6.3, ISO 1600
Like many heavy telephoto zoom lenses, there’s a tendency for it to creep when it’s pointed down or carried over your shoulder. To avoid this you’ll want to engage the zoom lock. What’s particularly good about the zoom lock is that it can be used at any of the marked focal lengths on the barrel and doesn’t require the switch to be moved to unlock it, just give the zoom ring a sharp twist and it’ll be unlocked instantly. The only exception is at 60mm, where the zoom lock does have to be released using the switch.
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport @ 600mm, Sony A7 III with MC-11 adapter, 1/500sec at f/6.3, ISO 1600
I went into my first experience confident that I’d be able to use the lens handheld, but when the final whistle was blown, I was relieved to call it a day and put it down. By the end I found myself shooting bursts of shots for a minute or two before resting the lens beside me to give my arms a rest. Needless to say, if you’re going to use it for any length of time, supporting it on a monopod or tripod is a must. I didn’t make the mistake of leaving my monopod behind twice.
Build Quality / Handling
Sigma has a reputation for creating well built lenses, particularly in their Sport Series and this lens is no exception. The Sigma 60-600mm is made of a combination of magnesium-alloy, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and thermally stable composite (TSC) materials, with the front and rear lenses incorporating a water and oil-repellent coating, the lens is also dust-proof and splash-proof. Honestly, this lens is built like a tank and at 2700g it could quite easily be used as a battering ram should you have the misfortune to forget your house keys.
The Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens ships with a soft padded case, a shoulder strap, a very large lens hood (LH1144-01) and a nylon front lens cap (LC-740E) that slips over the lens hood when reversed.
The rotating tripod collar features a replaceable Arca-compatible base plate with ¼”-20 and 3/8″ threads, this is something that I really wish Sony would incorporate with their larger zoom lenses to save carrying an additional tripod mounting plate. When you loosen the collar screw to rotate the lens you’ll find that there are notches every 90° which provide a satisfying click, this saves the trouble of lining up white lines.
As for features, the lens offers everything that you would expect from a professional telephoto zoom lens. There’s optical stabilization which offers around 4 stops of compensation and also has two modes – mode 1 that stabilizes both the horizontal and vertical axis, and mode 2 that stabilizes just the vertical axes for panning shots. If you look through the viewfinder at 600mm and toggle the OS on and off you’ll see just how well this works. I was able to shoot pin sharp images handheld at 1/80sec at 600mm with the OS turned on.
The manual easy to grip focus ring is located towards the rear of the lens and it offers just the right amount of resistance, well for me it does as I’m not too keen on focus rings that spin too easily and throw out the focus with the lightest of touches. You can toggle focus on the lens between autofocus (AF), manual override (MO) and manual focus (MF). If you rotate the focus ring when set to MO the lens will jump from autofocus to manual focus.
There’s a focus limiter switch that lets you toggle between the full focus range, 6m-infinity, or the minimum focusing distance of your focal length to 6m, with the later being very useful for close up shots. You can also use the USB dock (sold separately) to customise these ranges to your own needs, as well as customizing the AF speed and optical stabilization effect which can then be saved with the custom C1 and C2 switches. There’s also a distance scale on top of the lens that displays (in feet and meters) the closest focusing distance depending on your focal length.
You operate the zoom by either twisting the large zoom ring or alternatively griping the large rubber ring towards the end of the lens and using the push/pull method. Like most heavy zoom lenses it does creep when pointed downwards, but you can eliminate this with the zoom lock switch. The zoom motion throughout the range is very smooth.
There’s really no getting around the fact that the 60-600 is a big heavy beast of a lens. With the lens weighing 2700g, then add on around 360g for the MC-11 and 1050g for my a9 with the battery grip and you have a total weight of around 4kg. If you handhold this lens for any length of time you may as well cancel your gym membership. I spent hours walking around my local wetland center with the lens attached to a shoulder strap only lifting it to take shots – it was definitely a good workout! Mounting the lens to a monopod or tripod will certainly make life a lot easier for you.
Sigma 60-600mm: Lab tests
Sharpness
Sharpness is measured at the centre and corners of the frame and across the aperture range. Levels of sharpness across the frame are good at shorter focal lengths, but average at 400mm and beyond.
Colour fringing at edge (nearer 0 is better)
Colour fringing is measured at six aperture settings (above). At 600mm it’s well controlled, but you may notice some fringing at shorter focal lengths.
Distortion
Distortion is displayed on a scale of negative values (barrel distortion) through zero (zero distortion) and positive values (pincushion distortion). Barrel distortion at 60mm is noticeable although not severe, transitioning quickly into negligible pincushion distortion from 200mm upwards.
Sigma 60-600mm: Performance
Autofocus is very quick and effective in the vast majority of cases, with only occasional hunting when trying to acquire particularly tricky targets. The image stabilizer is highly effective for both static and panning shoots. Contrast and sharpness are impressive at all zoom settings, particularly when shooting wide-open, which is pretty crucial given the typically ‘slow’ aperture rating for a super-tele zoom.
Colour fringing is well controlled and, given the extra-large overall zoom range, distortions are of a fairly low order. As with a growing range of Sigma Global Vision lenses, automatic in-camera corrections are available for most current and recent Canon SLRs, including lateral chromatic aberrations, peripheral illumination and distortion.
Sigma 60-600 мм: производительность
Автофокусировка очень быстрая и эффективная в подавляющем большинстве случаев, с редкой охотой при попытке захватить особо сложные цели. Стабилизатор изображения очень эффективен как для статической, так и для панорамной съемки
Контрастность и резкость впечатляют при любых настройках зума, особенно при широко открытой диафрагме, что очень важно, учитывая типично «медленную» диафрагму для супертелезуума
Цветовая окантовка хорошо контролируется, и, учитывая очень большой общий диапазон масштабирования, искажения довольно низкого порядка. Как и в случае с постоянно растущим ассортиментом объективов Sigma Global Vision, автоматическая коррекция в камере доступна для большинства современных и последних SLR-камер Canon, включая боковые хроматические аберрации, периферийное освещение и искажения.
Conclusion
| What we like | What we don’t |
|---|---|
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Since the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS | Sports is available on both the Sony E-mount as well as for L-mount cameras from Leica, Panasonic and Sigma, our conclusions will differ depending upon the mount, even though it’s basically the same lens for both platforms.
For L-mount shooters, the 150-600mm is basically unrivaled. The nearest competitor, Sigma’s own 100-400mm optic, just isn’t that close in its intent or capabilities. L-mount shooters also have access to the lens’ maximal versatility, since the company’s customization-friendly USB dock and range-extending teleconverters are only available on that platform.
| ISO 640 | 1/640 sec | F6.3 | 453mm | Panasonic S5Photo by Chris Niccolls, edited in Capture One 21 |
For E-mount owners, however, there are a couple of direct rivals and also some caveats to bear in mind.
The lack of a USB dock accessory for Sony shooters means you have fewer choices when it comes to customization, at least until Sigma releases a similar accessory for E-mount. And the lack of first-party teleconverters for E-mount means that you’ll either be limited to a 600mm telephoto or will have to assume the risk for trying a third-party teleconverter that could, if you’re very unlucky, result in expensive repairs.
| ISO 2500 | 1/640 sec | F6.1 | 429mm | Panasonic S1RPhoto by Jeff Keller |
As for the rivals, the Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 offers significantly better AF performance, is better-suited to video, and has both slightly less heft and a slightly lower price. But to get those, you’ll limit your telephoto possibilities and forego any teleconverter support, as well as having to live with a less-bright maximum aperture towards telephoto. And the Sony 200-600mm offers better AF too, albeit for a much higher price and in a much bulkier package.
But overall, we find the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 to be a compelling offering on both platforms. Ergonomically it’s great, in large part thanks to its clever zoom torque control and the push-pull zooming it allows. It’s also a very sharp lens that’s really not as bulky or expensive as you might expect for its focal range and maximum aperture.
| ISO 100 | 1/160 sec | F7.1 | 459mm | Panasonic S5Photo by Chris Niccolls, edited in Capture One 21 |
And while it’s a bit flare-prone and its bokeh isn’t perfect, it can deliver luscious, creamy backgrounds for many subjects both near and far. Meanwhile, chromatic aberrations are very well controlled. Our major reservations really are around its autofocus speeds. But once you consider its optics, its all-weather versatility, an effective four-stop image stabilizer and a very reasonable price tag, it’s easy to recommend not only for L-mount shooters, but even to those who’ve been considering its E-mount rivals.
Sigma 60-600mm: Build & handling
Build quality feels strong and sturdy, based on magnesium, TSC (Thermally Stable Composite) and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic parts. Extensive weather-seals are fitted around the mounting plate, joints and switches.
Switches are on hand for AF/MO/MF, the mid position giving priority to manual override during autofocus. There’s an autofocus range limiter which can lock out either the short or long end, and a zoom lock switch that you can engage at any marked focal length on the zoom ring. Two switchable custom modes are available, for tweaking the range limiter setting, autofocus speed and stabilizer action, via Sigma’s optional USB Dock.
The lens is supplied with a padded soft case and shoulder strap, plus an extra strap that connects to lugs on the side of the barrel. This avoids placing undue stress on the camera’s mounting plate when carrying the lens. For use with a tripod or monopod, a mounting ring is included with an Arca-Swiss compatible foot that also has 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch threaded sockets.
Sigma 60-600mm: Build & handling
Build quality feels strong and sturdy, based on magnesium, TSC (Thermally Stable Composite) and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic parts. Extensive weather-seals are fitted around the mounting plate, joints and switches.
Switches are on hand for AF/MO/MF, the mid position giving priority to manual override during autofocus. There’s an autofocus range limiter which can lock out either the short or long end, and a zoom lock switch that you can engage at any marked focal length on the zoom ring. Two switchable custom modes are available, for tweaking the range limiter setting, autofocus speed and stabilizer action, via Sigma’s optional USB Dock.
The lens is supplied with a padded soft case and shoulder strap, plus an extra strap that connects to lugs on the side of the barrel. This avoids placing undue stress on the camera’s mounting plate when carrying the lens. For use with a tripod or monopod, a mounting ring is included with an Arca-Swiss compatible foot that also has 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch threaded sockets.
Sharpness
Sharpness wide open at is excellent at the center at all focal lengths, with edge sharpness improving when you stop down by one-stop. The affects of diffraction start to kick in at around f/16 and above, but I’m not expecting too many shooters will be stepping down this far.
Some of you might be curious about how the Sigma 60-600 stacks up against the Sony 100-400 GM with the 1.4x teleconverter which gives you a reach of 560mm on a full-frame camera. This is certainly by no means a detailed comparison, but here are a couple of very exciting brick wall shots. For each shot the 60-600 was mounted on my Jobu Design Jr. 3 Gimbal Head * and a Neil Neville Hide Base Plate, a 5 second delay was also used.
The images below are 100% center crops taken from around 20m away. The images are compressed so I recommend downloading the full resolution JPEGs if you want to make your own comparison.
a7R III + Sigma 60-600 @ 600mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 1250 | Cropped ** Full Resolution SOOC Download: JPEG
a7R III + Sony 100-400 GM + 1.4x @ 560mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 1000 | Cropped ** Full Resolution SOOC Download: JPEG
Although I would really want to do a much more detailed comparison of these two lenses, from the few shots that I have taken it appears that the Sigma 60-600 has an advantage over the Sony 100-400 GM with the 1.4x attached when it comes to sharpness.
Handling and Controls
As you’d expect from its mass, the 60-600mm is not the easiest lens to use for handheld photography. It’s a two-hander for sure; you’ll use your right hand to hold the camera as normal, and your left will come in handy to cradle the zoom and take some weight off your camera. A monopod is a useful add-on if you like to be somewhat mobile with your camera, and a tripod is a good match if you prefer to set up and work from a fixed location.
(Credit: Jim Fisher)
The two big control rings, for zoom and manual focus, are both finished in a tough, rubberized wrap, each with raised ridges so you can enjoy a ready grip. The zoom ring requires some effort to turn—the optical block accounts for much of the weight, after all. Even so, it’s not unmanageable, and push-pull action is workable too, if you prefer.
The barrel does creep outward when facing down—you cannot negotiate with gravity. An on-barrel Lock switch is included to prevent this; it keeps the lens set to its shortest 60mm position. And much like the lock on Sigma’s previous 60-600mm DG HSM Sports for SLR systems (an entirely different lens), you can also lock the lens at the 80, 100, 120, 150, 200, 300, 400, or 600mm focal lengths. Locking the zoom in at longer focal lengths is an uncommon feature, but one that wildlife specialists who use a mechanical gimbal head to pan and track birds in flight may find useful.
Sony a7R IV, 98mm, f/5, 1/100-second, ISO 125 (Credit: Jim Fisher)
Sigma put three function buttons on the barrel. They’re positioned mid-lens, in the same section as the Lock switch, with 90 degrees of arc between them. The four buttons are all tied to the same function, typically AF-ON, and said function is configurable via the camera menu system.
A control panel houses the remainder of the on-lens toggles. It’s positioned right ahead of the mount, and accessible with your left hand when you’re positioned behind the lens. The control panel toggles set the focus mode and autofocus limiter, set the optical stabilization mode, and swap between custom modes. L-mount owners are able to match the lens with the Sigma USB Dock to fine-tune focus response and other aspects of performance. Creators using the Sony system will miss this feature, though, as there’s no E-mount configuration dock available.
Sony a7R IV, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/500-second, ISO 3200 (Credit: Jim Fisher)
Autofocus is driven by a new type of focus motor, at least new to Sigma. The High-response Linear Actuator (HLA) focus motor drives the lens with speed and precision, without introducing too much noise to your environment or video soundtrack. I tested the zoom with the Sony a7R IV and the lens operated as quickly as you could expect from the body. The HLA motor is quick enough to drive focus from a close to a distant subject in an instant. I’ve not had an opportunity to try the lens with the speedy Sony a1 or the more recent a7R V, however, both of which focus faster than the a7R IV.
In practice, the 60-600mm Sports focuses in a snap with the a7R IV, and I found it to be effective when paired with the camera’s Real Time Tracking focus system in the field. The pair found focus and kept up with the moving targets I was able to find in the wild, including songbirds hopping from branch to branch and a gaggle of geese flying fairly low to the ground. Even so, Sigma isn’t happy with the pre-release tracking from the lens and asked us to point out that we’ve been working with beta firmware. The company promises to deliver updated firmware to customers when the lens hits shelves in mid-February.
Sony a7R IV, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/500-second, ISO 250 (Credit: Jim Fisher)
One of the appeals of the 60-600mm’s extended zoom range is a reduced need to swap out lenses in the field. To cement its place as an all-arounder, the 60-600mm does double duty as a capable macro lens. The lens focuses as close as 17.8 inches when zoomed out, and does its best macro work at the 200mm focal length, where it is able to capture subjects at 1:2.4 life-size magnification. Of course, the big lens isn’t good for everything—you won’t want to look to it for use in low light, nor does it make any sense if you care about putting together a carry-friendly kit.
Stabilization is built in and is rated for up to seven stops of compensation at 60mm and six stops at 600mm. In practice, I was able to snag 1/8-second handheld photos at 600mm with the a7R IV. As is the case with most big zooms, there are two stabilization modes available. Mode 1 is used for most situations, but you’ll want to switch to Mode 2 when you’re panning to follow a laterally moving subject.
Focusing
When you adapt a lens from one mount to another AF performance often becomes the achilles heel. The camera is effectively speaking one language and the lens another, and the adapter (in this case the MC-11) acts as the translator between the two. With this type of setup the communication between lens and camera body isn’t always fluent and this can lead to poor AF performance.
Thankfully the AF performance of the Sigma 60-600 with the MC-11 is very good, I’d actually go as far as saying it’s excellent at times. However, there are two main factors that do affect the AF performance of this particular combination.
The first is the camera that you are using. Between the a9 and the a7III there is very little in difference in AF performance with the 60-600mm. On occasion I felt the a9 acquired focus faster but the difference was really minimal. The a7R III on the other hand was marginally slower than both the a9 and the a7III but still reasonably fast and perfectly acceptable.
The second factor that will affect your AF performance with the 60-600 is whether you are shooting in AF-S (Autofocus Single) or AF-C (Autofocus Continuous) mode. When set to AF-C the lens acquires focus a lot faster than AF-S where it tends to hunt a little more, I’d actually say that AF-S mode appears to be around 3x slower to lock focus. As for why this is I’m afraid I don’t have the answer for that.
Autofocus and subject tracking work well even in low light situations, you can see just how dark it is from the following screen capture at Gigrin Farm where I’d gone to shoot Red Kites. When I left home the sun was shining but when I arrived in Wales it was raining and very dull. The kites were also late coming down to feed by which time the sun had almost set and my ISO was well over 12000. Still, the 60-600 mounted to my Sony a9 had no trouble tracking the kites and nailing sharp images, sadly the very high ISO ruined them.
The only times that the AF did struggle was when changing from areas of very high contrast to low contrast, typically in this situation the lens would lose focus and hunt for a few seconds before finding focus again, but this also happens with native lenses.
Overall I was very impressed by the AF performance of the 60-600 with the MC-11. Still, I don’t expect you just to take my word for it and I’m sure we all have different ideas about what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to AF performance. So here’s a short video showing the autofocus performance of the 60-600 on the a9, a7 III and a7R III. Apologies if it makes you feel a little sick, it was shot at 600mm and I did jump around from subject to subject pretty quickly at times!
On another trip to Wales I decided to visit the Bwlch Nant Yr Arian Visitor Centre to shoot the Red Kites. Thankfully the weather was a little better than my trip to Gigrin Farm.
a9 @ 600mm | 1/1000 | f/6.3 | ISO 2500 | Cropped | Handheld | ** Full Resolution SOOC Download: JPEG | RAW
Introduction
The Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports is a versatile 10x telephoto zoom lens for full-frame DSLR cameras, and APS-C sensor cameras with an effective increase in focal length. It’s actually the world’s first 10x optical zoom telephoto lens with a tele end of 600mm.
Incorporating 25 elements in 19 groups, the Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports features a rounded 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to out-of-focus areas of the image, built-in optical image stabilisation with an effect of 4 stops and an accelerometer for vertical and horizontal panning, and a Hyper Sonic Motor for fast and quiet autofocusing.
There’s also a zoom lock switch that can be locked at any focal length that’s marked on the lens barrel, manual override (MO) which is activated by rotating the focus ring while using autofocus, a maximum magnification ratio of 1:3.3 (at the 200mm focal length), a water and oil-repellent coating on the front and rear lenses, and a dust and splash-proof construction.
The Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens is available in Sigma, Canon and Nikon mounts priced at £1899.99 / $1999.99 in the UK and the US, respectively.
How Much Are You Willing to Carry?
I’ll put it right out there: The Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN Sports is a pretty fantastic lens as long as you don’t mind lugging it about. What kind of photo work you do, how you travel and carry your gear, and your general fitness all come into play when considering a lens like this, and are just as important to consider as optical quality and autofocus performance. We have few complaints about the latter—picture quality is great and focus is snappy. Build quality, too, is all pro, though the rugged construction contributes to what may be the breaking point for some: the weight.
Sony a7R IV, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/500-second, ISO 12800 (Credit: Jim Fisher)
At around 5.5 pounds, the 60-600mm might be too much for you to handle with comfort. I didn’t use it as much as I would have thought, simply because my shoulder was telling me to take days off during my review period. Some may see it as no problem, though, or may look to the lens for sideline sports photography, where the standard to super telephoto range gives you some breathing room when framing wider shots. A monopod is helpful with this lens, too.
(Credit: Jim Fisher)
As for alternatives, the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DN DN Sports is our Editors’ Choice telezoom and remains our top recommendation for most creators searching for an extra-long lens thanks to its more reasonable carry weight (4.6 pounds) and $1,499 price. If you want a telezoom with standard coverage, the Tamron 50-400mm ($1,299) offers much of the appeal with half the weight. It’s among our favorite telezooms, and a good pick if you don’t require the narrower angle a 600mm lens provides.
Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports
4.0
See It
$1,989.00 at Amazon
MSRP $1,999.00
Pros
- Unique standard-to-super-telephoto coverage
- Sturdy, all-weather construction
- Sharp results on high-pixel cameras
- Quick, quiet autofocus
- 7-stop optical stabilization
- Integrated Arca tripod foot
View More
Cons
- Heavy at 5.5 pounds
- Teleconverters not available for E-mount
The Bottom Line
The Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports starts at a wider angle than most telezooms, so you can snag broader views without having to change lenses, but nature photogs may be turned off by its heavyweight optics.
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