Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Review

This is the cheapest and least well-specified of the bunch, then, but it does have one big advantage. It’s 9mm narrower and a full 22mm shorter than the other two. In fact, this lens is barely bigger than the average D-SLR’s kit lens. Indeed, if you put it alongside Nikon’s 18-55mm kit lens, for example, it’s actually a few millimetres shorter. No, you don’t get image stabilisation, but when you compare the size, weight and handling of this lens with those that do, it makes you rethink how much you want it.

The Sigma 18-200mm handles really well for a superzoom, too. These usually have fat barrels, uneven zoom movement and terrible zoom creep (where the lens slides out under its own weight if the camera is pointed downwards). The Sigma 18-200m, though, has a very neat, perfectly cylindrical shape, a very nice zoom action (with no play at all in the extending section) and no problem with zoom creep at all. There is a locking switch on the barrel to fix it at 18mm, but it’s not needed.

This lens is so well-made, so compact and handles so well that you could forgive it a few optical shortcomings. Just as well, really, because there are a couple of issues. The geometry is pretty variable, with strong barrel distortion at 18mm turning into strong pincushioning at 50mm and beyond. You should’t expect too much from the edge performance until you stop down to around f8, and the definition at 200mm is pretty grim wide open and only really picks up at f8-f11. There’s some major chromatic aberration at full zoom, too.

But all this has to be taken in context. These are the classic pitfalls with any superzoom, including makers’ own lenses which cost two or three times as much as this one. You’ve got to expect these optical flaws in any lens with this kind of zoom range. The Sigma 18-200mm maybe has them slightly worse than most, but these things are relative.

And the Sigma’s average optical performance has to be weighed against its excellent handling. Generally, for all their flexibility, superzooms are not much fun to carry around day in and day out.

This one, though, is no bigger than a kit lens and handles so sweetly you’ll readily forgive its modest shortcomings.