Photo answers review
Photo answers rating 
Wide-angle lenses are essential for landscape photography, which is one of, if not the most popular, photographic genre. So when a brand new ultra wide-angle lens hits the shelves it’s always going to be of interest to many of us. The Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DC HSM is designed specifically for use with APS-C DSLRs and offers a full-frame equivalent focal length of 12-24mm. One of the great things about this lens is that despite being so wide, distortion is minimal. Traditionally optics this wide would have been fisheye lenses, so Sigma has done a great job with the optics to keep excessive barrel distortion at bay.
Image quality The Sigma 8-16mm lens features a Super Multi-Layer Coating to reduce flare and ghosting. Images are produced by the four FLD (low dispersion) glass elements and three aspherical lenses, which are designed to provide high image quality throughout the zoom range. The image quality produced by this lens is very good indeed, and this can be seen in the contrasty image opposite. Despite being shot at 8mm, it only suffered a small amount of chromatic aberration at the top of the sign. However, lenses featuring bulbous front elements typically suffer from extreme flare when shooting into the sun and the Sigma 8-16mm is no exception.
This all sounds very attractive, but like anything there’s always a compromise or two to make. Being a lens that’s going to appeal to landscape photographers, among others, it’s a shame the 8-16mm doesn’t accept filters. Of course you could carefully hold sheet filters in front of the lens during exposure, but this is far from ideal. This lens is really about fun and taking advantage of the 24cm minimum focusing distance to get in close to subjects for extreme effects.
Final verdict This lens isn’t a looker, and could quite easily be mistaken for a medium zoom when the lens cap is on. But don’t be fooled – image quality is very good, the lens is available in most of the main lens mounts and the price is a reasonable £610. The main drawback of the Sigma 8-16mm is that it can’t be used with filters, and this could turn off potential landscape photographers. However, thanks to its compact size and reasonable price this remains an attractive and fun option for APS-C DSLR owners.
Key spec Price £610
Minimum aperture f/22
Filter size N/A
Construction 15 elements in 11 groups
Diaphragm blades 7 blades
Minimum focus 24cm
Lens hood supplied Yes, built-in
Image stabiliser No
Fittings Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma, Sony
Weight 555g
Dimensions (DxL) 75x105.7mm