Today we are taking a look at a very ambitious super zoom lens announced by Sigma in early 2023 – the Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport.
Background
Back in 2018, Sigma introduced the 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens. This was the world’s first 10X tele FF lens with a 600mm max focal length. That lens was designed for DSLR cameras although even back then the industry was already moving more toward mirrorless cameras.
Fast forward around 4.5 years later and the company finally released a redesigned update of the lens for mirrorless cameras with all the new technologies that are now available to Sigma and quite a few new features.
The “beast” – Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sport
Optical Design
The lens has a very complex optical design that includes no less than 27 elements in 19 groups with 2 FLD and 3 SLD elements.
Materials
The lens feels very robust and is made from magnesium and composite material.
Size and weight
When it comes to size the Sigma 60-600mm is a real beast measuring 29cm (11.4”) closed down and 39cm (15.3”) fully extended and weighing in at just under 2.5kg or 5.5lbs.
Rings
The lens has a thick rubber zoom ring in the front and a narrower focus ring closer to the camera. The focus ring has some resistance to it and turning it all the way from 60mm to 600mm requires a little over 90 degrees of turn.
Even our new copy suffers from a little bit of zoom creep when held downwards, luckily Sigma was kind enough to include a lock switch for the zoom.
The focus ring is much easier to turn and we shall return to it when we discuss the focus performance of the lens.
Buttons and switches
The 60-600mm includes quite a few buttons and switches. You have your standard AF/MF switch, a focus limiter with three modes (Full, 6-infinity, and 0-6 meters), and a 3-mode image stabilizer (off, 1 or standard, and 2 for panning).
There is also a costume switch with 3 modes: off, C1, and C2. For Sony users C1 and C2 are fixed. Here is how Sigma explains its function:
- OFF: Standard – The OS effect is well-balanced and suitable for a wide variety of scenes.
- C1: Dynamic View Mode – This mode offers a recognizable OS effect to the image in the viewfinder. This helps to ensure the composition of images quickly.
- C2: Moderate View Mode – This mode is quickly able to ascertain the difference between fine composition adjustment and unwanted camera shake. It provides a natural and smooth viewfinder image even when the composition is changed rapidly.
The lens also has the aforementioned zoom lock and no less than 3 Focus Hold buttons.
Sealing
The lens includes advanced weather sealing in the mount as well as internally.
Mount
The lens comes in a Full Frame E mount and L mount variants.
Hood and accessories
We were surprised to discover that Sigma supplied the lens with not only a large plastic hood with thumb lock and rubber in the front for placing the lens on flat surfaces (the hood adds about 8.5cm/3.5″ to the length of the lens), but also a strap that connects to special holders on the lens which we found to be pretty useful (the strap itself is a bit basic but you can replace it), as well as a fabric hood cover and finally a long case.
The case is very well made and could have been fantastic if Sigma had made it modular so it could hold the lens with a camera attached.
Useful accessories of the Sigma 60-600mm lens
Aperture
The lens has 9 aperture blades, we will see later on in this review how this affects the bokeh of the lens.
The huge front element with 9 aperture blades and a large front filter thread
Filter
The lens has a huge front element and a 105mm front filter thread.
Foot
The lens comes with a detachable foot and a nice rotatable but not detachable metal collar. While the foot has enough clearance from the lens (at least for our small hands) and comes with an arca base which is very welcome, it might be too short to balance on some gimbals when the zoom is extended.
We can hope that Sigma or a third party will come up with a longer Arca leg for this lens in the near future.
On the plus side, the collar rotation has a 90-degree satisfying click which for some reason is not standard on all collared lenses.
The Arca foot of the lens, but why so short?
Performance
Focusing
We tested the AF performance of the lens in the studio and the results were fast and generally accurate even in low-lighting conditions.
However, this is not a studio lens and most users are going to be working with it outdoors tracking subjects. Here is where things became more complex. Even with Sony’s best cameras, the A1 and A7R V (latest firmware) we had some issues getting a large number of tack-sharp images and during a local air show the lens refused to focus on the craft in video mode and struggled in stills.
We are not sure if this is a lens copy issue, a settings issue, or something else, as other reviewers reported more positive AF results even when shooting moving targets, at least in good lighting conditions.
We also tested the focus throw of the lens and sadly like all other Sigma lenses we tested to date, it is not a linear throw lens (at least not on Sony cameras) which means that you won’t be able to achieve precise repeated focus pulls when shooting video.
The lens is also not parfocal so don’t expect to keep the focus as you change focal lengths (interestingly some focal lengths are very close to parfocality especially the two extremes but not necessarily what’s between them).
One last note. We tested how the aperture of the lens changes when you change the focal length and here are the results:
- 60mm – f/4.5
- ~80mm – f/5
- ~140mm – f/5.6
- ~360mm – f/6.3
Image stabilization
The lens has a very impressive 7 stops of official image stabilization (compared to 4 in the 150-600 DN version). In stills we saw how useful it is, when pressing the AF button the image in the viewfinder became completely stable, but in video mode, the improvement was far less clear.
Sharpness
We tested the sharpness of the 60-600mm using our special large professional Imatest high-end chart on our Sony A7R V. Please note that at 600mm even in our large 17m (55ft) long studio the edges of the chart were cropped.
We tested the lens in 4 different focal lengths at 4 different apertures both in the center and the edges of the frame. We started with the lens at 60mm and were pleasantly surprised to see great sharpness wide open in the center at f/4.5 which doesn’t seem to improve closing down. The corners show the same behavior although CA is extremely visible (we shall get to that in a moment).
60mm sharpness test in the center – top left – f/4.5, top right – f/5.6, bottom left – f/8, bottom right f/11
60mm sharpness test in the corner – top left – f/4.5, top right – f/5.6, bottom left – f/8, bottom right f/11
At 150mm we again see great sharpness wide open in the center peaking somewhere between f/5.6 and f/8, The corners show a similar story although this time interestingly no CA is visible.
150mm sharpness test in the center – top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
150mm sharpness test in the corner – top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
At 300mm the sweat spot for sharpness in the center seems to be around f/8 while in the corners it is somewhere between f/8 and f/11.
300mm sharpness test in the center – top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
300mm sharpness test in the corner – top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
Finally, at 600mm sharpness in the center seems to again be best around f/8 with the corners somewhere between f/8 and f/11. CA is once more very visible.
600mm sharpness test in the center – top left – f/6.3, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
600mm sharpness test in the corner – top left – f/6.3, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
Close up performance
The minimal close-up focus distance of the lens changes according to the focal length starting from 45cm (17.8”) and going all the way to 260cm (102.4”) at 600mm.
The lens maximum magnification according to Sigma is achieved around 200mm with an impressive 1:2.4 magnification.
When it comes to close-up sharpness, we tested the lens at 60mm where you see very good sharpness in the center wide open and even better at f/5.6, the corners show a similar story.
60mm close-up sharpness in the center – top left – f/4.5, top right – f/5.6, bottom left – f/8, bottom right f/11
60mm close-up sharpness in the corner – top left – f/4.5, top right – f/5.6, bottom left – f/8, bottom right f/11
At 300mm you can see OK sharpness in the center wide open at f/5.6 with a significant improvement between f/8 and f/11, the corners on the other hand are not really sharp at any aperture.
300mm close-up sharpness in the center – top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
300mm close-up sharpness in the corner- top left – f/5.6, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
At 600mm you can see good sharpness in the center wide open at f/6.3 with an improvement between f/8 and f/11, The corners look better than at 300mm and interestingly f/6.3 looks better than closer apertures.
600mm close-up sharpness in the center – top left – f/6.3, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
600mm close-up sharpness in the corner – top left – f/6.3, top right – f/8, bottom left – f/11, bottom right f/13
Breathing
Breathing might not be on the top of the list for most 60-600mm buyers but we tested it on the lens anyway and as you can see this lens has fairly little breathing in most focal lengths although it is certainly not zero (see examples in the video above).
Chromatic aberrations
We have already seen some CA in our sharpness test but in our dedicated longitudinal chromatic aberrations test we can see a surprising result where the most CA can be found at the wider end of the lens (60-150mm and maybe a bit more) and is very evident in the corners and far less at higher focal lengths and in the center.
CA test corner – top left – 600mm f/6.3, top right – 300mm f/5.6, bottom left – 150mm f/5.6, bottom right – 60mm f/4.5
Flare
When it comes to flare especially for a lens with such a large front element, we always suggest a hood but even without it the lens seemed to perform fairly well in our tests in different focal lengths against bright light (see examples in the video above).
Vignette
We tested the darkening in the corners at both the wide and tele ends of the lens. At 60mm there is some corner darkening which is reduced at f/5.6 (although doesn’t go away completely), however at 600mm the vignette is much more significantly wide open and is only minimally reduced at f/8, so we recommend that you use the in-camera corrections at all times.
Vignette test – top left – 600mm f/6.3, top right – 600mm f/6, bottom left – 60mm f/4.5, bottom right – 60mm f/5.6
Barrel distortion
The lens shows very minimal pincushion distortion at 60mm with much more visible distortion at 300mm. Due to the distance problem in our studio, we were unable to perform the test at 600mm.
60mm – minimal pincushion
300mm – a little more pincushion distortion
Bokeh
Our bokeh test was very interesting with pretty unimpressive bokeh at the wider end with the best results at around 300mm or so with very nice round and large bokeh circles.
Bokeh – center – top left – 60mm f/4.5, top right – 150mm f/5.6, bottom left – 300mm f/5.6, bottom right – 600mm f/6.3
Sample images
Despite having the lens for a long time much of this summer was extremely hot preventing us from using the lens outdoors during the brightest hours of the day which are the best times to use this rather slow lens. Regardless, the following images were shot using both the A1 and A7R V.
The following were not edited aside from cropping
Conclusion
As we have noted in our recent LensVid Talk video, the Sigma 60-600mm lens left us with some mixed feelings.
On the one hand, its image quality is quite outstanding, especially for such a long zoom lens. It has impressive close-up capabilities (especially in the center of the frame at around 200mm) its built quality is superb; the image stabilization is one of the best in class and it comes with several useful and convenient features as well as nice accessories.
On the other hand, there are quite a few things that we are not exactly keen about when it comes to this lens. The foot, while having a built-in Arca which we feel should be the standard at this point is way too short, especially for work on gimbals.
The lens is obviously very big and heavy which is to be expected but it also extends quite a bit making it fairly front-heavy heavy which again is far from ideal for a long day of shooting.
The lens only supports extenders when working with L mount bodies which is not Sigma’s fault (Sony restricts extenders to working only with specific Sony lenses) but it is still regrettable. But more than anything it is the AF tracking that made us reexamine how we look at this lens.
As we have noted previously our results on the A1 and even more so on the A7R V when it comes to tracking moving subjects were not consistent. Although this can be a copy issue with our particular lens, we can only report what we experienced, and based on this we find it difficult to recommend this lens for shooting fast-moving subjects with those Sony cameras at least until a firmware update is released by Sigma.
Finally, there is pricing. This Lens is quite a bit more expensive than Sigma’s own 150-600mm (or the Tamron version) which in our view is a more reasonable choice for most zoom-telephoto buyers and so it is the Sony 200-600mm unless they have a justified real use for the 60-150mm focal range.
The lens fully extended
Pricing
When it comes to actual pricing the Sigma 60-600mm currently sells for $2000. This is about the same price as the Sony 200-600mm lens but around $550 more expensive than the Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens.
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Iddo Genuth 
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