Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Review: A Long-Awaited Return

Mar 13, 2025

Chris Niccolls

In the DSLR days, Sigma was well known for making affordable super-zoom lenses that traded convenience for some image quality. However, recently, Sigma has transformed itself into a preeminent optics manufacturer, building high-grade lenses that many professionals prefer over OEM glass options. Now Sigma is back at it, and it’s a welcome return.

The Sigma 16-300mm lens is a compact and versatile package.

Stone steps partially covered in snow, creating a symmetrical pattern on both sides. The snow contrasts with the dark, weathered texture of the stairs, leading upwards in an outdoor setting. A wooden post with wire is visible at the bottom right. — The Tsuruga castle steps made for a stark and contrasty black and white image.

While Tamron has continued to make useful super-zoom lenses for the latest mirrorless cameras, Sigma has not released anything like this for APS-C mirrorless cameras — until now. Sigma finally announced a new 16-300mm lens at CP+ 2025 and I got to test it out on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. After so many years, what kind of compromises can we expect in a lens that promises to be as versatile as this latest Contemporary series offering?

Buy the Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS new on Amazon.com Buy the Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS used on KEH.com

Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Review: How it Handles

Any super-zoom lens needs to be portable and easy to travel with. The 16-300mm only tips the scales at 21.7 ounces (615 grams) and although it has some physical length to it, the 67mm filter diameter and subsequently thinner dimensions of the lens barrel itself are very manageable. I had no issues fitting the camera and lens into smaller camera bags and the weight is easy to walk around with, all day long. You don’t have to fret about inclement weather because Contemporary lenses are sealed against the elements quite well. This is the kind of lens you can happily throw over your shoulder and wander without needing any additional gear.

Close-up of a person's hand holding a black camera lens with visible text stating "Made in Japan" and specifications, featuring a lock switch and green plant leaves in the background. — The 16-300mm is built to a high-quality standard but you won’t find many controls on the lens itself.

Close-up of a black camera lens with a focus on the textured zoom ring. White numbers indicating focal lengths ranging from 16 to 100 are visible. The background is blurred with a hint of green. — It’s fairly rare to see a super-zoom lens start at the 16mm wide angle mark.

Close-up of a traditional Japanese roof with ornate, curved tiles and a decorative ornament at the peak. Snow lightly covers parts of the roof. The image is in black and white, highlighting the roof's intricate details and design. — I like having a long telephoto range not only for wildlife but also to isolate interesting subjects.

Physical controls are fairly sparse. There is a large zoom ring that has a good amount of resistance to turning and also a switch to lock the zoom ring in place to eliminate lens creep altogether but it protrudes a fair amount from the lens barrel and I found myself inadvertently locking it by simply pulling the camera out of the bag. There is also a simple manual focus ring right next to the lens mount. The lens has an optical image stabilizer that is rated for around six stops but there is no switch to disengage this on the lens, so any toggling will have to be done within the camera menus. There is also no manual focus selector switch.

Close-up of a black camera lens with a visible lock switch on its body. The lens features textured ridges for grip and has white text near the rim. The focus is on the lock switch, with a blurred background. — There is a locking switch to keep the zoom from creeping but it’s very easy to trigger when taking the lens out of your camera bag.

Close-up of a camera lens resting on a wooden surface, viewed from the rear mount side. The lens's electronic contacts and mount screws are visible, along with the glass elements. The focus ring and body are also partially visible in the background. — Like all Contemporary Sigma lenses the 16-300mm is built well and sealed against the elements.

Three swans stand on a sandy beach with gentle waves lapping at the shore in the background. The swans are aligned in a group, gazing in the same direction under a clear sky. — The 16-300mm lens might not be a professional wildlife lens but it does work in a pinch.

The autofocusing experience is certainly acceptable for the kind of sports and action that the target audience for this lens will photograph. Twin HLA motors work quickly to drive the lens elements and I found the focusing speed to be excellent for the ducks and swans that we photographed in Aizu, Japan. I’m confident this lens will deal with children and pet photos without issue and can be pressed into service for the occasional more serious wildlife shot too.

Close-up of a black camera lens with a petal-shaped hood. The focus is on the lens's textured surface with engraved details. In the blurred background, there is a hint of greenery. — Sigma provide a basic lens hood but their excellent coatings avoid flare anyways.

Close-up of a camera lens with "16-300mm 1:3.5-6.3 DC OS" labeling. The lens is black with fine ridges for grip, and a blurred green plant in the background adds a touch of color. — 67mm filters are easy to find and fairly compact.

A duck gracefully flaps its wings while walking on a sandy beach, with gentle waves lapping at the shore in the background. Another duck is partially visible to the left. — I found the autofocus quite capable of capturing even fast-moving subjects in flight.

Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Review: How it Shoots

Versatility is key with any super-zoom lens and the Sigma contributes to the idea of an all-in-one lens by providing excellent macro capabilities. The Sigma 16-300mm boasts a 1:2 life-size macro ratio at 70mm. You can get very usable close-up shots but with two important caveats.

First, to get this maximum magnification, you have to be within about an inch of the front element and this will often lead to a shadow being cast over the subject. Second, I don’t find the sharpness of the lens to be ideal when at this closest setting. However, I did enjoy using this lens from a little farther away physically and found the overall results better from farther away too.

Regardless, there is no denying that the Sigma 16-300mm can be a fun close-up lens that really accentuates smaller details found along your travels and I enjoyed this aspect of the lens greatly.

Close-up of a black camera lens with a focus on the textured zoom ring. White numbers indicating focal lengths ranging from 16 to 100 are visible. The background is blurred with a hint of green.

A serene woodland scene with sunlit stone steps leading through a lush, green forest. Moss and ferns cover rocks along the path, and dappled sunlight filters through the tall trees, creating a peaceful atmosphere. — You can go from beautiful landscape photos one moment to wildlife shots the next with a super zoom lens.

Close-up view of vibrant red and pink flowers in the foreground, with a purple background featuring a large, white circular emblem in the center. The design is framed by ornate red and gold elements at the top. — I wouldn’t call the 16-300mm lens a shallow depth of field optic but you can get some soft foregrounds at the telephoto range.

The excellent Sigma coatings do a great job of preventing flare and ghosting. Despite the rather complicated lens formula of a super-zoom optic, the 16-300mm is largely free of any washed-out flare spots or distracting ghosts, and the overall contrast is well-maintained when shooting towards bright light sources. Bokeh has a fairly pleasing roundness to specular highlights and it is possible to get some fairly out-of-focus backgrounds given the telephoto nature of this lens. However, I found specular highlights to have a strong soap bubble effect and lots of onion rings present. Unfortunately, this created backgrounds with a very harsh and overly distracting look to them. Any areas of the image that are even slightly out of focus tend to have a harsh-looking double-image effect to them and overall, I would say that bokeh is not the 16-300mm lens’ strong point.

Black and white image of a wooden ceiling with a grid pattern. Two long beams run diagonally across the frame, intersecting the grid lines and casting shadows. The texture and lines create an abstract geometric design. — I love the interplay of light with the texture of the bamboo and wooden walls, and black and white only makes it better.

Swans and ducks float and fly over a lake with snowy mountains in the background. The scene includes a pebbled beach and scattered trees, under a clear blue sky. — Lake Inawashiro provided a beautiful landscape and backdrop for countless ducks and swans.

Close-up of a pine tree's new growth with clusters of small, reddish-brown cones surrounded by long, green needles. The background is softly blurred, highlighting the intricate details of the plant's texture. — The close-up capability of this lens is impressive but the sharpness is a little lacking.

Let’s talk about sharpness next and I want to start by saying that a super-zoom lens like this is going to rely heavily on digital correction. This means that issues like chromatic aberrations or distortion are going to be present and will have to be removed either in image editing software or within the camera itself when shooting JPEGs. In most cases, these digital corrections are easy to apply with minimal loss of quality but the 16-300mm does have quite a bit of distortion, so bear that in mind.

Close-up of a decorative illustration showing a stylized horse with intricate red and black patterns. The background includes a hexagonal pattern and faint calligraphy. Colors are vivid, emphasizing the horse's detailed features. — I had a lot of fun shooting closeup photos especially when I pulled away from minimum focus.

A stone torii gate stands amidst lush green trees under a sunlit sky. Sunlight peeks through the foliage, creating a gentle flare. The scene conveys a sense of serenity and nature's harmony with cultural structures. — Flare is very well controlled thanks to the excellent Sigma lens coatings.

A black and white image of a Japanese stone lantern with inscriptions, mounted on a pedestal beside a cobblestone wall. A zebra crossing is in the foreground, and surrounding greenery partially covers the wall. — I like to wander around Tokyo early in the morning. It’s very quiet and I feel like I have the whole city to myself.

Sharpness in the center of the lens is quite good at the 16mm mark, with excellent contrast and good detail wide open. Stopping down only serves to better the image quality across the frame. The corners of the image don’t live up to this same standard with a fair amount of blur that can’t be eliminated, even when stopping the aperture down. This is largely going to be because of the amount of digital correction required to straighten the image and often hurts the overall detail in the corrected areas. There is also a fair amount of vignetting which appears at the widest apertures and this also needs to be corrected.

Image showing a side-by-side comparison of two resolution test charts. The left image is labeled "16mm @ f/3.5" and the right image is labeled "16mm @ f/7.1." Both charts feature a circular pattern and color bars. — Center sharpness on the lens is excellent overall even at the widest apertures.

Image comparing two lens tests at 300mm with different apertures. The left is f/6.7, the right f/8. Both feature black and white radial patterns, a red stripe, and text size samples ranging from 1pt to 16pt for sharpness assessment. — When you get to corner sharpness this is where you see the lens struggle largely due to the heavy amount of distortion to be corrected.

A person with gray hair and a beard is taking a photograph with a camera on a beach. The person is wearing a dark jacket. The beach has waves gently rolling onto the shore, with distant trees and mountains in the background under a clear sky. — Aizu, Japan, gave me plenty of opportunities to capture beautiful photographs in many situations.

The 300mm range is definitely the stronger part of the lens optically and shows excellent detail and contrast immediately. The corners are better than at 16mm but still show some softness regardless of the aperture used. Vignetting is also an issue at the telephoto range and although the fix is easy, it does introduce some noise and softness to the corners.

A person holding a camera with a large lens, closely photographing the cut end of a tree branch in a forest setting. The background is blurred, emphasizing the focus on the camera and branch. — This lens also makes for a handy macro lens in a pinch but you have to get very close to your subjects.

Branches of white blossoms in full bloom are seen against the backdrop of a traditional wooden structure with tiled roofing. The sunlight highlights the delicate petals, creating a serene contrast with the dark wood. — This lens has some compromises but it’s an excellent travel lens when you just want to take one piece of equipment.

Close-up of a sacred ceremonial rope, shimenawa, woven from straw with hanging tassels, wrapped around a tree. The rope casts shadows on the tree bark, and sunlight filters through nearby leaves in a traditional Japanese setting. — Shinto shrines provide lovely photographs as well as a place to reset your soul.

Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Review: Convenience and Compromise

Sigma has given us an eminently convenient optic that combines ruggedness, compactness, and versatility into one package. However, like the super-zoom lenses of old, being a jack-of-all-trades comes with some compromises and the Sigma 16-300mm cannot escape some of the issues that commonly plague such lenses.

What should be appreciated, though, is the extra wide-angle coverage from the 16mm range and the ability to still push out to a 450mm full-frame equivalent field of view. The lens isn’t going to be the sharpest tool in the drawer and it doesn’t gather much light either. But if you are looking for a single lens to cover most of your bases and can accept the limitations of this design, I think you’ll find a perfectly charming traveling companion in the Sigma 16-300mm Contemporary.

Vertical shot of a building facade covered with red and green climbing plants. The plants are growing along horizontal slats, creating a natural pattern, and the sky is visible at the top of the image. — I love the versatility of this lens but as you can see here, out of focus areas can look a little harsh.

The image shows a traditional Japanese castle with multiple tiers and white exterior. The rooftops are dusted with snow. Slender trees are in the foreground, and the sky is overcast. — The wide 16mm range on this lens allows you to capture an entire castle in the frame.

Three people stand on the balcony of a traditional Japanese-style building with ornate brown roof tiles. They appear to be observing the view, with one person holding a phone. The sky is overcast. — The beauty of the sigma lens is its ability to go from a wide shot to an extreme telephoto in one move.

Are There Alternatives?

The Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 sacrifices a little bit of wide-angle reach to give us a brighter aperture at the telephoto range. It is a well-regarded lens and will provide a similar experience without the 16mm coverage.

Buy the Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD new on Amazon.com Buy the Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD used on KEH.com

Should You Buy It?

Yes. I expected the optical issues that are inherent to the design of a superzoom and despite them, still had a wonderful time traveling with the 16-300mm lens. All’s well that ends well when you go through your photos and treasure the results.

Buy the Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS new on Amazon.com Buy the Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS used on KEH.com