The Right Tool for the Job: Sigma 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS Contemporary

For every photographic project that we undertake, there is going to be a best “tool for the job”. If you are heading to northern Canada to photograph the aurora borealis, then a fast, wide prime lens like Sigma’s 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye | Art would be a great choice. Heading to Yellowstone for wildlife? Then a super-telephoto zoom like the 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS | Sports lens would be ideal. For my latest adventure, the perfect piece of gear was Sigma’s 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS | Contemporary lens for crop sensor cameras.

Why was this lens the best choice?

Well, I suppose I should start by telling you what I was getting myself into. After almost thirty years exploring the mountains around my hometown of Breckenridge, Colorado, I was looking for a backpacking trip that would sum up the entire area into one big, unifying hike. Going over my maps, I found the perfect route and it would begin and end at my front door. It would be almost forty miles in length and include about 10,500 vertical feet up, and over 11,000 down. I would hike over four mountain passes on the east and south side of town, and then link four remote drainages on the west side of town. Most of my hiking would be done off-trail and require significant effort and route finding skills, and would take me four nights and five days to complete.

Of course, there’s no way I’m doing an adventure like this without a camera in hand. There would be opportunity for both landscape and wildlife photography during my time in the field. Clearly the best tool for the job would be something lightweight yet powerful. Wide enough for epic landscapes but also with plenty of telephoto power to bring in distant wildlife. Luckily, Sigma had just released a lens that fit the bill perfectly – the 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS | Contemporary, available for Sony E-mount, L-Mount, Fujifilm X Mount, and Canon RF Mount. I paired it with the relatively small Canon EOS R7 for an easy-to-carry combo.

The Canon mount version of this lens weighs just 22 ounces (625g) a with a nice, compact size that fit perfectly in my Think Tank front mount pack. This was great because much of the photography would be a bit more documentary in style and I wanted instant access during the entirety of the hike. The lens also features Sigma’s updated OS2 (optical stabilization) system which meant I could easily handhold many of my shots. The very close focusing distance (minimum is 6.7 inches at the wide end) was awesome for getting close-up images of the many wildflowers that were absolutely peaking on my hike.

It was great to have the extensive range of the 16-300mm. On a Canon APS-C camera, this is the equivalent of a 26-480mm lens on a full-frame camera. With that kind of range, I was able to capture everything from epic mountain vistas to simple snapshots documenting my journey.

The image quality of the Sigma 16-300mm was even better than I had expected. It’s been a long time since I last used a crop sensor super zoom lens. I had decent results back then and was kind of expecting the same, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the results approaching that of the high-end Art and Sport line lenses. Images were nice and sharp, and chromatic aberration was held in check even when shooting in extreme lighting situations, which I often like to shoot. Autofocus was fast and accurate, and seemed to work very well with the Canon AF system.

One other welcome feature on an excursion like this is the dust and splash-resistant construction – it’s actually the first Sigma Contemporary lens to have weather sealing throughout the entire lens body. There was plenty of adverse weather to deal with including rain, hail and sleet daily, and the 16-300mm handled it all nicely.

Consider the Sigma 16-300mm

A backpacking adventure like this calls for a lens that can handle everything thrown at it, from gorgeous wide vistas to distant wildlife and colorful wildflowers. If you have an upcoming trip where keeping size and weight to a minimum are paramount, take a good look at the Sigma 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS | Contemporary. It’s sharp, fast, light and portable, making it the perfect one-lens solution for many of your photographic endeavors. Pick one up today, and hope to see you out there!

Get the Sigma 16-300mm lens:

for Sony E-mount, L-Mount, Fujifilm X Mount, Canon RF Mount