Sigma 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS review - Distortion

Have you rated your lenses yet?

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

8 January 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

Although the distortion at 18 mm is very distinct we must admit that the Sigma compared to competitors fares well here. For example a Sony 18-200 mm had a result of- 5.5%, a Tamron 18-200 mm - 5.1%, and a Nikkor -5.4%. Against such a background the result of the Sigma, amounting to - 4.4%, we should consider to be decent.

With the increase of the focal length the distortion decreases very quickly. At 28 mm it amounts to only –0.36%, it reaches zero soon afterwards, changes the sign and increases steeply to come to 1.2% at 50 mm. Then this aberration’s level stabilizes at 1.0% within the margin of error. Once again the Sigma performs slightly better than the rivals, which, at the 50-200 mm focal length range, had the distortion in the range of 1.2-2.0%.

To sum up a visible distortion for a 11X class megazoom is something unavoidable. The Sigma 18-200 mm OS simply couldn’t have had a low level of this aberration. It wins this skirmish though, having the results better than those of its competitors.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -