Sigma Imaging (UK) Ltd

	F2 Freelance Photographer 'The Sigma is a surprise. First of all, it feels very good. Although it is technically just a DC lens, it's built to EX standards. Secondly, its HSM focusing is really fast and silent. The Sigma was also a surprise optically. It is far better than my Sony 18-250mm, or the Tamron 18-250mm which preceded that. Distortion is extremely low for such a long range and, even at 250mm, full aperture sharpness is retained well. Overall, it proved a better lens than any other such design I've used. With or without OS, it would be a good buy.'

	Master Photo Digital ‘If you need a superzoom for your 50D, 500D, D300 or whatever, I can not recommend any lens more highly than this. It’s a completely different class of glass and Sigma has worked to create strengths where weaknesses were common. The 18-250mm DC OS HSM has a list price of £559.99, and while I might once have found this excessive for a ‘walkaround’ lens, with this quality on offer plus the OS and HSM refinements it’s a very fair price indeed.’

	Photography Monthly ‘Tamron’s record breaking 18-270mm will deliver a good set of images… but I did find the focusing to be less assured, the zoom mechanism to lack the solidality and smoothness of the Sigma and crucially, the optical quality to be marginally less impressive than the Sigma’s. The Sigma 18-250mm, then, is our Superzoom winner. It’s nicely screwed together, offers assured focusing, sound shake reduction and decent optical quality. Worth the extra outlay and extra weight in my book.'

	Photoworld ‘As for results, the Sigma 18-250mm rewrites the book. It has hardly any distortion at 250mm, it’s critical sharp centrally wide open at 250mm, with no hint of the slightly ‘dirty’ overlay of aberrations present in the Sony 18-250mm at the long end. The close focus is superb, reaching 1:3.4 which is a significant gain over the 1:4 of previous designs. It also has a very flat field and once again an impossibly accurate drawing with no visible distortion. It’s no exaggeration to say that this lens could be used to copy postage stamps. Overall the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS emerges as the most professionally usable of all such designs from Canon and Nikon.'

	PhotoPlus 'The Sigma also wins out in the handling stakes, as its zoom function is wonderfully smooth throughout the range and, despite this, our review sample exhibited no zoom creep – a difficult balance to achieve in a superzoom lens. Shooting at maximum apertures throughout the zoom range, the Sigma proved much sharper than either the of the Canon lenses and gave punchier performance.'

	Digital Photo 'One superzoom did stand out from the pack, though, and that was Sigma’s 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM. Offering a longer reach than the Canon and Nikon alternatives, the build quality of this lens is superb and cannot be faulted. Backed up with a speedy AF performance, it comes with all the features you want in a superzoom. With the camera up against the eye, the large zoom and focus rings made operation very enjoyable and with an excellent image quality performance to match, it’s a worthy winner of the Digital Photo Gold Award.'

	Digital Camera 'For a superzoom lens with such a big range, the Sigma does an excellent job of combining silky-smooth zoom ring operation with zero zoom creep. Optically the Sigma 18-250mm proved very convincing in our tests, with excellent sharpness, contrast and colour rendition. Considering it’s much cheaper than the Canon or Nikon 18-200mm lenses and £60 cheaper than the Tamron 18-270mm this really is an excellent buy at the price. A cracking lens at the price with excellent handling and reassuring build quality, along with a monster zoom range.'

	British Journal Of Photography 'Its pro-friendly for the quality of images it produces, the larger overall size enabling lower levels of distortion and vignetting as well as unexpectedly fine resolution at the long end. Not only was it optically superior, the option of using in-lens optical stabilisation and turning off the in-camera sensor-based version improved the leeway for hand-holding at the long end. The 18-250mm Sigma is a great single lens for travel – fit it, forget it, and probably forget the need to clean your sensor too.'

	What Digital Camera 'The lens has an especially broad zoom ring that moves smoothly and with just the right amount of torque. Its direction of rotation is such that an anti-clockwise movement extends the focal length; many superzooms work the opposite way but Sigma’s system feels more natural to me. Overall, it was the two optical stabilised lenses that stood out as the best options and it was the Sigma’s superior image sharpness that just pushed it into first place.'

	Practical Photography 'It condenses down to just 110mm in length and weighs in at 630g, which makes it more than reasonable to keep in a compact bag and easy to carry around. The quality of the performance and the compact nature of the build make it worth the money. The maximum aperture range from f/3.5-6.3 is a useful offering when the light is low, and the lens has the HSM focusing motor that ensures crisp and efficient focus. Picture quality across the range is very good, and the stabiliser works incredibly well. All in all this is a very impressive lens.'

	Amateur Photographer 'The engineering is of very high quality. There is no wobble on the extension at 250mm, a condition aided by its two-draw mechanism. There is no greater destroyer of image quality than decentering, which a wobbly lens section can cause. The Sigma gave good results at full aperture, and at 18mm. This is a fine, modern ‘superzoom’ optic; it handles nicely and those whose work includes sport and activity should generally find it a very useful tool.'

	Digital SLR User 'Images shot with the Sigma are generally sharper in the centre of the frame than both the other test lenses. Also edge sharpness shows excellent consistency regardless of aperture setting. In use, the Sigma lens stood out as a well-made, refined lens with a superb zoom range as well as a very useful close-up performance. On top of that, the image quality was generally the best of the bunch. Because of this the Sigma gets the winner’s medal from me and has the bragging rights to be this month’s test winner.’