The Sigma 8-16mm is a legendary lens. It is almost a magical act for Sigma to design and actually produce something as wide that covers the APS-C sensor. This is not a fisheye zoom lens. It has a rectilinear projection which is almost free of distortion (much visibly less than the 10-20mm). The liberal use of exotic glass elements on this lens further improve its optical performance, even when used on the sd Quattro. Just how well this lens performs on the H….let’s take a closer look:
It has noticeable vignetting at 8mm and 9mm which is caused by the non-removable metal hood but it is almost completely gone at 10mm onwards. I am half suspecting, if the metal hood can be removed (although I am not going to do it on my lens) it may actually be usable! 10mm on the H is equivalent to the angle of view produced by a 13mm lens. While one may argue that using it with DC Crop Mode (on) may actually eliminate all the key issues here and gaining 1mm wider, but the 30% increase in megapixel on the same angle of view is too hard to ignore.
Center performance is excellent at all focal lengths of the zoom range, but the edges are slightly soft with a rather pronounced chromatic aberration. Your acceptance level may vary, but to a certain extend it is quite acceptable. Chromatic aberration can easily be removed in post processing.
I shall be adding more test images here from time to time.