Sigma Lenses

[Warbler]

An interesting offering in the 500 F4 range by Sigma. I'll be interested to hear how it compares with the Canon. I hope it goes well and puts some downward pressure on Canon pricing.

http://www.digitalrev.com/article/sigma-seeks-to-cover-all-ranges-with-85mm-f-1-4-art-12-24mm-art-and-500mm-f-4-sport

[Cage]

An interesting offering in the 500 F4 range by Sigma. I'll be interested to hear how it compares with the Canon. I hope it goes well and puts some downward pressure on Canon pricing.

http://www.digitalrev.com/article/sigma-seeks-to-cover-all-ranges-with-85mm-f-1-4-art-12-24mm-art-and-500mm-f-4-sport

And Nikon's too. :nod:

I saw somewhere a MSRP of $5999.00.

[tduell]

And Nikon's too. :nod:

I saw somewhere a MSRP of $5999.00.

That was US dollars!

Cheers,
Terry

[arthurking83]

I like the idea of their new 12-24/4 Art lens too.
While I'm not the type to take advantage of the 500/4 type lens, I'm definitely in the market for a better quality 12-24 type lens.

So as soon as I can, I'll be grabbing one of them.

Hopefully the new 85/1.4 will be as good as their 50/1.4 when compared to something like the Otus.

[Cage]

I like the idea of their new 12-24/4 Art lens too.
While I'm not the type to take advantage of the 500/4 type lens, I'm definitely in the market for a better quality 12-24 type lens.

So as soon as I can, I'll be grabbing one of them.

Hopefully the new 85/1.4 will be as good as their 50/1.4 when compared to something like the Otus.

I'll be having a real close look at it too Artie.

I'd pretty much decided on the Tamron 15-30mm, for the VC mainly, but will be watching for some real world reviews on the Sigma. That extra 3mm at the wide end will be a huge plus for wide field astro shots although that is balanced out somewhat by the Tamron's f2.8 aperture.

[arthurking83]

I have to say, I'm more than happy with the 12-24 I've had for a while now.
Pity I can't say the same thing about the D800E tho! :p

Only problem with the Sigma(which everyone will experience is very far edge performance at the wide end.
It's only at about f/16 where it starts to come good.
But it doesn't really bother me in that I don't pixel peep like that for images shot in that manner.
That is, when shooting wide vistas, I tend to prefer that the image as a whole makes the image look interesting, rather than pixel details that really mean nothing!

it's so8unds like it's going to be a whole lot more expensive than the current model(US$1500 .. close to AU$2K!) rather than the current AU$800-900-ish.

My main issue is that I've changed the focus matte screen on the D800E for a coarser type, which is great for fast lenses .. bad(to very bad) for slow lenses.
When zoomed just a tad past 12mm, (say) 14-17mm, it's aperture slows down to f/5-f/5.3, and with my focusing matte, it darkens massively.
(you have to see the 500/8 to believe it!).
So the f/4 aperture is my main point of interest, and considering Sigma's current examples of their Art and Sport lens image quality abilities .. I'm assuming there will be some increased IQ ability too.

In saying that tho, the current 12-24 is amazingly sharp in the centre across all focal lengths.
This isn't to say that this is an advantage in any way .. just a comment on that it can produce some great results.