Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Sigma APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG Lens Lust

We generally try to stay away from dribbling over new gear, but this is an interesting new lens from Sigma.

"The APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG is the world’s first Ultra-Telephoto Zoom Lens that offers a fast aperture of F2.8 at 500mm focal length. It .. maintains its fast F2.8 aperture over the entire zoom range.

Shooting distance and focal length can be viewed on the lens' LCD panel." If they show the current depth of field on the LCD panel, that would be very, very useful, but they don't mention that in their press release.

Filters are rear mounted, and a circular polarizing filter can be used. It comes with a dedicated 2x teleconverter. No price or launch date is set, and the weight is unknown but apparently Sigma were using two people to carry it around at PMA. Rumours that it comes with a free wheelbarrow are unfounded, but it certainly doesn't look light. It doesn't look like it'll be cheap either.

F/2.8 in a lens of this length is unusual, I think it's the world's first. Edit: Thanks Albert (comment below) for clearing up the DG classification - this lens works fine on full-frame 35mm sensors (and film!)

No-one has reviewed it yet, that I can see.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi.

DG: "The most suitable lenses for 35mm film single-lens reflex cameras, as well as for digital SLR cameras. Sigma's development of the DG (Digital) range of lenses has concentrated on the correction of distortion and aberrations. Magnification of chromatic aberration is particularly conspicuous with digital cameras. The optical designs and cutting-edge technology incorporated by Sigma eliminate flare and ghosting from te image sensor and create excellent color balance. Vignetting is minimized whilst marginal illumination is ensured. These high performance lenses are equally suited for digital and analogue cameras."

DC: "These are special lenses designed so that the image circle matches the smaller size of the image sensor of most digital SLR cameras. Their specialized design gives these lenses the ideal properties for digital cameras, the compact and lightweight construction is an added bonus!"

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses.asp

So being that it's DG, it can be used on 1.6x, 1.3x, and 1.0x dSLRs.

vlad259 said...

Thanks for that, I hadn't realised.

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