1:1 reproduction ratio at 18.5″ and even greater when using a Sigma teleconverter.
The full name of this beastie is Sigma APO Macro 180mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, which tells us it’ll be equally suited for full-frame and APS-C sensors and auto-focus on Nikon’s budget-line D-SLRs. Oh and it’s a 180mm f/2.8 with optical stabilization.
Check out the full specs on Sigma’s site here and read the press release here.
Looking for a fast prime for your Micro Four Thirds or NEX camera? Sigma’s got two in the works, designed specifically for the smaller formats.
Coming are the 30mm f/2.8 EX DN and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN. One to two stops faster than the kit zooms that typically come with either system, it’ll be exciting to see them in action. And we’re pretty sure that Sigma can make a prime -just recently our Website Manager, Derek, picked up an older Sigma AF 28mm f/2.8 for Nikon and has been pretty much besotted with it.
As for the alphabet soup, the new DN designation stands for “Digital Neo.”
You can read the offical press release here, and the post from Sigma’s blog here.
Following on the news that Sony’s released the specifications for their 18mm flange back E Mount (which we so failed to blog about yesterday), Sigma announces that they’ve taken up the mantle (mountle?) and will support the format. They’ll also be generating lenses for the growing Micro Four Thirds market.
I’m not terribly surprised, they’re one of the few manufacturers that produced lenses for my own dear Olympus Four Thirds mount (I’m still working up the gumption to pick up their 35mm f/1.4), and with big O’s abandonment of consumer-level D-SLRs, it’s no wonder they’re willing to produce for this newer, and growing, piece of the market.
Trickling into the feed today comes news that some Sigma lenses for the a-mount used by Sony are experiencing aperture errors on the a33 and a55 pellicle mirror bodies.
Sigma is offering a free service to correct the issue to owners of a-mount Sigma lenses who have purchased an a33 or a55 body. They caution that for lenses which have been discontinued for a vague number of years a modification may not be available. Follow the source link for more information.
So, we at Roberts know how hard it can be when you’re just getting going in DSLRs. You need a camera, and a bag, and an extra battery, and the kit lens usually isn’t enough, it all adds up quickly.
So, we’ve put together a special kit to help you out. We started out with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i, an 18 megapixel shooter with an impressive ISO range, high-rez LCD screen, and 1080p HD video recording. Instead of the usual Canon 18-55mm IS, we’ve paired it with a Sigma 18-250mm f3.5 – 5.6 DC OS HSM, which has over four times the reach of the kit lens and has built-in optical stabilization and hypersonic focus motors. Then, we’re throwing in a bag, extra battery, UV filter, and HDMI cable. Just add your own memory card (SD/SDHC, not included) and you’re ready to get shooting.
And there’s a video:
So, tomorrow is day 1 (or, for you Carmel shoppers, the only day) for this year’s Spring Expo. For those who’ve never been to one, twice a year we have a whole gaggle of our reps come in to our local brick-and-mortar Indianapolis stores and show off all their stuff, answer your questions, etc… Generally it’s a good time to get to try out some rare equipment you might not get to see on shelves normally (like Leica’s line-up, Olympus’ Top Pro Lenses, Nikon and Canon’s tilt shifts, etc).
And of course there’ll be specials, deals, sales, limited offers, you name it bouncing around, too, and I’ll be posting some of those on our homepage tomorrow. There’ll be buyers on hand to relieve you of old equipment and liberate some funds for shiny new toys, if you’re so inclined. It is spring, after all, out with the old, in with the new.
This time around you’ll be able to chat with reps for Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Manfrotto, Gitzo, Elinchrom, Sandisk, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Hoya, Tenba, Lowepro, ThinkTank Photo, Lastolite, Avenger, Mamiya, Leica, Skooba, Induro, Kingston, Westcott, and more.
Expo is at our downtown store Friday and Saturday April 23 and 24 from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. It’ll be at our Carmel store Friday only 5:00 until 7:30 pm.
Leica, the originator of the 35mm still photography format, announced earlier its newest offerings, the nigh-indestructible M9 rangefinder (replacing the somewhat troubled M8 and M8.2 bodies), and a new digital compact dubbed the X1.
The king of the show (of course) is the M9, sporting a Kodak-designed 18 megapixel full-frame sensor (which solves one problem of its predecessor, which made wide primes behave notably less wide thanks to a crop factor). The sensor once again lacks an anti-aliasing filter, which I hear resulted in insanely sharp photos from the M8s and which meshes well with all expected physics as well. This time Leica has seen fit to put the cut-off filters back over the sensor, removing the sometimes criticized need for a gamut of such filters for your lenses. Bravo, Leica. Combined with the body tweaks done on the M8.2 to solve a few problems with the day-to-day, in-the-warfield use, Leica’s getting its M series very much to a nice zenith for the digital age. Mind you, I think you still have to take the baseplate off to switch memory cards, but there’ll always be trade-offs for award-winning body design, yeah?
The other camera, a compact body with a 12.2 megapixel APS-C sensor and a fixed 24mm f2.8 lens (kinda like Sigma’s DP2), brings the clasic M series aesthetic to the compact market, while simultaneously creating a new price tier for digital compacts. It features an available grip, and a built-in flash (which is quite cute and cylindrical), full-manual controls (including aperture and shutter dials), RAW, etc.
Both bodies have decided, in a bold and applaudable move, to forgo in-house software and instead come with Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom. Bravo, Leica. Seriously. I’ve used quite a few RAW and managements softwares, and Lightroom is easily the best of any of them, and makes taking pictures from good to fabulous a quick and painless chore, complete with robust filtering and organization options. More people could follow Leica’s lead here and I would not be hurt in the least.
Spring Expo 2009
So, I somehow miraculously keep not mentioning this, but the 24th and 25th this month at or two Indianapolis (area) stores is our annual Spring Expo. We’re going to have most anybody who’s anybody (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Mamiya, Leica, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Profoto, Induro, PocketWizard, FJ Westcott, RPS Studio, Manfrotto, Gitzo, Lastolite, and on and on and on…) out in our store, showing you the merch. If you’re within traveling distance, it’s really a good time to swing by and give us a visit, because there’re just too many toys to play with. It’s one of the two times a year I get to try one of the f2 constant zooms for my E-3, for instance. (Although, dyed-in-the-wool Oly shooter I am, I think I’ll step down and play some with the A900 and some Zeiss lenses and with Nikon’s under-rated D700, both of which are systems I’d have in a giant rolling case if my pay-grade allowed for it.)
I’m sure specials will abound as well, and for those of you who unfortunately can’t come out and see us I’ll be mirroring as much of them as humanly possible on our website as well, so remember to swing by the site that weekend and check on that equipment you’ve been scrounging for (and maybe some you didn’t know you needed, occupational hazzard).
Zoom is the stuff. At least as far as convenience goes. When I hired in, it was Nikon’s 18-200mm VR. We just could not keep that sucker in stock. That’s an 11x zoom (welllllll…. 11.111111 yadda yadda, rounding is our friend here.) Last year Canon jumped onto that game itself with the EF-S 18-200. 11x, that’s not too darn shabby there. The average point-and-shoot for years has been 3x.
We should really stop to talk about how unuseful “zoom” is as a measurement. The x zoom of a lens is found by dividing the longest length by the shortest. So, it tells you how much there is, but now where it exists between. Is the widest point 36mm, or 28mm? How long is that telephoto? 100mm? 200mm? Who knows? Zoom is a handy quick measurement, but it’s useless if you don’t also check to see where the limits are at.
So, here’s one of the more common sentiments among those unfamiliar with the camera industry: man, those lenses are ridiculously expensive. Heck, I can remember a time when I couldn’t conceive paying more than a couple hundred for a lens (and now my favorite one is valued at around 800-1000 bucks.)
So, to help put things in perspective, I stumbled across this video which I’ve encountered a couple times in my stint here, and thought I’d share it with everyone. It’s a short segment on how lenses are made (in the general, so it applies no matter if we’re talking Canon lenses, Nikon lenses, Sony lenses, Oly lenses, Sigma lenses, Tamron, Tokina, blah-de-blah-de-blah). Seriously, basically any camera lens going these days is a flat-out marvel of engineering. Just check this cut-out version of Olympus’ revised “standard” zoom, the 14-54:
Impressed? I sure am. I certainly couldn’t have engineered something like that, and yet hundreds of people take that lens for granted every day. And it doesn’t even have any fancy tricks like ED glass.
And, if that’s not enough, here’s that video to show us just what it takes to make each of those actual glass lenses inside that sucker:
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