Sigma about the future Micro Four Thirds lenses (very few info)
Image on top: The first mirrorless lens form Sigma, the 30mm 2.8 for NEX (Mirrorlessrumors.com)
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Our friends from DSLRmagazine interviewed MR. Kazuto Yamaki from Sigma. There is a part concerning the future Micro Four Thirds lens development (google translation!):
1) “The lenses will have a completely new design.”
2) “We have the challenge that some of these lenses should be optimized for taking videos. That requires a special internal mechanism. Therefore it is more difficult to achieve extreme focus, brightness and high correction. For video applications may be interesting to have change of focal power, and therefore not only optics but mechanics should be different.
At this point, we think there should be two different sets of lenses, one optimized for video and one optimized for stills.”
Asked if Sigma could make a mirrorless camera Mr. Yamaki answered that “our resources are limited“. And he also added an interesting note. he said we should not call those cameras “mirrorless” because “less” meaning is that “something is missing” and for Sigma this is a negative connotations!
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Sigma made a lot of Four Thirds lenses and I would love to see some of them redesigned for Micro Four Thirds (Click on lens name to see current auctions on eBay):
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8
Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6
Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6
Sigma 24mm f/1.8
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
Sigma 50mm f/1.4
Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3
Sigma 55-500mm f/4-5.6
Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
Sigma 105mm f/2.8
Sigma 135-400mm f/4-5.6
Sigma 150mm f/2.8
Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6
Via DSLRmagazine
asddd
3 years ago |They are mirrorless and EVIL.
Agent00soul
3 years ago |So let’s call them “mirrorfree” then!
bilgy_no1
3 years ago |twoomy
3 years ago |I welcome Sigma to the party with open arms!!! Pany can’t do it all at this point and it would be great to have Sigma release some intriguing alternatives since Oly doesn’t seem up to the challenge. Now will somebody please make me a m43 12-50 f/2.8 already?!?!?! I don’t want to start at 14mm!!!
The dude
3 years ago |That picture looks like the finish on the panasonic mft lenses ? The lens race will be interesting between mft and nex with mft already having a head start be nice to see something like the old four thirds pana 12-54 and oly 12-60 sometime soon but the oly mock up looks like some high end fast glass is on the way
sacundim
3 years ago |The topic of Sigma or other third-party lens makers getting into m4/3 has been coming up perdiodically over the years, and I’ve always pointed out that the business model of companies like Sigma is to make one lens and fit it to as many mounts as possible in order to scale up the volume and achieve economies of scale on all of the costs that are not tied to one mount. Designing special lenses for all-electronic systems doesn’t seem like it fits in that model.
I think these comments from Sigma do add a piece to this analysis: it looks like they want to develop the technologies necessary to build a good lens for this type of system, and that in particular, video lens technology is a big driver for them.
When I put these two things together, well, I’m still not incredibly convinced that Sigma’s going to go after this market really soon in any big way. It’s more like they want to be ready to enter it when they feel it is large enough that they can apply their business model to it. So you can probably expect that they will not make many NEX and m4/3 lenses in the short or medium term, and the ones that they will make will have to be niche lenses that can justify a good premium for a product that’s much costlier for them to build than their bread-and-butter DSLR lenses.
MikeS
3 years ago |I’d expect Sigma to make NEX-sized lenses for m4/3 (i.e. recycle their NEX lenses with a m4/3 mount) in order to save on development/production costs. With the high quality of the primes they’ve been making lately for other mounts, there’s a lot of promise, here, regardless.
Archer
3 years ago |There’s a problem: the NEX flange is 18mm, m43′s is 20mm. Which means since they have to redesign for flange they might as well reduce the image circle while their at it.
Agent00soul
3 years ago |They simply design it for 20 mm and extend the NEX mount 2 mm.
canard
3 years ago |As they do with, er, every lens they make for multiple platforms…
WT21
3 years ago |Lenses for video are a great idea, but I have that everyone thinks all lenses have to be “optimized for video” if this adds to the cost and bulk. I do 99% photos, 1% video. I’d rather have a more affordable, lighter lens that’s not optimized for video, then every lens being optimized.
Robbie
3 years ago |Eat these trolls, who said that Sigma is just going to modify the mount LOL
napalm
3 years ago |they have a point. it’s like calling LCD/LED TVs as tubeless TVs
Miroslav
3 years ago |Well said
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RT
3 years ago |If their m43 lenses are just 43 lenses with m43 mounts, or lenses for APS-C then this isn’t exciting.
However if the lenses are built from the ground up for m43 and are small, hello Sigma!
omox
3 years ago |I’m afraid of one thing. If Sigma becomes big player on mirrorless lens market and produces big lenses designed for NEX with modified mount for MFT compatibility it will be the end of MFT standard. MFT becomes bulky with no size/weight advantage over NEX (which already has smaler camera bodies) and with lower IQ compared to APS-C sized sensors.
The only hope is when Sigma designs two different lineups of lenses for both systems and I personaly doubt they go such way.
Miroslav
3 years ago |I welcome Sigma to m4/3. Being the biggest third party lens manufacturer they will surely make the system more popular. I know that many people who buy additional lenses for their DSLRs buy Sigma lenses, so I expect that to be the case in m4/3 as well.
Concerning their somewhat late entrance into mirrorless world, I think Sigma is here to stay. They may have considerable experience in designing PDAF lenses, but they will have to put serious effort into making CDAF work well. They have to have their backs covered if/when mirrorless replace DSLRs.
As for lens size and whether m4/3 Sigma lenses will be simple NEX ports, you can look at that the other way. Some NEX lenses have been suffering from poor corner sharpness due to Sony trying to make them as small as possible and due to short flange distance. If you saw Sigma 30mm macro prototype on NEX, you could see that Sigma will also have “smallest possible” approach. In fact, since NEX bodies are tiny, the lenses will also have to be. So m4/3 cameras may end up using only the good part of APS-C lens. Many Sigma 4/3 lenses ( primes especially ) were not APS-C, but full frame lens ports and that’s why they were too big for 4/3 cameras.
omox
3 years ago |I hope You are right… So now we can only wait to see what happens…
MP Burke
3 years ago |I agree with comments above that Sigma may market a range aimed at NX, NEX and micro four thirds. After all some APS-C lenses are sold for 4/3 mount.
In doing so Sigma should be able to provide us with some useful alternatives for macro lenses, e.g at 75 and 100mm focal lengths.
My Pentax 50mm f2.8 macro weighs 220g, about the same as the Panasonic 45mm macro. Thus, having a bigger image circle doesn’t necessarily result in a much bigger lens.
You would think that Sigma and other manufacturers should be thinking about video compatibility of lenses for all cameras, since almost all dslrs sold now have HD video capability. Suitability for shooting videos could be a new feature for marketing lenses.
fta
3 years ago |he said we should not call those cameras “mirrorless” because “less” meaning is that “something is missing” and for Sigma this is a negative connotations!
Hey Sigma, would you like ‘painless’ invasive surgery or ‘painful’ invasive surgery.
You wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun, right.
BS Artiste
3 years ago |The 55-500 link should be 55-200. There was no 55-500 4/3 mount lens.