SIGMA UK sat down with the always engaging SIGMA CEO Kazuto Yamaki to talk about their new Tokyo headquarters, the company’s history and their goals moving forward.
While the whole interview is great and worth your time, Kazuto Yamaki does tease a never-before-seen lens design.
One of the products that excites me a lot, is a telephoto lens that has never existed before. Sports photographers and wildlife photographers might be very excited about the lens.
SIGMA CEO Kazuto Yamaki
Whenever one thinks of what defines a “sports” lens, an aperture of f/2.8 probably comes to mind immediately. Wildlife photographers are more than happy with f/4 at longer focal lengths. There is no mention as to whether or not it’s a zoom or prime, but a zoom would probably appeal to a larger number of shooters. A shorter telephoto f/2 zoom wouldn’t really fit the “wildlife” segment.
However, I do have the feeling us RF mount shooters will be on the outside looking it. Let’s home we’re pleasantly surprised.
I would expect that SIGMA has announcements planned ahead of CP+ in February and we’re likely going to see multiple products from the brand.
As we know, SIGMA currently makes APS-C lenses for the RF mount, and there has been no mention from Canon or SIGMA about any future full-frame lenses from SIGMA coming to the RF mount. Part of this may be Canon’s doing, but there’s also SIGMA’s own resources to consider when it comes to development and manufacturing for the RF mount as quickly as we’d all like to see.
SIGMA RF 18-50MM F/2.8 DC DN CONTEMPORARY
- RF-Mount Lens/APS-C Format
- 29-80mm (35mm Equivalent)
- Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22
- Minimum Focusing Distance: 4.8″
- Three Aspherical Elements
- Special Low Dispersion Element
- Rounded 7-Blade Diaphragm
- Dust- and Splash-Proof Design
- Includes LH582-02 Lens Hood
There probably isn’t a good business case for SIGMA to simply release niche full-frame RF lenses such as the 105mm f/1.4, they would need to produce volume lenses such as the 24-70 f/2.8 ART or 70-200 f/2.8 Sport, along with fast prime lenses to make it a viable venture.
We do think it’s inevitable that we’re going to see full-frame lenses for the RF mount from third party manufacturers, and for some out there, that can’t come soon enough.
CP+ 2025 runs from February 27 until March 2, 2025 in Yokohama, Japan.
Source: SIGMA UK YouTube
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The niche ones would sell relatively well given there shouldn’t be a lot of work to physically change the existing lenses. Especially if canon doesn’t want to compete in those niches.
Once the r mount protocols are done then implementation in other lenses should be relatively straightforward.
Canon may even sell canon’s af chip for the combined lens/ibis af to sigma to retain the IP.
Off topic: I sent 30 f/1.4 and 16 f/1.4 DC DN C lenses to Sigma USA to have the mounts converted from EF-M to RF. They sent back a brand new 30 with no explanation regarding why. My guess is that the 16 will have to wait until the end of January.
...Still, the 105 f1.4 image is absolutely amazing imho, I really found the sweet spot between the previous Canon 135 f2 L/Sigma 135 f1.8 Art, that were amazing but a tad longer to use indoor and in crammed spaces, and the Sigma 85 1.4 Art that lasted me less then 6 months, I could never get in tune with it, I was so used for like 15 or more years to use a 135 prime, and going directly to 85 was too big of a jump. The 105 is much closer to the 135 while being much more manageable at short distances.