Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for 4/3

[lee_bacsik]

Anyone seen any U.S. pricing for the 30mm f/1.4 lens for four-thirds

that Sigma just announced?

[frank_skomial]

Perhaps you wonder why you did not get any answer yet?

 

There is a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for APS-C sensor size cameras, e.g Canon digital cameras with crop factor 1.6, or Nikon cameras with crop factor 1.5., and perhaps in few other camera mounts (?), possible a camera with 4/3 rectangle proportions ?. This lens has exactly defined angle or circle of covarage.

 

The lens is pretty new on the market and sells for about US$450.

 

Are you asking about this lens ? or is there another newer lens that was just announced ?

 

Most lenses made have circular coverage, and perhaps they do not make a rectangular coverage lenses yet, but theoreticaly it is possible, who knows ?

 

This lens has circular angle of caverage with diameter of coverage about 30 mm (not that precisely 30mm as that is a subjective measure anyhow).

 

So the lens would cover any camera sensor size rectangular format that has diagonal sensor dimension about 30 mm or less.

 

4/3 does not describe the size but only proportions. E.g. 40mm x 30mm sensor would fall into your 4/3, also 80mm x 60mm would also be a 4/3 medium format camera. You need to be more specific what camera you have in mind, so possibly a better answer will be provided by someone.

 

I believe someone, (perhaps Olympus ?), makes cameras with sensor size proportions 4/3. If that camera sensor diagonal dimension is smaller or equal to 30 mm, than this lens would be appropriate for, if it was manufactured in appropriate mount for that camera.

 

I hope you get the drift...

[lee_bacsik]

Thanks Frank but theses wer just announced (timed for a showcase at PMA no doubt).

 

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022611sigma43rds.asp

 

Here's where I was looking.

[frank_skomial]

Yes,

 

As I was guessing, the 4/3 mount they have in mind is for the Olympus camera.

 

I only discovered this by looking at the pictures. The DP review was not clear enough about it. The DPREview should have stated that the new lenses are for "OLYMPUS 4/3 camera mount". I did not notice reviewer name, but perhaps was someone from marketing ?

 

 

If you have Olympus camera with this mount, then the lenses will be for you. If there is another SLR camera on the market with 4/3 proportions ? - then you may be in trouble. You need to have a lens that has specific camera mount and lens that has all the fuctionality for that mount (e.g. Auto Focus, Distance information, possibly in-lens image stabilization, etc.)

 

I think price will be similar, if not identical to other mounts for the same lens.

 

Lookup prices for Canon or Nikon mounts for a Sigma lens, and the Olympus mount price should be about the same. There is nothing special about the 4/3 sensor proportion for the small sensor size (APS-C) to cause price increase.

[godfrey]

Frank,

<br><br>

<b>Four Thirds</b> (abbrev: "<b>4/3</b>") is a standard (see

<a href="http://www.four-thirds.org/" target=new>

http://www.four-thirds.org/</a>).

<br><br>

Olympus was first to market with 4/3 standard equipment and now Panasonic has shown

the DMC-L1 DSLR that also adheres to the 4/3 standard. So if a lens is available for the

Four Thirds standard, it will work on all 4/3 DSLRs presuming the manufacturers adhered

to the standard.

<br><br>

The reason that no response was made to the original question is that Sigma has not yet

announced a price for this lens. I would presume that it will be offered at or near the price

suggested for Nikon/Canon/Sigma mounts, around $430-475.

<br><br>

Godfrey

[frank_skomial]

This sounds like noble and good idea for consumers, but how practical it can get ?

 

I have reservation about Sigma, since they already have track records of failing to make some lenses for Nikon camera operate properly. Though Sigma provided free of charge repairs, but do you want to take the risk?

 

First Sigma Nikon iTTL compatible release of their flash was another failure. But second round was a bit better, yet they have more to improve.

 

Let's hope that they will make it right some day, before the technology changes again.

[harvey_edelstein1]

Since the 4/3 mount is based on the open standard concept not the closed standards patended buy one company , maybe there will be a sharing of technology. The ISO and IEEE standards are examples of how interoperable standards can lead to creating ethernet , wifi and other open based designs. Maybe open will become popular since lenses from vendor xyz will work seamlessly with vendors abc cameras. This would be in Olympus interest since they lost a lot of there base when the pulled the plug on their 35mm mount and lenses after pulling out of slr cameras.

[theokeijzers]

I like this news.

And I'm curious what the 30mm will cost in Europe. Strange that Olympus did not bring a 50mm for a good price.