I spent a considerable amount of time at the Sigma booth, and met with Graham Armitage, managing director of Sigma UK. Sigma introduced three new lenses at PMA, and apparently has more products in the pipeline for future release. I spent some time talking with Graham and I learned quite a few things:

• Sigma prides itself on having happy lens designers - “When you’re an optical engineer and you go to work for Sigma, you know you’re going to be working on these great lenses. That’s a great motivator. Going to work for those other guys means you might get stuck making optics for copiers.”
• The just-announced 85mm f/1.4 did not have a price, but it “could be more than other OEM’s version of the same lens”. Their version has HSM focusing – the Zeiss version doesn’t.
• Back in the old days (like the 1970’s), companies like Canon would make their high-end lenses with an expensive element called Fluorite. Sigma (along with Hoya) has developed something called “FLD Glass” which is very Fluorite-like in performance but has none of its drawbacks, like heavy weight and high thermal expansion. The new 85 f/1.4, the 70-200 f/2.8, and the 8-16 f/4.5-5.6 lenses all have this new glass.
• The 8-16mm lens was inspired by the success of the 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, and had the same designer as the equally-popular 10-20mm f/4-5.6 lens.
• The 50-500 “Bigma” lens doesn’t focus as closely as the old non-OS lens – 1.4 m as opposed to 1.0 m – but has the new FLD glass which more than makes up for it. They also will make available an APS-C lens hood (deeper than the standard lens hood so it will be more effective at improving contrast and reducing flare) and will include an 86mm APS-C step-down filter ring (because large front-element filters are expensive, and why pay the money if your APS-C camera can’t see into its corners?).
• Sigma also had their USD $38,000 200-500mm f/2.8 EX APO DG lens on display. I think the popular term “Bigma” was applied to the wrong lens!

• The new 17-50 f/2.8 lens was designed to “replace” the standard kit lens that comes bundled with most entry-level DSLRs. It also is a more compact replacement for Sigma’s earlier 18-50, and also includes image stabilization. This lens will ship in May.
• Fast lenses (both for DSLRs and micro 4/3rds cameras) sell exceptionally well in the far east – five times more than in other parts of the world! He says that Japanese housewives really are into the great bokeh of these lenses.

And of course Sigma is very proud of their new cameras, the SD-15 DSLR and the DP-1x and DP2s compact cameras, all of which use a new revision of the Foveon APS-C-sized sensor. The new sensors produce less heat, have a bigger and faster buffer, and handle high ISO better than before. The giant enlargements on the outside of their booth sure looked impressive!

 Gary's website is at http://www.friedmanarchives.com/