Wow Sigma announce F1.8 Zoom!

The real questions are pricing and what lens mounts it will be available for.

Oh and of course the optical quality of the production version.

f/1.8 is going to come with several costs, of course. This lens is heavier (810g, 1.8 lbs) than the full-frame Canon 16-35 f/2.8 L (635g). It may also be similarly priced ($1700)

Still no word on pricing but here are a few samples of photos of the lens and photos taken with the lens. It looks pretty sharp!

Sigma ART 18-35mm f1.8 DC Preview

Well, the price has finally been announced: $799 USD.

I'm actually surprised. I was expecting this lens to be in the $1200 vicinity. I'm almost tempted to sell my brand new Sigma 30mm 1.4 and put that money towards this lens just for the wider focal range.

Wow, at that price I might buy one!

Bear said:

The real questions are pricing and what lens mounts it will be available for.

Oh and of course the optical quality of the production version.

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At least Canon and Nikon, that's for sure.

TheDrift- said:

Its only for APS-C but hopefully others can follow the lead?

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/04/sigma-announces-18-35-f1-8-dc-hsm-art-for-aps-c/

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Developing that lens specially for APS-C was the point of the exercise. It's a giant hole in Canon's and Nikon's lens line-ups who still believe that any »good« lens should be a full frame lens. Now Sigma, please make us a fast 23~24 mm f/1.4 lens for APS-C sensor dslrs.

Oooh... that's cheaper than I thought.

Hmmmm... If it's any good there might well be shortages of this one for a while.

I wonder how it will stack up against the Canon 17-55mm EFS 2.8?

I'd like to see some real world testing of this lens. Although I have never been keen to purchasing third party lenses, the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 really opened my eyes. I can certainly see this competing very nicely with the Canon EF-S 17-55mm.

Ooh, niiiice. But no image stabilization? The 17-55 does have it and that's a huge selling point for me.

SuperBrown said:

Ooh, niiiice. But no image stabilization? The 17-55 does have it and that's a huge selling point for me.

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I have the Nikkor 17-55 2.8 and that doesn't have VR. It's a little unsettling, considering its price tag.

Caliber26 said:

I have the Nikkor 17-55 2.8 and that doesn't have VR. It's a little unsettling, considering its price tag.

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I used to own this lens. It was an extremely good sharp lens but is also very heavy and bulky and if attached to a camera that has a "pop up" flash, it gets in the way of the flash and casts a shadow from the lens. I normally don't use pop up flashes on the Nikon offerings but use a hotshoe flash.

As for VR, honestly I find absolutely no reason to bother with it at this zoom length (equiv to 24-80 approx). VR makes sense for longer lenses where "shake" is more likely to occur. Given that newer cameras can handle a combination of higher shutter speeds and reasonable f-stop combinations, again the shake issue is less likely at 80mm lenses and less. If one is doing some sort of action photog, this surely isn't the ideal lens to begin with.

Already being offered pre-order with a big discount (£800->£650). Very tempting!