Sigma News and Rumors: what’s next?

Since the announcement of the 24 mm f/1.4 Art in February Sigma has kept surprisingly quiet. The reason might be that the lens manufacturer has presented many new lenses over the course of the last years and that they are now focusing on the production of those new lenses (especially the apparently quite sought after 150-600 S and C tele-zoom lenses). On the other hand it could also be the proverbial calm before the storm. Whatever the reason, concrete information on coming products is rather scarce at the moment. Officially, there is only some intel on the DP0 Quattro, which, as stated by Sigma UK, is set to be launched at the end of June and which should cost €999. Also, according to rumours and various published patent letters, quite a lot of lenses are supposedly in development.

Patents

Since Sigma has changed their range of lenses to the A/S/C-series, the company has patented an unusual amount of optical formulas. Most of them are probably never going to be developed far enough to be ready for the market, but in some cases it seems to be only a question of time until they pop up in the form of new lenses. It is logical that formulas and lenses which are in high demand and which fill current gaps in the range of available lenses perfectly are more likely to be brought out than others where this is not the case.

Below I have listed all optical formulas which Sigma has patented since the introduction of their Global Vision mission statement, but which cannot be linked to any of their A/S/C-lenses, announced or actually available in stores. The links lead to a description of the respective optical formula on the Japanese Blog Egami.

Rumors

Apparently, the Japanese patent law does not allow a patent to be published, until at least 18 months have passed since it was applied for. This means that, if we do not pay any attention to rumors, we would ever only find out what Sigma is working on with a time lag. In general it is hard to tell how accurate rumours coming down the grapevine actually are. However, if the CEO of Sigma, Mr Kazuto Yamaki, mentions the lenses in question in an interview, then there is likely some truth to them:

24-70mm f/2.8
„a very unique lens that never existed in the market” – 10-300mm f/1.4? 😉

However, the internet is full of rumors which are put about by the rumor website without publishing any sources. Since these might be completely made up, they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Of all lenses mentioned, I think only the following are likely to be announced anytime soon: the 24-70mm f/2.8, the 17-55mm f/2.8 OS, and the 85mm f/1.4 Art. Despite the 18-35/1.8, I am rather sceptical concerning the rumours about lenses which will allegedly set new standards and change the market.