Do you remember the rumor Canonumors.com spread in August this year, according to which Sigma is developing two 12-24mm ultra-wide zoom lenses at the same time? It was speculated that the more expensive version, supposedly belonging to the Art series, would have a constant aperture and better features. It’s been assumed that the cheaper version would be part of the Contemporary series and that it could have a variable aperture of f/4.5-5.6, which is typical of cheaper ultra-wide lenses. Anyway, I was skeptical because I couldn’t imagine Sigma developing two niche lenses with the same focal length range again, after developing two 150-600 super-telephoto zooms.
A patent by Sigma, which has been published on the Japanese blog Egami, now confirms that the lens manufacturer intends to extend its product range this way. The surprise, or not, depending on how likely you’ve considered the rumor by Canonrumors, is: The patent document only mentions one single lens, a 11-22mm f/4.5-5.6. According to the document, the lens is full frame compatible and its optical design consists of 18 elements, if I’m interpreting the tinny depiction correctly.
The only other relevant piece of information is the length of the lens which is indicated with “163.42 156.24 156.59”. This probably means that the lens changes its length when zooming, whereas it’s at its longest at 11mm, with a length of 163,42mm.
