Sigma News & Rumors: On February 23rd, two new lenses are said to be announced

As reported on Photorumors.com, “Sigma Austria” released teasers for two new lenses some days ago which, according to the corresponding post on Facebook, are said to be announced on February 23^rd. Escher Foto, an Austrian photo retailer, is the company behind “Sigma Austria”. That’s why the information should be considered unofficial and handled with caution. In any case, the date sounds credible. The biggest Japanese photo and imaging show CP+ will take place from February 25^th to February 28^th, and so far Sigma has always announced its new products prior to a big photo show.

The teasers feature silhouettes of a shorter and a longer lens with a tripod mount. The image of the latter lens (according to the description a “sharp/fast” one) is still online. The image of the first one – allegedly a “small, fine” lens – has already been removed.

The first thing that crossed my mind was that the bigger lens is the successor model to the current 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM OS Macro lens. One reason for this is its size which implies a medium telephoto lens, the tripod mount and the switches (red box #1) for MF/AF, the image stabilization and/or the focus limiter. However, as I kept studying the silhouette more carefully, I noticed that the lens has both a focus ring and a zoom ring (red boxes #2 and #3). That’s why it can only be a zoom lens. But for a 70-200mm f/2.8 this lens is too small.

The smaller one of the two lenses looks very unusual. It has a very small filter thread compared to the size of the tube. It’s as wide as the 30/1.4 Art, but almost twice as long. It’s much too small for a full frame compatible fixed focal length with f/1.4.