24-70mm f/2?

[BigAl-sa]

Do you know many photographers who shoot sigma lenses exclusively? I don't.

Me?

 

[PhireSide]

Came here to see a camera lens, got a telescope instead. Disappointed

 

[nanonyous]

It's easy to forget that rubber seals are not the best kind of seals. Tight fitting seams are far better, and our cameras are full of them. Both my 50D and 7D has sustained huge amounts of rain, and so did the non-weather-sealed 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM (I didn't know).

All Canon's IS-equipped L lenses are weather-sealed; it's only some of their non-IS lenses that aren't. The degree of sealing varies from lens to lens, mind you, with designs such as the 28-300mm and 100-400mm lenses inherently being less resistant to water penetrating the lens barrel than the rest.

What's not known in general is where the 'weak-points' in a given lens' design is for water penetrating the system. It's a given that the front of the lens tends to be one such a weak-point, though, which is why it's advised one attach a filter to 'complete the seal' - that being said, if you attach a UV filter that isn't sealed between the glass plate and the rings securing it, you're still going to risk some leakage anyway.

 

[bwana]

I wouldn't trade any of my glass either, but then Sigma doesn't have an equivalent of my workhorse 24-105mm f/4 L. But the Siggy 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 have both been on my shopping list for a while...

The 35mm qualifies but not the 85mm unfortunately. It's only for their Global Vision series and there are only 5 of them.

Well, the thing about both Nikon and Canon is that their main strength is their system, rather than a particular product in a system. Part of the success of a system is the fact that you accumulate lenses over time, which usually locks you into a particular brand, since it rarely makes sense to sell off all your gear just because Nikon released a D800 (and Canon is late to the party, maybe by about 2 years this time round), for example.

So Sigma's new mount-switching announcement is not that significant to photographers with bags full of gear, but it is definitely something that will (or at least should) affect your decision if you are just starting to assemble your kit. Your system could actually be planned around Sigma lenses, while remaining brand neutral w.r.t. the body.

Sigma's move certainly makes it harder for both Nikon and Canon to predict expected future sales of both bodies and lenses. Given that they have been accumulating obscene quantities of old stock (I still see 600Ds, D3100, D5100 on sale every week!), i.e., they are already struggling to produce accurate sales forecasts, it seems reasonable to suppose that Sigma just made things even harder for them.

This may not affect the pro market as much (as you pointed out regarding the lens choices at the exotic prime end of things), but it certainly impacts the enthusiast market, where sales volumes are arguably much larger.

Fair enough but as it turns out it's only the more recent lenses that you can have the mounts changed.

Me?

Well since I don't know you personally I'll instead say… I've heard of one photographer that shoots sigma exclusively. Ok?

BTW the service isnt free - it costs between $80 and $250 depending on the lens.

The lenses as best I can make out are the:
17-70 f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM
35mm f/1.4 DG HSM
30mm f/1.4 DC HSM
18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM
120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM

 

[koffiejunkie]

All Canon's IS-equipped L lenses are weather-sealed; it's only some of their non-IS lenses that aren't.

Typo on my part - sorry. I'm just so used to typing "IS USM" it happens automatically!

 

[nanonyous]

Typo on my part - sorry. I'm just so used to typing "IS USM" it happens automatically!

Fair enough - I had to train myself to check which acronyms I'm listing when talking about the 70-200mm lenses as well

On the note of, off-topic, has anyone here used the 70-200mm f/4L IS USM a lot and found it to be incredibly slow to go from infinity-macro and macro-infinity on its AF drive?
This was the second time I had one on my 500D but had last had one on too long ago and too briefly to remember how the AF on the first unit was, but the one I had access to recently took long (in the order of several seconds) to get all the way from either extreme to the other. This would be a concern for me being that I'm aiming to get one at some point :l