RIP: Sigma discontinues probably the most outrageous lens it is ever made

Pictures fans will often have a handful of dream lenses they drool over. Uncommon, costly, typically on the excessive ends of focal vary – lenses that push boundaries. One such candidate to the digital camera lens all-time corridor of fame is the Sigma APO 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG.

The identify alone does not essentially counsel this will likely be a very noteworthy lens – Canon produces the RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM which covers a fair higher focal vary. However what units the Sigma aside is it provides you its zoom vary at a continuing f/2.8, and if you’re coping with focal lengths so long as 500mm with full-frame sensor protection, sustaining f/2.8 requires some critically particular – and critically massive – lens parts.

Consequently the APO 200-500mm f/2.8 is a lens like nothing you’ve got ever seen, from any lens producer: it is an absolute BEAST! By way of sheer mass, you’d higher be constructed like Dwayne Johnson, as this lens weighs an unimaginable 15.7kg / 34.6lb – that is equal to 4.7 Canon RF 1200mm F8L IS USM lenses. The Sigma’s 236.5mm diameter does not appear all that rather more than the Canon 1200mm’s 168mm diameter, however the place that determine solely applies to the very entrance of the tapering Canon lens, the Sigma maintains a 200mm+ diameter down the vast majority of its lens barrel. Mix this with the truth that it solely is available in inexperienced and, had been it not for the brilliant crimson Sigma brand emblazoned on the aspect, you could possibly be totally forgiven for mistaking this lens as some kind of navy rocket launcher.

Consequently, with this a lot mass to assist, you may neglect about hand-held taking pictures, and even utilizing a standard photographic tripod or monopod – you’d want a hefty, and dear, skilled fluid head and a heavy responsibility video tripod with a floor spreader to safe this unhealthy boy.

In the event you can put up with huge measurement and wight, however are just a little underwhelmed at solely having 500mm of attain on faucet, properly, Sigma has the reply: the lens ships with a bespoke 2x teleconverter (additionally in inexperienced), upping the focal vary to an efficient 400-1000mm. Naturally this ends in a 2-stop discount in most aperture, turning the lens into an f/5.6, however that is nonetheless quick for a 1000mm lens. Different funky options embody a devoted li-ion battery to energy the autofocus motor and digital energy zoom, in addition to the onboard LCD standing show.

The information that Sigma will now not produce the APO 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG might be seen as lengthy overdue. It is a lens launched again in 2008 and due to this fact is not instantly appropriate with mirrorless cameras, so it is definitely had a good manufacturing run and is ripe for being pensioned off. However then again, it is not like these may have been made in massive numbers, so what is the hurt in conserving them out there for the occasional particular order? Given the worth of one in every of these infants – a cool $26,000 – that is a pleasant little earner for Sigma, even when it solely sells a handful annually.