Schneider and Sigma plan to release a bevy of new lenses for the micro four third system, albeit in some peculiar focal lengths according to recent reports.

Schneider plans to release a 30mm f1.4 lens alongside a 60mm f2.4 macro offering. Considering the m43 crop, the 30mm is an odd focal length, especially considering the lenses that already occupy the 25mm and 60mm landscape including Panasonic’s Leica 25mm and Voigtlander’s 25mm f.95 Nokton (my personal favorite manual lens). On the 60mm front Schneider has the Olympus 60mm f2.8 to compete with. The two lenses will join Schneider’s recently announced 14mm lens.



Sigma has numerous m43 lenses, including adaptations of their APS-C lenses with an m43 mount that occupy the 30mm and 19mm focal lengths both with apertures of f2.8. The lenses are rather large, but that’s a byproduct of being developed for the APS-C sensor. Luckily there is a good chance Sigma will announce a number of new lenses at Photokina designed specifically for the m43 system resulting in smaller designs, and hopefully even better performance.

While Sigma already has a number of m43 lenses the super-wide space occupied by Rokinon’s 7.5mm fisheye could use some competition and for the video inclined a m43 version of their cine lenses like the recently announced cine 35mm T1.5 which features stepless aperture and focus gears for the iris and focus ring.

Sources: m43rumors and m43blog [1,2]

Am I missing something with the Sigma lenses? I mean, haven't those been on the shelves like a long time now? 30/2.8 EX DN and 19/2.8 EX DN? Both at sub-200€ and on stock locally almost everywhere that sells m43 gear? Are these some other versions or what am I missing here?

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Sigma SD10, 18-55mm/3.5-5.6 x0.5, 24-70mm/3.5-5.6, 28-200mm/3.5-5.6 MACRO, 70-300mm/4-5.6 MACRO, Fits SA & PK mounts.
Panasonic G3, 14-42mm/3.5-5.6, 0.45x & 2x adapters, M42 & PK Adapters
Pentax K: Petri 50mm/2, B&H 135mm/2.8, Prinzflex 28mm/2.8
M42: Unigor 200mm/3.5, 50mm/1.8, Reflecta 55mm/1.8, Photax 200mm/4, Industar-50-2 50mm/3.5
M39: Industar 50mm/3.5
+ an arsenal of different phones with acceptable cameras for snapshots.
flickr!

No, these are the pre-existing models.

Seems strange that Schneider would release 3 models with the exact same focal lengths that are already available. 30>Sigma; 60>Oly; 14>Panny. I guess if they're all super-duper-high-end, they're just aiming for a different market.

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Olympus OM-D E-M5
Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm F2.8
Panasonic Leica Summilux 25mm F1.4
Panasonic Lumix 45-175mm F4-5.6

Yeah, I would have preferred less redundant lenses but as I understand these will all be native Autofocus lenses. Not much to complain about there. ;)

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Olympus E-3 | Olympus E-PL2 PEN | Olympus E-PM1 PEN | Zuiko ED 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD | Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 | Vivitar 100mm f/2.8 Macro | Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f/2.8 | Konica Hexanon 50mm f/1.4 | Konica Hexanon 85mm f/1.8 | G.Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 | Zuiko 35mm f/3.5 Macro | Zuiko 25mm f/2.8 | KMZ Jupiter-3 50mm f/1.5 | E.Zuiko 200mm f/4 | Zuiko 75-150mm f/4 | Olympus EC-14 teleconverter | VF-2 and VF-3 Viewfinders | EMA-1 Mic Adapter | Olympus FL-36R and FL-50R speedlights

cyclopsphoto.ca

Agreed...and someone buying a lens for $199 isn't necessarily the same person who would buy a $1500 lens, so it's nice to have both options.

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Olympus OM-D E-M5
Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm F2.8
Panasonic Leica Summilux 25mm F1.4
Panasonic Lumix 45-175mm F4-5.6

I'm pretty happy with the current offerings..unless the prices are crazy low, I'm not really interested unless there's something wider than 12 or longer than 75mm, currently we seem to have tons of choices in between.

Sigma 10mm f2.0 please!

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Current Gear: EM-5 | E-PM1 | 14-150mm | 20mm f1.7 | Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5 | Fujian 35mm f1.7

For Sale: 14-42mm R, $90 gifted/shipped

A fast-ish 10mm prime (Zeiss 21 equivalent) or a fast 17.5-ish (35mm equivalent) would be great - 14mm doesn't really tickle me in a big way. The 14 is a lovely little walk around, but a lot of the appeal is size and price. I don't mind paying over 1000 euros for a lens, but I want to to be a focal I really enjoy, which in FF terms is 20, 24, 35, 50, 135.

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EOS: 5DII, 30DIR, 24-105L, 35L, 135L, 15/2.8 FE, Σ 50/1.4, Σ 105/2.8 macro
Mu43: GF2, E-M5, P14/2.5, P20/1.7, O45/1.8, P7-14, O12-50, P12-35, P100-300
Legacy: Contax Zeiss 50/1.4, 35/2.8, Leica R 50/2.0, 28/2.8, Pentax 50/1.7

The 20mm is pretty close to a fast 35. I can live with that. A fast 50mm from Sigma (at a price well under Oly's) might be nice.

But I'd love to see Sigma make a version of the 50-150 2.8 for m43. Preferably downsized appropriately, but I'd even consider a re-mounted APS-C lens in that focal length. That range would be far more useful to me than Panasonic's 35-100. I'd like to see Sigma's version of IS included, though.

I had no idea about the Sigma 50-150mm. That could be a better buy than the 30-100mm--assuming they've ever even considered remaking/adapting it.