Anybody else eyeing that new Sigma Art lens? You know, that 28-105mm f2.8 zoom? Sony E and L mount users only... sadly.

President George H.W. Bush and Michael Dell. ©KirkTuck

I wrote a piece this morning about using three Leicas to photograph fast breaking action in corporate photography work. It was more or less a reflection of how we used to use Leica M cameras professionally back in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. After I wrote about it I was responding to some historical image requests from clients this morning and I came across a bunch of images I took for various clients which included not only "captains" of industry but also presidents, foreign dignitaries, inventors and the like. And I remembered the transition in the early digital days from prime lenses to zoom lenses for work like that. 

While I was a big fan of Leica M cameras in the 1990s the company didn't really enter the digital camera space until Fall of 2006 with the troublesome M8 model. Although introduced in 2006 the M8 was not widely available until the middle of 2008. It came complete with a set of frame lines that didn't match the focal lengths of the most useful lenses, a loud as fuck shutter and a horrible tendency to deliver a magenta cast if used without an IR cut filter. The Kodak CCD sensor delivered good colors, once you added an IR blocking filter to whatever lens you were shooting with. Leica also eliminated the anti-aliasing filter which was, in retrospect, a really bad idea. At 10 megapixels the lack of the AA filter meant that just about any subject with repeating lines/patterns would bloom with moiré like a weird kaleidoscopic nightmare. 

All of this meant that back in 2004 or 2005 when I made this photograph (above) I needed to use a different brand of digital camera and attendant lenses. For me that meant something like a Nikon D2Hs and a Nikon 28-70mm f2.8 lens. What I would have given back then for a super well corrected 28-105mm f2.8 lens that focused accurately and quickly....

But, with the gear at the time I was still able to deliver the needed shots. Although with more effort than it should have taken. The big plus at the time was that Nikon had electronic flash incorporation well figured out. That was a defining feature in the early days of digital. But yeah. A president and a billionaire captured posterity with a 4 megapixel camera...

I just got a note about an hour ago that I'd "won" the proposal to be the still photographer on a day long video shoot that's scheduled for next week. I'll be shooting during the "no audio" b-roll takes and also setting up or duplicating other shots that I won't be able to get while the video crew is shooting interviews and what not --- with sound. The shots I've been asked to take don't require highly specialized anything and most will fall handily in the 24 to 90mm range offered by my Leica 24-90mm zoom lens. But, as usual, I've been ruminating about the short comings of that lens. They are only a few but the one literal shortcoming is that the lens tops out at 90mm with an f-stop of 4.0. I'd love the lens even more if it zoomed out to 105 or even 120mm (memories of the Nikon 24-120....). The second shortcoming is the variable aperture which, as I just wrote above, is limited to f4.0 and smaller at the longest focal length. 

I started thinking about how nice it would be to try out the recently introduced Sigma Art lens that offers high optical correction, a range of focal lengths from 28-105 and a non-variable maximum aperture, at all focal ranges, of f2.8. I'll try to restrain myself because, of course, the 24-90mm is perfectly capable of delivering what the client needs. But I keep torturing myself, wondering how much more I could throw out of focus in backgrounds with a bit longer long end and a one stop greater maximum aperture. 

Still, the lens isn't much lighter or less cumbersome than the Leica (at 2.1 pounds) and I have the idea that as good as the Sigma might be I know from experience that the Leica zoom is phenomenally good and has the advantage of being well proven --- at least to me. Still, if I was starting from scratch on lens selections in the L mount family I can pretty much guarantee that the Sigma 28/105 Art zoom would be among my very first choices.

The second newly released Sigma zoom I have my eye on is the 28mm to 45mm f1.8, full frame, Art Series lens. I know it's a very short zoom range but it's a useful one. I owned the Sigma Art Series 24-35mm f2.0 lens for Nikon F cameras a few years back and, optically, it was one of the best lenses I've shot with, including primes. It left the market during the great march to mirrorless and I, for one, lamented its passing. My thought is that the new short focal range zoom lens might even be a better match for much of the way I work and it would give me a stop and a third more of light than the big Leica at corresponding focal lengths. Plus it would be wildly eccentric and therefore highly interesting. Maybe no new camera bodies in 2025 but I never promised anything about new lenses....right? 

Anything else seem compelling to you out there right now? If so, let me know in the comments. And I'll let you know if I toss away money at more exotic lenses. 

Sure would have been a joy to have the Sigma 28-105mm f2.8 Art lens for that day of documentary photography back in 2004..... Well, and one of the various, newer 24 megapixel cameras as well....