Photographers often scour eBay listings in hopes of snagging a good deal on camera equipment, but usually they’re not expecting to find gear worth hundreds of dollars sold for the same price as McDonald’s Dollar Menu items. Well, that’s exactly what one lucky eBayer discovered a couple of weeks ago. The person stumbled upon a strange listing: reputable camera retailer Calumet Photo was selling a brand new Sigma EX 10-20mm f/3.5 lens for Canon DSLRs — worth about $590 — for just $0.99! And not just one lens, but three!
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If you use a major-brand DSLR, you should be keeping a close eye on the new $899 Sigma 35mm f/1.4 (above center). It undercuts the popular (but pricey) lenses of rival camera makers by hundreds of dollars, and appears to have build- and image-qualities that are equal to (if not better than) those lenses.
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Sigma has released the first batch of sample photos shot using the company’s new 35mm f/1.4, which costs $899 and competes against the significantly more expensive 35mm f/1.4 lenses of major camera manufacturers. The images were all shot by photographer Kimio Yajima using the Sigma SD1.
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Camera companies are doing their part to help victims of Hurricane Sandy get back on their feet. Here’s something that might be great news to some photographers on the East Coast: Sigma is extending its warranty to cover damage caused by the hurricane.
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Sigma has officially launched its new 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM lens for Canon-, Nikon-, Sony-, Pentax-, and Sigma-mount cameras. The Japanese-made lens features a sleek matte finish, low dispersion elements, multi-layer flare-reducing coating, a hyper-sonic motor for speedy and quiet AF, and a 9-blade diaphragm for smooth bokeh.
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There’s a trend in the camera world these days that involves stuffing large sensors into small cameras. The goal is to squeeze professional-grade image-making ability into a pint-sized package. Sigma’s new horse in this race is the DP1 Merrill, a fixed-lens compact with an APS-C sensor at its core; not just any ol’ APS-C sensor, mind you, but a 46-megapixel Foveon sensor.
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SigZilla is gone now. You’ll be able to see its work in action if you watch the World Series. I wouldn’t be surprised if you catch a glimpse of it mounted to FOX’s Vision Research camera. Before it left, though, we were able to — with a great deal of difficulty — get it mounted in the lab and run one basic Imatest series.
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Sigma’s 200-500mm telephoto lens is so large (2.3 feet long and 34.6 pounds) and so expensive ($26,000) that many people just can’t take it seriously. Last year we shared some hilarious customer reviews that poked fun at “the green monster.” If you’ve been wondering how the lens actually looks, works, and performs, the folks over at LensRentals recently purchased a copy of the lens for their inventory and snapped some behind-the-scenes photos of their initial tests.
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A couple of years ago, Sigma expressed a desire to create a mirrorless ILC of its own. And even though everybody and their mother in the camera industry seems to be jumping on the mirrorless bandwagon, Sigma instead is renegeing on that 2010 statement. In an interview with Chinese website Xitek, a Sigma manager stated that the company would never launch a mirrorless system. Read more…

Back in January of this year Sigma announced that it was working on the world’s first 1:1 180mm f/2.8 macro lens, which was to play the role of successor to the company’s popular 180mm f/3.5 EX DG lens. Sadly, at the time Sigma gave us no indication of when we might be seeing the lens IRL, or how much we might have to pony up to get our hands on it. But a couple of days ago on Friday the 13th (let’s hope that’s not a bad omen) Sigma answered both of those questions. Read more…