Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 to be Offered with in-Lens Stabilisation in Pentax Mount

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by Miserere



Sigma will release its new 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 lens on March 10, 2009. After the success of the Tamron and Pentax 18-250mm lenses, Sigma will have a tough time catching up. Or maybe not. It seems Sigma have an ace up their sleeve, as according to PopPhoto the Pentax and Sony mounts of the lens will offer the same in-lens optical stabilisation that up until now they only offered on the Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts. It will also feature HSM focusing.

With all these goodies it looks like it will be a serious contender in the super-zoom market, especially for Pentax users.

As it's not currently possible for both stabilisation systems to work in synchronicity (that would require extra communication between the lens and body, and new firmware for the camera), I assume it will be up to the user to decide when they want to use Pentax's in-body SR (e.g., focal lengths below 100mm) and when Sigma's in-lens OS (e.g., focal lengths above 100mm). I hope this becomes a trend for Sigma, as it gives us Pentaxians further advantage over brands with non-stabilised camera bodies.

2 comments:

robin said...

While personally I would not be in the market for such a lens it will be very interesting to see the reviews. For the first time in-camera and in-lens methods of image stabilisation will be directly comparable.

William Porter said...

I agree with robin's comment: it will be interesting to compare the results using both stabilization systems. But aside from that, I don't see how this actually gives Pentax the extra advantage you say it does. Nikon and Canon users have lens-stabilization, now perhaps (on one lens that many of us will never buy) Pentax will have in-lens stabilization too. But we already have sensor-based stablization. It's hard for me to imagine that sensor-based stabilization is going to be better than lens-based at any focal length. And if you turn SR off in the body, then, um, where's the Pentax advantage? If this were a 500mm pro lens that was going to cost over $1500, I might be grateful to have superior lens-based IS in it. But a consumer-grade superzoom? If I were head of Pentax, I think I would have discouraged Sigma from offering it.