Sigma unveils f/1.2 fab fifty at great price
DECIDING on a ‘fab fifty’ lens has just got that much harder, with Sigma announcing the 50mm F1.2 DG DN | Ar t for full-frame Sony E and L mount at a ver y keen price – £1,299. Price-wise, its nearest competitor is the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (£2,099), with comparably fast glass from Canon, Nikon and Panasonic costing significantly over £2,000.
This is also the first Sigma lens with a 13 rounded diaphragm blade design. The aper ture maintains its circular shape when shooting wide open at f/1.2, which delivers impressive background separation and ‘pleasingly round bokeh balls,’ according to the company. A floating focus system is also said to improve the lens’s shor t-range performance and deliver high optical quality throughout the focusing range. For video shooters, focus shift has been minimised for more natural-looking footage.
In addition, the lens is relatively compact, being 108mm long and weighing 745g. The floating focusing system uses dual HLA (High-response Linear Actuator) motors, which reduce its size without compromising performance. Each glass element has been made smaller, too, and all this adds up to a 30% reduction in weight compared to the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG DN | Ar t. In addition to a dust- and splash-resistant structure, the front element of the lens features a waterand oil-repellent coating.
The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN | Ar t is available from 18 April. See sigmauk.com
The 645 sensor is bigger than those in Fujifilm’s medium-format GFX series
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247MP sensor, anyone?
SONY has announced a 247MP medium format sensor, though it’s not yet clear if this is destined for Sony’s regular cameras as well as industrial use.
The chip is described as a diagonal 64.84mm (Type 4.1) CMOS active pixel type image sensor with a square pixel array that incorporates maximum 24 dB PGA circuit and 16-bit A/D conver ter. The 16-bit digital output is said to make it possible to readout the signals of 247.04 million effective pixels at high-speed of 5.3fps in all-pixel readout mode, which is fast considering the size and resolution of the sensor. It comes in both colour and monochrome versions.
The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN Ar t for full-frame Sony E
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Unique chance to show your work in London
LIGHT and Land, a photography tour company set up by veteran landscape shooter Charlie Waite, is marking its 30th anniversar y by giving any photographer who signs up in time the oppor tunity to exhibit their work in London’s Mall Galler y.
Depending on the space, the cost ranges from £375 to £595, but Charlie stresses this is good value for a London galler y and not a profit-making exercise. ‘There are shamefully few galleries exhibiting photography in the UK, so I want to get people exhibiting their best work, rather than it sitting on hard drives,’ Charlie told AP. ‘We aren’t curating the images, within reason, and the only other provisos are that the images were taken outside and that you frame them.’ There is no obligation to sign up for a Light and Land tour, either. Space is limited, with room for 50-60 photographers, according to Charlie, so the project is run on a strictly first come, first ser ved basis. Light & Land on the Mall, in association with CEWE, will run from 2-7 September, with more information at lightandland.co.uk/exhibition
Jan Bowen is one of the photographers already signed up for the show
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Yvonne C Kr ystovsky’s winning image
Black and white thinking
BLACK & White Minimalism magazine has announced the winners of its eponymous photography prize. Yvonne C Kr ystovsky took home the grand prize and $1,000 with a beautiful image entitled ‘In Great-Grandpa’s hands.’ This year’s competition attracted 1,300 submissions, ‘showcasing the enduring appeal of minimalism in black & white photography,’ said the organisers. All of the competition winners can be seen at minimalismmag.com/winners-2024
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