Sigma Announces the Smallest and Lightest f/2.8 Zoom for APS-C: 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN
Sigma has announced the 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN zoom, as part of its Contemporary lens series. Ideal for travel and day-to-day shooting, this remarkable new lens offers a high-quality, versatile, extremely compact option for crop-sensor mirrorless camera users. Less than 74.5mm long and weighing just over 290g, it is the smallest and lightest f/2.8 standard zoom for crop-sensor mirrorless cameras today.
SIGMA’s first APS-C size mirrorless zoom lens has a versatile full-frame equivalent zoom range of 27-75mm, which makes it ideal for a wide range of photo and video applications including landscapes, portraits, street photography, architecture, and events. It can also be used for macro-style close-up photography owing to its maximum magnification of 1:2.8 and minimum focusing distance of just 12.1cm. The bright f/2.8 aperture makes for easier hand-held low-light shooting and provides a shallow depth-of-field for high-impact results.
Autofocus is exceptionally fast and quiet thanks to the stepping motor, which can be particularly useful when shooting video, or fast-moving subjects such as children and animals. The lens’ exceptionally small and light form factor that weighs less than 300g makes it perfect as a first interchangeable lens, as well as a sub-lens for full-frame bodies, as well as for various shooting situations.
The lens is constructed of 13 elements in 10 groups, of which one is an SLD element and three others are aspherical elements. Sigma says that those lens’s three high-precision glass-molded aspherical elements coupled with the minimization of the total number of elements in the lens overall yields superb optical quality without excessive weight. Sigma also leans on the use of in-camera aberration correction to further eliminate optical imperfections such as distortion and vignetting. This feature isn’t available in all cameras and available corrections may vary depending on the camera model.
The lens features a seven-bladed rounded aperture diaphragm, is dust and splash resistant, and features Sigma’s super multi-layer coating.
Here are some sample pictures from Sigma taken by Andrew Stripp, Jim Koepnick, Damien Dohmen and Hsu Wu Te:
To keep the lens as light as possible, Sigma constructed the body from carefully selected materials. A polycarbonate called Thermally Stable Composite (TSC) was used for the construction of the barrel, which is sleek, robust, and importantly has a thermal conductivity close to that of aluminum. This ensures stable performance and good operability when used in changing temperatures. By deliberately using metal for some of the internal structure, the parts could be much thinner and have a higher rigidity, ensuring the lens can stand up to frequent, heavy use.
The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary lens will be available for $549 near the end of October.
More info on Sigma’s website.
