Sigma’s New Flagship Lens Delivers High Specs At A Low Price
News | By Stephan Jukic | May 24, 2024
Sigma recently introduced a new flagship lens called the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art II that has a good profile of specs and a reasonable price.
The soon-to-be-released Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 will be available for both Sony E-mount and Leica L-mount cameras and will offer a useful combo of being smaller than its predecessor while delivering more.
This new lens fits in as Sigma’s second, improved iteration of the original and highly rated Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens and has been built to deliver more across the board.
This quality improvement is especially notable because the original Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art was an excellent piece of glass and got wide appreciation by those who used it.
It wasn’t just great on performance and spec, but also for its price, which was quite a bit lower than that of the same lenses from the camera brands themselves.
Now, in the case of the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art II, Sigma shaved 7% of size for this lens and 10% off the original’s weight. This translates to a weight of 745 grams and dimensions of 8.78 x 12.02 cm for the new, second-generation model.
As mentioned above, you’ll soon be able to obtain the new Sigma 24-70mm Art II for Sony e-MOUNT CAMERAS AND Leica L-mount models, but so far at least, options for Nikon and much less Canon don’t exist.
At least if you use the Sigma 24-70mm Art II for Sony E cameras, your closest alternative is Sony’s own FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II, which is slightly lighter at 695 grams, but also much more expensive.
The new Sigma lens has several key features. One of these is Sigma’s own High-response Linear Actuator motor as the AF actuator. This promises to increase drive speed by 3x over that the original 24-70mm from this brand could do.
With this new motor, AF speed stays the same, but zoom performance is indeed better.
Sigma also gave the Sigma 24-70mm Art II improved optical performance. The second-generation lens delivers much better control of focus breathing for video recording and better control of chromatic aberration, among other qualities.
Internally, it has nearly the same construction as its predecessor, with 19 elements in 5 groups, but in the newer model, there are 5 aspherical elements instead of the 3 in the original.
The Sigma 24-70mm Art II also contains 6 fluorite low dispersion elements and 2 special low dispersion elements.
Other features of this newer Sigma 24-70mm include a de-clickable aperture ring and a second customizable AFL button for easier portrait shooting. On the other hand, the size of the lens filter stays the same.
The Sigma 24-70mm Art II is of course also weather-sealed, so you should have little trouble using it in the field when it gets dusty or rainy.
Sigma’s new flagship Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art II is available for pre-order for a very decent price of $1,199 and will start shipping by the end of May.
By contrast, Sony’s own 24-70mm f/2.8 retails for $2,298.00 and Leica’s native 24-70mm f/2.8 is even pricier at $2,895.
With these comparisons, you get an idea of how much cheaper the Sigma version is even though it delivers comparable performance.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
