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The first Sigma 14mm f/1.4 images have leaked and it’s massive

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It’s not much of a surprise that this lens was going to be huge. Just the concept of a 14mm f/1.4 brings up a very large lens in one’s head. But the first photos of Sigma’s upcoming 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens have leaked, courtesy of Sony Alpha Rumors.

The new lens is expected to be announced on June 8th at 8am Eastern, and Sigma has set up an online stage event for that date. There’s no word on how much the new lens will cost yet, but as well as the photos, the rumoured specs leaked last month, and they don’t appear to be any different now.

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Specs leak for upcoming Sigma 14mm f/1.4 lens for E and L mounts

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For now, you might want to take this one with at least a little pinch of salt, but specs have been posted online for an alleged Sigma 14mm f/1.4 lens. Yes, that’s an extremely wide aperture for such an ultra-wide-angle lens. This is why I suggested that pinch of salt. If such a lens were to become a reality, though, the specs – particularly the weight of the potentially massive lens – do seem to add up.

The naming for the apparently upcoming Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art suggests that will be a full-frame lens. This is what the “DG” nomenclature denotes. It also appears that the lens will utilise rear gel filters, due to a mention of the Sigma GP-11 guide plate (buy here), as used with the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG DN Art (buy here) lens for its rear filters.

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Leica’s new 100-400mm f/5-6.3 looks like a rehoused Sigma at twice the price

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Leica has announced a new addition to its SL system (L mount) lens lineup. It’s the Vario-Elmar-SL 100-400mm F5-6.3 and it costs a whopping $2,195. Now, as Leica lenses go, this is par for the course, but when you consider that Sigma also has a 100-400mm f/5-6.3 L mount lens for less than half of that, it’s a bit of a stretch. The Leica lens is quite a bit heavier than the Sigma, too, but we’ll save that comparison for a little later on.

The new lens features a removable Arca Swiss mounting plate for easy attaching to compatible tripod heads with clamp locks every 90 degrees for easy switching between landscape and portrait orientations. Leica has also announced a new 1.4x L mount teleconverter. In conjunction with the new lens, this brings it into a focal length range of 140-560mm, albeit with a stop slower aperture.

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Is Panasonic finally going to give us phase detection autofocus in Lumix mirrorless cameras?

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Is Panasonic finally going to give us phase detection autofocus (PDAF) in their full-frame and Micro Four Thirds Lumix mirrorless cameras? Well… Maybe. This is one that seems to have skipped by most of us but last month, Panasonic announced a new PTZ camera. Now, we do cover PTZ cameras occasionally, like the Insta360 Link and that crazy Sony Cinema PTZ camera we saw at IBC 2022 in September, but mostly they’re kinda boring.

This one, though, the imaginatively titled Panasonic AW-UE160W/K features something new. At least, it’s something new for Panasonic. Phase detection autofocus. Ordinary Filmmaker spotted this and put a video together going over his thoughts on what this might mean for the future of Panasonic mirrorless cameras.

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Sigma full-frame Foveon still delayed but it may come with phase detection autofocus

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In an interview with Imaging Resource, Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has announced that there is a new delay with Foveon sensor development. It sounds like the same old story we’ve been hearing since 2018, but it seems as if it’s not so much the technical challenges that Sigma is facing now. The technical development issues that have caused delays in the past seem to be resolved for the most part. It’s simply a matter of production.

The global silicon shortage has a lot to answer for across many industries, but that seems to be the only thing that’s really holding Sigma back now. Prototypes take too long to create and the sensor itself is still seeing development while waiting for those prototypes to happen. This makes them pretty much obsolete before they get close to production. But, it sounds like we’re close to full-frame Foveon becoming a reality.

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Full-Frame Foveon X3 “should be” ready in 2022 but probably not an actual camera

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The full-frame Foveon saga has been going on since 2018 when it was first mentioned at Photokina during the Sigma, Panasonic and Leica L mount alliance. It was originally expected to be released in 2019, but in March 2019, this was revised to 2020. Only a day after rumours of a February 2020 release, Sigma announced that they’re still working on it and the following month its release was delayed until at least 2021, but probably 2022.

At the beginning of 2021, that release date target became 2023 and now it seems that Sigma might be on track. In a recent interview with Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki, he reaffirmed that Sigma is still working on prototypes of the full-frame Foveon X3 sensor and that it “should be available sometime this year”. The way it’s worded sounds like the sensor will be available, but perhaps not in a retail-ready camera.

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Fotodiox release new auto extension tubes for shooting macro with L mount cameras

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Extension tubes are one of the best ways to get started in macro. They’re easy to use with your existing lenses to be able to get started shooting really close-up subjects and they’re a lot cheaper than buying an actual dedicated macro lens. Up until recently, there haven’t been too many options when it comes to extension tubes for L mount, though. There are a couple, but not many.

Well now, Fotodiox has entered the fray with their new 15mm and 35mm L mount Auto Macro Tubes. The “auto” bit means that they maintain electronic communication between the lens and camera, giving you full control over your aperture and autofocus system when using them.

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DJI joins L mount alliance, Zenmuse X9 gets L mount adapter, Ronin 4D to get 42222 XQ codec

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Well, here’s a surprise announcement, DJI is joining the L mount alliance. It’s not so much a surprise that more members are being added, as Panasonic Director, Yosuke Yamane mentioned that it may happen way back at the beginning of 2020. And making good on that suggestion, they added Leitz last October. But the fact that the newest member to join will be DJI is perhaps a little unexpected.

It kind of makes sense, though. After all, DJI has been starting to head more towards interchangeable lens cameras lately with the Ronin 4D and obviously, they make interchangeable lens cameras for some of their drones. But to eliminate any doubt about their intentions right away, along with the announcement DJI has launched a new L mount lens plate for their Zenmuse X9 camera.

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This is how zoom works inside Sigma’s new 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens

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Earlier this month, Sigma announced its new 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens. One of the features is that it features internal zoom and focus mechanisms, so it doesn’t change length when zooming or focusing.

If you’ve been wondering how it works and what it looks like on the inside, Sigma has a video for you. It shows a cross-section of the lens, all of its elements, and its internal zoom mechanism.

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Laowa has officially launched the new $499 90mm f/2.8 2x Macro for E, L, RF and Z mount cameras

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There isn’t really much about this lens that we didn’t already know, except for the surprisingly low $499 price tag, thanks to last month’s leaked specs, photos and video but Venus Optics has now officially announced the new Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Ultra-Macro APO “CA-Dreamer” lens. The lens was expected to be announced on May 23rd, although that seems to have been delayed until today.

This full-frame lens is available in several mirrorless mounts including Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Leica L. It’s a manual focus lens with a minimum focus distance of 20.5cm and a magnification factor of 2x. It weighs in at only 619g, and provides what Venus Optics says is “superb optical performance and outstanding sharpness”.

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