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Leica launches their new 24-70mm f/2.8 L and it looks like a rehoused Sigma Art lens

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Leica has now officially unveiled the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-70mm f/2.8 ASPH lens and, well… it looks like it’s basically the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens in a different housing. The specs of the two lenses are virtually identical, except the one with Leica written on it is more than two and a half times the price at $2,795.

The number of elements, groups, minimum focus distance, magnification factor, everything is basically the same. The only real difference seems to be that the Leica uses a metal housing instead of Sigma’s carbon-composite housing.  What other changes there may be internally are unknown. But it almost certainly seems to be using Sigma’s optics.

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Price and more Leica 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens photos leak ahead of official announcement

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After yesterday’s leak of the first product photo of Leica’s new VARIO-ELMARIT-SL f2.8 / 24-70mm ASPH lens, three more have now also leaked. No surprises for guessing who leaked them. Yes, that’s right, it’s Nokishita. They’ve also confirmed a price for the two kits, including the Leica SL2 or SL2-S cameras.

As a reminder, Sigma’s old 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens that they adapted for L mount costs a mere $1,059. Panasonic’s Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens costs $2,200. Yesterday’s estimate for the new Leica lens was $2,750. According to this latest post, the Leica 24-70mm f/2.8 L kits will cost you around $8,050 bundled with the SL2-S and $10,500 with the SL2.

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Upcoming Leica 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens rumours and photo leak

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The first close-up product photo of Leica’s VARIO-ELMARIT-SL f2.8 / 24-70mm ASPH lens has leaked to Twitter, courtesy of Nokishita, with a claimed price tag of 352,000 yen (including tax), equating to around $3,215. It’s supposed to be part of a new “economy line” from Leica, although that name might have lost a little something in translation.

According to the latest rumours, the US price is expected to be a little closer to $2,750, which is noticeably more expensive than the Panasonic Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens, which sits around $2,200. It’s also said to be based on the optics of the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens, which is significantly lower at around $1,059.

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Sigma has now officially launched their new 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for L & E mount mirrorless

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Sigma has now officially announced the totally-already-leaked Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for Sigma/Panasonic/Leica L mount and Sony E mount mirrorless cameras. Essentially replacing the 9-year-old Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, Sigma says that the new lens has been redesigned from the ground up, optimised for today’s mirrorless systems.

Of course, at the moment that’s only two mirrorless systems. L and E mounts. There’s no word on when or if we can expect this lens to come to Z and RF mounts at some point. Sigma says that the new 35mm f/1.4 DG DN offers “exceptional optical performance”, a fast quiet autofocus motor and a “professional feature-set”.

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Retailers leak complete Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art specs, photos and prices early

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It’s not really much of a surprise that with the official announcement expected tomorrow we’re seeing leaks. This time, though, it doesn’t come from Nokishita. Well, it sort of does, but not directly. This time they’re just the messenger. British retailer Campkins Cameras and Dutch retailer Foto Konijnenberg both published complete product listings for the upcoming Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for L & E mounts a day early.

According to the now-removed listings (thanks, Google Cache!), the UK price will be £745 with the EU price coming in at €849. This tallies up with the previously rumoured $899 price for the USA. The specs pretty much confirm those leaked by Nokishita a few days ago, and also offers up a couple more that weren’t in the previous leak.

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Sigma’s new fp L has a 61-megapixel BSI sensor with an AA filter and no IBIS

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Well, Sigma has now officially announced their new Sigma fp L mirrorless camera and… Well, it’s a bit meh, really. Sure, it has a shiny new 61-megapixel backside illuminated sensor, but it’s not the rumoured new colour filter array. It’s just a regular Bayer sensor. And like the Sigma fp, there’s still no mechanical shutter and no IBIS.

It does retain the same form factor as the original Sigma fp, though, so fp owners looking to upgrade to the fp L should be able to retain any of their current SmallRig cages and other bits designed for the fp. It’s an odd upgrade, because it seems to be geared towards photographers with the new high res sensor, but lacking features photographers wanted in an fp follow-up.

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Sigma’s full-frame Foveon still far from ready, but “we’re still working on it” says Sigma

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It’s been a long, strange trip for Sigma’s Foveon X3 sensor since the L mount alliance was announced in 2018. During that announcement, Sigma said they were working on a new full-frame Foveon L mount camera to come in 2019. Then in March 2019, its release got pushed to 2020. But in February 2020, Sigma announced that they were starting over from scratch.

Now, in February 2021, Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has posted a video to YouTube retelling last year’s story and the decision to terminate the contract with the original chip manufacture with whom they were collaborating. But today’s announcement reaffirms the company’s commitment to releasing a full-frame Foveon L mount camera… Eventually.

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Sigma registers a new “fp L” L mount camera body in Korea

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Another one from Nokishita. It appears Sigma has registered a new Sigma fp L camera body in Korea. There’s no real information about it yet except for the fact that it’s been registered, although it appears that we might be able to expect another camera soon from Sigma. Perhaps as soon as the end of this month when CP+ (virtually) begins in Japan later this month.

The Sigma fp, released in 2019, has been fairly well accepted (not adopted, but accepted), given the lack of any real customer base for Sigma outside of its lenses for non-L Mount cameras. It did pretty well in Japan, though – at least on launch. But while it has seen some success, it hasn’t brought people to L mount in droves.

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Venus Optics launches L-mount version of four of its popular lenses

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Venus Optics has released quite a lot of interesting lenses over the past few years. And now, four of the most popular and most unusual ones are available in L-mount. Venus Optics has just launched the L-mount version of two wide-angle lenses and two macro lenses: 4mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D, 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe, and 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro.

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