Hello from Tokyo - Takeaways from Sigma’s New Product Announcements

It has been rare that I’ve had a chance to accept opportunities to travel to press events in my career as a photographer and influencer, my wife and team encouraged me to accept an invitation to Japan to be present in person for Sigma’s February 2025 new product announcement. Sigma decided to bring in a number of industry professionals and influencers for this particular event, as Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki took the stage to highlight a few corporate direction shifts along with the announcement of two new lenses and a new camera.

In Kazuto’s remarks he highlighted a recognition that the industry has changed due to the rise of smartphones and the sheer number of people who elect to use their phone’s camera rather than a dedicated imaging device (true). To that end they have designed a new camera, which they call the BF. The idea is for a simpler, purer user interface that allows people to focus on just taking photos.

In using the UI and the simplified control schemes, I found it took me a bit to wrap my head around the unique controls, but I think it does work reasonably well.

I’ll be doing a deeper dive review in the coming weeks, but the thing that stands out the most to me is how beautiful the camera is…particular in the silvery white finish and paired with the newly released silver versions of a number of Sigma’s iSeries lenses. The camera is crafted out of a single aluminum ingot, so there is no screws and panel attachment points. They had a display that showed various stages of the aluminum ingot being transformed into the chassis of the camera. It makes for a beautiful looking camera.

The Sigma BF is built around a 24MP full frame sensor, and, interestingly, there is no card slot. Instead the camera features 230GB of internal storage and has a USB-C 3.2 port on the side for fast media transfer. One potential misstep is the lack of an kind of wireless capabilities, which may limit those who either want to transfer images wirelessly to their smartphones or even post them directly to social media.

This is an interchangeable lens camera utilizing the L mount, so it will be compatible not only with Sigma L mount lenses but also any lens from another brand using the L mount.

Autofocus seemed to work pretty well in my limited testing at the event, but I will dive more deeply into that in my full review.

Previous Sigma cameras have been very niche, and I suspect the only way that will be different this time around is if the sheer minimalist beauty of the camera creates a viral “it factor” groundswell of response. In talking to a Sigma UK rep today I learned that preorders are already starting to roll in, so that’s a good sign. The announced MSRP will be $1999 USD.

The second announcement was for the new Sigma 16-300mm F3.5-6.7 DC OS Contemporary lens. Superzoom lenses aren’t always that exciting, but there are a few very interesting things about this one. That zoom ratio of 18.8x is industry leading, but more interesting to me is that this is the first APS-C lens from Sigma to receive their new HLA (High Speed Linear Actuator) focus motor system, which is vastly better than their older STM focus motors. It also has the OS2 algorithm which is significantly better than their old optical stabilizers (OS) in other lenses that I’ve tested. This one is rated at 6 stops of OS, and in my short tests using my own camera, I found that stabilization is quite good even on the telephoto end (which is 450mm full frame equivalent).

(This is a handheld 300mm shot).

Also interesting is that this lens starts at the wider 16mm point, which does create engineering challenges but also opens up a lot of additional framing opportunities with that 24mm full frame equivalent angle of view.

Price will be $699 USD, and I suspect that this is a lens that will sell well for them and does offer some unique advantages over existing alternates. Also interesting is that this will be the first of Sigma’s lenses (that I’m aware of) this is simultaneously launching on Canon RF mount alongside the more conventional E-mount, L-mount, and Fuji X-mount options.

I’ve saved the best for last, as the announcement I was personally most excited about was the 300-600mm F4 DG OS | SPORT lens. Sigma had yet to release a true “super-telephoto” on FE and L mounts, and this one is exciting. It’s a big lens (167mm in diameter and 467.9mm in length) and weighs nearly 4 kilos (3985g), but it also delivers a constant F4 aperture all the way through 600mm, which puts it into very rare company. The Sony, Canon, and Nikon 600mm F4 lenses on their respective platforms all costs $13,000 or more ($14,000 for the Nikon), while the Sigma offers the versatility of being a zoom and also comes at a price tag of right under $7000 USD.

This lens seems to have it all, including the premium HLA focus motor for sports work, an effective 5.5 stop OS2 stabilization system, and a huge amount of controls, including a drop in filter system including the ability to rotate circular polarizers. I noted and tested the ability to preset focus positions where a new unique control ring can be rocked and instantly return focus to the preset position – great for sports like baseball, for example.

As a Sports lens, it has Sigma’s premium build quality, including a magnesium alloy body and carbon fiber lens hood and completed with a thorough weather sealing. It’s also Sigma’s first white super telephoto lens, and it looks beautiful.

I can only foresee two potential “flies in the ointment” for the 300-600mm Sport, and that is Sony’s limitation on burst rates for third party lenses, meaning that the sport bodies this lens will get mounted on (Alpha 1 and a9 series cameras) that can achieve much faster burst rates will be limited at 15 FPS. The second limiting factor on Sony FE will be the restriction on using teleconverters on third party lenses. Neither of these limitations will exist on L-mount, though the former concern is somewhat of a moot point considering that L-mount still lacks a truly amazing sports camera (at least at the time of this writing).

I look forward to putting the 300-600 Sport through its paces and rendering a true verdict on the performance.

This has been a fascinating experience. I’ve enjoyed meeting a number of my fellow influencers and reviewers and being able to “talk shop” with them. Stay tuned for my deeper looks at these products once I can get them into my standard review environments.

As always, this is a completely independent review. *Images and thoughts are my own.

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