Sigma

Once again aficionados of the Foveon-based Sigma DSLR system will be disappointed as there’s not even a hint of a replacement for the ageing SD-10 on show to the public at PMA, though we were assured in our meeting with Sigma's senior executives that there definitely is a new camera on the way, and that it is in development now. We're guessing that details will start to arrive in late summer, in time for a Photokina launch. On the lens side things are looking a lot brighter, with two new zooms (the 17-70mm F2.8-4.6 and the very nice 70-200mm F2.8) and the addition of Four Thirds mounts to a handful of primes, macros and zooms, which will please Olympus E-System users. One of the benefits of the Four Thirds system's higher crop factor is obvious when you look at the 150mm F2.8 (895 grams) next to the lens needed to get the same field of view on a full frame (or film) camera, the 300mm F2.8, at 2400 grams - see the 'in hand' shot below.

The full range of new Four Thirds lenses on view at PMA: 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM, 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC, MACRO 105mm F2.8 EX DG, APO MACRO 150mm F2.8 EX DG HSM, APO 50-500mm F4-6.3 EX DG HSM.