Sigma Releases Small 24mm, 90mm Lenses, as Expected

Sigma did indeed release a 24mm f/2 and a 90mm f/2.8 lens this morning, with all of the specs and critical selling points precisely as expected. That is to say that they’re small and sharp, and cheaper than the first party lenses. No surprises.

The lenses start to flesh out Sigmas “I” class of compact mirrorless lenses. Nine years after Sigma launched its at-first-inscrutable “Global Vision” strategy that saw the firm go up-market with its lenses, initially pushing out “Art” lenses of the highest quality and “Contemporary” designs that would serve as good kit lenses. It took a few years of new releases to understand Sigma’s model stratification, as they never adequately explained it. It didn’t help that a couple “C” lenses were at least as good as their “A” counterparts, like the oddly-paired 150-600mm designs launched simultaneously that differed primarily in price… by a lot.

To those “A” and “C” lenses, Sigma is now completing a line of Contemporary “I” primes that seem to have the goal of meeting the 2017 perceived requirements of mirrorless lenses, which is to say they should be somewhat high quality, but emphasize small size and a good value ratio. Again, Sigma has not come out and said that’s what the “I” means, but they are residing under the “C” class of lenses.