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06-30-2016, 08:14 AM   #1
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Why use the word 'Contemporary' when describing a new lens?

I don't get it or maybe I missed something, but why does say Sigma use this word? Aren't all new lens contemporary(or I would substitute 'modern')? thanks

06-30-2016, 08:27 AM   #2
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Why use the word "Limited" when describing a general production lens?


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06-30-2016, 08:40 AM   #3
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While "limited" is in reference to the lens itself, I think "contemporary", "art", etc that Sigma is going with now is referring more to the work you produce with it, and the self-image you have using it. So they are using the words more like the fashion industry uses words. They are of course meaningless, but reading their copy and looking at the whole line-up of lenses, you are supposed to absorb a general impression of their intentions. Just marketing...
06-30-2016, 09:38 AM - 1 Like   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by fstop18 Quote
Why use the word 'Contemporary' when describing a new lens?
Because the purpose of the word is, precisely, not to "describe" but to sell.


Last edited by wildman; 06-30-2016 at 09:44 AM.
06-30-2016, 09:43 AM   #5
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'Contemporary' is often used to describe something standard and no-frills, to make it sound more fresh. Like VW calls some of their basic specification cars 'Trendline' (along with 'Comfortline', 'Highline' etc) - it's still just a standard Golf, but now it's got a marketable name. So 'contemporary' lenses are practical, general workaday lenses that you'd keep on your camera - looking at their range online, it's a fast prime, a standard zoom, a couple of superzooms and a tele zoom. 'Art' ones are for something more specialist. In the end, it's all down to marketing. And it works, as well - we all love being able to say that we took a photo with an 'art series' lens
06-30-2016, 10:52 AM   #6
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Well, if it's marketing then it's back firing on me! I read these descriptions as meaning something special purpose for which I have no use!
06-30-2016, 12:24 PM   #7
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Back in 2012 Sigma announced their new Global Vision nomenclature, which breaks lenses down into Contemporary, Art, and Sports categories. "C" lenses are essentially your everyday consumer lenses with popular focal lengths.


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06-30-2016, 04:26 PM - 3 Likes   #8
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If they start producing their full range in Pentax mount, I might take more interest in them. As it is, I have several Sigma lenses; 10-20, 105 Macro, 70-200, 70-300, and I do like them all but until they produce their 600mm zooms for Pentax, they can call them "Art," "Contemporary" or whatever. I will call them them "Unavailable"
06-30-2016, 09:15 PM - 1 Like   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by fstop18 Quote
Aren't all new lens contemporary(or I would substitute 'modern')
Quite so.

"Contemporary" was once a useful word with a precise meaning, but it has never recovered from being abducted by semi-literate academics.

Once upon a time, we knew that "a contemporary review of Bleak House" was one written in the 1850s. Now we need to know the literacy level of the person using the word. Chances are they mean "modern".

Once it has fallen Into the hands of marketers, it can never recover. It now lives in a verbal doss-house, with "new", "fresh", "organic", "exciting", "sensitive", "bio-degradable", "free-range", "enhanced" and "genuine". A sad fate for a word that served us well for centuries.
07-01-2016, 02:59 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Why use the word "Limited" when describing a general production lens?


Steve
I thought the term limited was more indicative of limited size rather than production. The * lenses are wider aperture lenses that can be as large as they need to be, while the limited lenses are designed to be compact, with all metal builds -- even if that means (and it usually does) that they aren't the fastest lenses on the market with regard to aperture.
07-01-2016, 04:03 AM - 1 Like   #11
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The meaning of a word is its use in the language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
Philosophical Investigations (1953)
07-05-2016, 05:45 AM   #12
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Since nobody seems to like Contemporary, can anyone come up with an alternative? No doubt Sigma will stop the production lines to change over to the new name as soon as a PF consensus develops.
07-05-2016, 01:36 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by wildman Quote
The meaning of a word is its use in the language.
I disagree - a word has intrinsic meaning no matter how ignorant the speaker we 'make accommodation for'.
07-05-2016, 02:25 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by pacerr Quote
I disagree - a word has intrinsic meaning no matter how ignorant the speaker we 'make accommodation for'.
Words are just noises and/or symbols on paper. How can they have an "intrinsic" meaning? Did the noise that sounds like "contemporary" have an intrinsic meaning 5000 years ago? Whatever meaning they have is simply the meaning they have arrived at by consensus use by people. That meaning changes over time, and changes will always annoy some people that liked it the way it was. Whether a change is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder, but change happens whether you like it or not. Most words don't mean what they used to mean (lots of them mean the exact opposite of what they used to mean), they don't sound like they used to sound, etc. The only constant is change...
07-05-2016, 04:26 PM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by vonBaloney Quote
Words are just noises and/or symbols on paper. How can they have an "intrinsic" meaning?
Other than proper nouns, every word stands for a concept. Here is a quote that expands on this.

"It is often said that definitions state the meaning of words. This is true, but it is not exact. A word is merely a visual-auditory symbol used to represent a concept; a word has no meaning other than that of the concept it symbolizes, and the meaning of a concept consists of its units. It is not words, but concepts that man defines—by specifying their referents."
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