Originally posted by Edgar_in_Indy It's just shocking to me that the first affordable consumer zoom lens with an aperture faster than f/2.8 is not an m43 lens, but is instead an APS-C lens
That's not true exactly.
First, these constant aperture zooms are all pro zooms, not consumer zooms.
Then, Olympus has the 14-35/2 lens at 2300 USD which is 35mm-equivalent to 28-70/4.
So, the above was the first faster than F2.8 zoom and it indeed was for the FT system.
But the Sigma now is 35mm-equivalent to 28-50/2.8 which is the first example of a 35mm-equivalent F2.8 zoom for a smaller sensor.
Impossible to make for FT as it would require an F1.4 aperture zoom with the FT sensor.
And normally because the optical problems to make fast zooms increase with F-stop in parallel to lens diameter, the smaller sensor zooms would be more expensive as the Olympus example demonstrates.
The real impact of the Sigma lens is that it is priced just as affordable as its 35mm-equivalent full frame peer (the Sigma one). Absolutely technically impossible to do for the FT system. Even for APSC, I have the impression that we see some good aggressivity from Sigma here to meet the full frame price point.
Originally posted by rawr I laughed hard at the irony when I read some comments from full-frame users on another site that his lens may tempt them back to APS-C
I already made a similiar comment higher up in this thread. That this lens breaths new air in the APSC system.
Nonetheless, a combo like D800E+24-70/2.8G delivers an image resolution, zoom range and focus accuracy which is still unmatched. Where it is matched now is wrt low light capability and shallow DoF. Which is good enough in many cases.