The world's 1st F1.8 full-frame mirrorless zoom has arrived!

Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 Full-frame Lens for L mount

US $1349 MSRP
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Based on any Art line lens I’ve shot until now, it should be great.

Based on the new zoom’s performance characteristics, it seems it makes an excellent 35mm ‘prime’ to boot. The zoom appears to be very usable wide-open and even better stopped down a little.

Here is a thought. Its such a short range lens I could use a 35mm f1.8 prime and step foward and back a few paces to cover that range for hand held. At least it will be a lot lighter and discreet. If locked down on a tripod I already have primes that cover those range.

True for a lot of use cases, but if you want locked down shots where you slowly zoom in or out to draw attention to a subject or provide additional context respectively, this zoom could be a good choice, especially when stopped down slightly to hold focus with a subtle zoom.

Walking slowly toward a subject with a stablized image from a prime lens can work if the change in focus is manageable.

When I zoom with the parfocal Fujinon zoom, it’s often a very slow zoom in to isolate the subject without shouting ZOOM!

Its not quite parfocal but close.

I'd rather get the new Sigma Art 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Mark II lens. Better zoom range and, f/2.8 isn't that bad. I have it that I buy primes if I want faster Apertures. I have the Sigma Art DG DN f/1.4 35mm and 85mm and love them. Debating on the Sigma Art 50mm DG DN f/1.2 or the f/1.4 for the other prime.

I love the Sigma lenses for my full frame mirrorless camera. However, I can't see this new lens being a worthwhile purchase. It seems to only partially fulfill the legacy of the 18-35mm f/1.8. We're talking maybe a 1 1/6 stop difference. Whereas with the f/1.4 primes we're talking a 2 stop difference from the f/2.8 zooms.

The most important thing however is that for the L Mount versions Blackmagic has to get better continuous autofocus. The E Mount versions work wonderfully with the Sony cameras for continuous autofocus. So at this time I'd say the better investment would be the E Mount versions, which is what I've been buying. Granted I am mainly buying for stills, but occasionally do get asked to shoot video with the Sony. I still prefer the image quality of the Blackmagic with video, but there is something to be said about the convenience of the autofocus for some corporate interviews.