I just received my 2008 Sigma lens brochure in the mail, and low and behold, two new lenses with Sigma's "Optical Stabilizer" technology are listed.
No longer in the flock is the older 80-400 4.5-5.6 OS. It's now seemingly replaced by the 120-400 4.5-5.6 OS with one extra lens element.
Also, although the 50-500 "Bigma" remains, a new variant is listed. The new sibling is a 150-500 5-6.3 with OS.
This is news to me, and who knows how they will perform, if any better than their repspective predecessors. One thing that seems promising is the reduced zoom range. It seems that lenses that abide by the 3x rule tend to retain sharpness across the full range better than those that really strech the limit.
I scanned a couple of pages...
Sorry, the second pic is smaller than it should be!?!
Basically the new 150-500 "Bigma" is 33mm/1.3 inches longer, and 70g/2.5 oz heavier than the 50-500. It sports one extra element with one fewer group. One of the four SLD lenses is gone, leaving only three.
Do I want one? I'll wait to see the reviews.
That's very interesting indeed. I currently have the Canon 100-400 on loan and have to give it back next month and will be in the market for a long tele zoom with IS/OS. I'd assumed I'd buy the same lens (or maybe the 300 F4 with T/C).
The 120-400 seems to have HSM (an improvement over the 80-400) and the Bigma finally has OS...................
I may have to rethink things a bit here......if these are significantly cheaper than the Canon L lenses they have to be worth considering.