Well, one of my sources was indeed correct: he told me that Sigma would initially provide only DX lenses for the Z mount, starting with the primes, and today that proved to be true. Sigma has announced their 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses will become available in the Z-mount. These are lenses that have been around for awhile in other mounts. Currently, they’re available in Canon M, Fujifilm XF, L-mount, m4/3, and Sony E form.
Note that these lenses do not have aperture rings, so you Zfc owners might find the Viltrox lenses to be a choice more in keeping with the legacy control methods. Also, none of these new Sigma lenses have image stabilization built-in.
Now, to something important: Sigma claims that the lenses fully support the Z-mount protocols, including the lens providing in-camera aberration correction. Sigma has specifically added “This product is developed, manufactured and sold under the license agreement with Nikon Corporation,” which is the same statement we’re seeing from the other Japanese lens companies (not yet from any Chinese company I’ve seen). This indicates that Sigma and Nikon have some sort of legal agreement, and given what we’ve seen so far, nothing has strayed from my original Theory #3: licensed lenses won’t directly compete with Nikon offerings.
Which brings me to other things this particular source told me: other DX lenses are coming from third parties, including at least one f/2.8 zoom. I can’t imagine that we’d be hearing about and now seeing so much third-party DX lens development if there weren’t other DX bodies coming.
Update: I should also note that Sigma did a very quiet launch, simply putting the information up as a news story link on its global site in the middle of the night. The Sigma Web site at the time of publishing that info didn’t allow searches for Z-mount, and Z-mount info was not seen in any of their listings. Retailers seemed to be surprised by the announcement (you’ll note that a day later and B&H hasn’t even caught up to this announcement. The quiet release tactic seems to me like a pretty passive aggressive way to launch a new product for a trade show (CP+ starts today in Japan). Finally, at the moment I have no hint that there may be any Sigkon lenses (Sigma design and production with Nikkor branding). That doesn’t really play into Sigma’s strategies, anyway (Tamron has long been an OEM to others). By the way, I’m told the Z-mount versions should be available in April.
I’m actually curious to see what Tokina will do. They’re the last of three larger Japanese third-party makers to make a strong move into mirrorless. They also appear to license Viltrox designs for a few lenses.
