Sigma has just announced a new line of cinema lenses featuring a wide T1.3 aperture across a line of 8 new lenses.
As the transition from Super 35 to full frame cameras steadily moves along, there is more and more emphasis among lens manufacturers on bringing lens options covering a larger image circle to market. Sigma, a well-established brand in the community, has just announced its latest addition to that conversation.
The Aizu Prime Line is set to be the world’s first lineup of large-format cinema glass that maintains a consistent T1.3 aperture across the product line. The Aizu Prime Line will consist of 12 lenses ranging from 18mm to 125mm (the initial release will be 8 lenses between 25mm and 75mm). The lenses will be available in PL mount or Sony E-mount and cover an image circle of 46.3 mm. The 25mm will have a close focus distance of 0.31 m/1 foot. This grows gradually as you lengthen the lens, with the 75mm close focus distance coming in at 0.73 m/2 feet 5 inches. Each of the initial 8 lenses weighs roughly 1.7 kg or 3.6 lbs (with slight variations between the focal lengths).
The large image circle allows for coverage not only for Super 35mm formats, but also for full frame, as well as the latest large format cameras like the ARRI Alexa LF Open Gate and VistaVision.
The lenses will support ZEISS eXtended Data, which offers real-time lens metadata during production, which could be vital for any distortion or shading correction data necessary and can help streamline workflows. The lenses come well corrected to begin with, but this additional data can be useful, especially in the realm of VFX.
I haven’t gotten my hands on the lenses yet for testing, but am looking forward to seeing how they operate in the field. The lenses will retail for $8,299 each and are available for preorder.
