In 2012 the Sigma company changed the appearance and casings of their lenses and introduced a new product classification system. Now it features three main categories: Art (A), Contemporary (C) and Sports (S). After a series of very successful launches of such devices as the Sigma A 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM, the Sigma A 60 mm f/2.8 DN or the Sigma A 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM people started to anticipate the next Sigma move and the next novelty the company would show. There were different wishes, expectations and rumours circulating: some wanted it to be a 24-70 mm f/2.0 instrument, others expected a 1.4/24 or a 2.8/300 OS lens. Sigma surprised all of them, even doubly so. In the middle of October 2013 they announced a presentation of the Sigma A 24-105 mm f/4 DG OS HSM. It was really a huge surprise. Firstly nobody expected Sigma would dare enter a segment so clearly dominated by Canon and Nikon instruments. Secondly the “A” letter in the name of the lens was curious as well. The equivalent of the 24-105 mm model but designed for smaller sensors, the Sigma C 17-70 mm f/2.8-4.0 DC Macro OS HSM, has recently appeared in the Contemporary (C) category and small wonder – it is, after all, a universal ‘walk around zoom lens’. It seems that the 24-105 mm f/4.0 model should belong to the same category so there should be a ‘C’ letter in its name. Still Sigma decided to mark it with an ‘A’. I admit I find it a bit strange and inconsistent; on the other hand, though, the line-up of lenses is so wide that it is difficult to divide them all into three clear categories. It’s obvious some limits will be more or less fluid and the categories might merge to some degree.
Let’s leave out the discussion about the category of the new Sigma, though, because its optical and mechanical properties are much more important and we checked them thoroughly during our test. The results can be found in the following chapters.
We would like to thank profusely both the Sigma Corporation headquarters and its Polish branch, Sigma ProCentrum, for sending us the final specimen of the tested lens really quickly.
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