At IBC 2024 in Amsterdam, I caught up with SIGMa to have a look at a prototype of their 28-45mm T2 Cine zoom lens that has AF. The lens is currently under development and is based on the 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | Art.
This lens is SIGMA’s first ever cinema lens with AF, and it is equipped with features including a focus ring with distance indicator, a click-free aperture ring, and compatibility with Φ95mm matte boxes.
The lens does have fly-by-wire focus when using it in manual focus capacity. I had a quick play with a prototype of the lens that was mounted on a Sony FX3, and the AF worked reasonably well.
The 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | Art is available in Sony E and Leica L mounts.
SIGMA already makes a 24-35mm T2.2 Cine zoom which is 4mm wider, but 10mm shorter than the new prototype lens. I imagine the new lens will be fairly similar when it comes to optical performance, etc. These short focal length zooms are designed to be more like variable primes.
We have seen so-called “cine lenses” with AF before, but a lot of them were stills lenses that have a manual aperture and the word cine tacked on.
In fact, if you go back 12 years Sony released the 18-252mm T3.9-T6.8 zoom lens that was for FZ mount that featured AF. This was arguably the first cinema zoom with AF capabilities, albeit, not very good ones!
I reviewed that lens at the time on the site.
If I was to make a guess, I would say that the lens will only be available in select mirrorless mounts such as Sony E and Leica L.
While the concept is interesting, some people are sure to ask why use a cine lens with AF if you can use a stills lens with AF to accomplish the same thing for a lot less money?
