Damn! 18-250!!

Damn! Look at this humungous lens! Sigma came out with a lens that goes from 18 - 250mm. That's absolutely flaming ridiculous! I only just saw this thing and all I can say is "wow". If I ever put this on one of my cameras, I doubt I would ever take it off


With lenses like that around, it does make me question whether we actually need digital SLRs any more. Are they a relic of the past now? Aside from the extreme long lenses that seem to no longer be produced, I don't generally see anybody using anything over 500mm these days. The lens above (which should be clickable), placed on any camera would seem to me to negate the need for any other lens. It will cover (on standard APSC camera) the range of 28mm to about 400mm. That would cover everything from indoor events to close-ups of the goalkeeper's bootlaces at a football match!

What I am wondering is with lenses like this whether the concept of a digital SLR is now dead. If that lens was fused to a body permanently as a superzoom compact, things could be really interesting. In fact, I just had a look at a superzoom compact just to see what the quality was like. I think the smaller sensor caused a few issues but I was quite pleasantly surprised by the image quality obtained from it.

One of the other things that interests me is Sony's new idea of a lens with a built-in sensor that couples with a cellphone. That idea has many advantages. The cost of a sensor is negligible and it could in fact be cheaper to produce a lens with a built-in sensor that couples to a cellphone than to do all the machining to make a bayonet mount and all the wired connections between a camera body and lens.

I think things are definitely looking interesting - again, this should be a clickable image. I have a feeling things could develop further in the camera world. Already we are seeing mirrorless SLR style cameras as well as compacts with the reach of a huge lens but in a tiny package. I'm definitely watching developments with interest.

As my regular readers will know, I have seriously considered selling my digital SLR system in favor of a smaller system. I am not 100% sure that would be the right move for me at the moment however. I am extremely interested though in all the latest camera developments.