The rolls royce of lenses...............?

[bassist]

Sigma Imaging (UK) Ltd I just cannot get my head around what they are asking for this lens....?£24,000..........!: I just could not justify to myself paying this amount of money for a lens...even if i had it...!!!Surely there are cheaper just as good alternatives...!£24.000 ..................................?

[alanjns]

I'd want it to identify all the birds in every season & plummage variation & make a brew for that much money. I bet they still manage to sell quite a few though!

[clydebirder]

If I had the money I would buy it in a second, life's too short to try and justify what you spend. If you can afford it; why deny yourself

Might be able to afford a second hand one when I retire

cheers, John

[The Actor]

It's ok to use but I much prefer a single use film camera like they put on the tables at weddings.

[Liparis]

I know this is an old post, but the price seems to have been reduced to £15,999.99 still seems to be a price the normal guy on the street couldn't afford. They could take off the Hyper Sonic Motor, make it manual - all those twigs etc confuse auto focus anyway - and sell it for a couple of grand.
Bill.

[MIKE THROWER]

My Sigma was £4,000 and you can switch everything off as I do offten and it still worth it, what you are paying for is the glass and light gathering. It is a 2:8 500mm huge in size and weight and up to now no other company makes these commercially, maybe there is a lens close to this in the Hubble Telescope??

[Stargazer]

No, there isn't. The Hubble Space Telescope is essentiially a Newtonian design and as such uses curved mirrors rather than lenses.

Much like my 500mm lens, the no longer made but much loved Nikkor f8 catadioptric mirror lens. Manual focussing and with a fixed aperture of f8, but a lovely lens to use. I first used it on a Nikon F2SB many years ago and still do so on the D3X. And yes, it was expensive when I got it, but nowhere remotely near the stupid price of this Sigma!

on a slightly more prosaic note, I wouldn't be surprised if the Sigma lens is actually built to order. I can't see anyone holding stocks of the thing.