Sony's über-glass and rare Sigma BF – the photo news of the week 17/2025

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There are actually new lenses that didn't exist before. The switch to mirrorless systems, which has long since been completed, means that all lenses can become smaller and lighter in purely mathematical terms, opening up new possibilities: What if you take a lens that is usually used hand-held and make it a little bigger, while relying on new key data?

This must have been the thinking of the developers – and of course the marketeers – at Sony when they started work on the E 50–150 mm F2 GM. If you have to do the math, the abbreviation "GM" for G-Master is enough to make you wave goodbye: Yes, the thing costs 4,400 euros and is therefore primarily something for professional use. But there has never been a triple zoom with a continuous aperture of f/2.0 before. The lens is often compared with the standard tool from the mirror era, a 70-200mm f/2.8, partly because it is only 20 centimeters long.

However, this does not quite do justice to the Sony lens. On the one hand, 70 millimetres is often too long indoors – Sony recommends the GM for weddings –, among other things. And secondly, 2.0 instead of 2.8 is already a whole f-stop and also very close to another classic, a 50mm f/1.8. The G-Master now also replaces this, so it's not just about a fast zoom, but the actual replacement of some fixed focal lengths.

An all-rounder for events

And for professionals in particular, this can also mean that you only have one body around your neck at an event. If you are planning to switch anyway, or even change brands, this may be an argument, even with the hefty price tag. You may no longer need the second pro body with a fixed focal length, or at best a cheaper backup camera. Since even higher ISO values are quite low in noise with modern cameras with slower shutter speeds, the lack of a stabilizer in the lens is not too tragic.

This was probably done to avoid making it even bigger and heavier, because moving a lot of glass – The filter diameter alone is 95mm – requires large and power-hungry motors. And at 1.34 kilos, the 50-150 is light considering the light intensity, but that much weight and leverage on the body also needs to be moved. For hours of use at events, a lightweight and quickly retractable monopod is recommended. And of course, see the permanent trends in our Easter special of the photo news, the new Sony is also particularly well equipped for filming. How, and the rest of the data, is revealed in our report on the presentation of the lens.

Sigma apologizes for delivery delays

It will not be available until June 2025, which, as with all new equipment, should be viewed with great caution, because: Anything new on the photography market is always in short supply these days. Especially when some YouTubers are already talking about the Sony lens as a "masterpiece". Sigma also received a similar amount of advance praise for its ultra-minimalist BF. And also more pre-orders than expected. Therefore, as the company now says on its website, it could "take some time" before the camera is delivered.

In typical Japanese politeness, Sigma winds itself up there a few times with a few lines of text, but does not reveal a specific date. Meanwhile, as of Friday, the major German retailers are still accepting orders. Judging by the experience of the last few years, you should perhaps not rely on the Sigma BF arriving before the summer vacation if you order it now.

Adobe Firefly with more AIs

You can already try out the new version of Adobe's generative AI called Firefly. This is now also available without the company's large apps as a browser version, sorry: "web app", and soon also as a smartphone app for iPhones and Androids. Adobe is not yet saying when, but another important integration has already been completed: Firefly can now handle the generators GPT (OpenAI), Imagen 3 (Google) and Flux (Black Forest Labs) alongside its in-house AI. This makes it easier to compare the results than with almost any other app.

Adobe is obviously fully focused on its use as a creative tool in a professional environment. In the design classic Illustrator, for example, the generators can be used to create materials for patterns – something for which you paid a lot of money as clip art 20 years ago. Following Adobe's standard, where software can only be rented, there is of course a complicated subscription model for Firefly, which is explained at the end of our report. Nevertheless, it is also possible without one of the large cloud subscriptions, but also from 11 euros per month for Firefly alone.

What Sigma's BF has to do with Coco Chanel

Not quite a long read for the weekend, but an interesting look outside the box in our column is a story from DP Review. In it, Sigma's CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, revealed that a product by fashion legend Coco Chanel inspired his company to design the BF mentioned here. An almost 100-year-old one at that. Let someone else say that photography doesn't have something to do with art when it comes to devices.

(nie)