Pentax, Sony variants of Sigma USB dock on the way; full-time MF coming for 50mm f/1.4 lens

posted Friday, April 11, 2014 at 6:44 PM EDT

Alongside its headline-grabbing announcement of the pricetag for its 50mm f/1.4 Art lens, Sigma also revealed a couple of other tidbits today. One actually relates to that lens, and a new feature which will be available soon if you own the company's clever USB dock accessory. (We highly recommend putting some of the money you're saving on the lens into picking the dock up as well.) The other is about the dock, and its availability to customers on ever-more mounts.

But first, the new feature for the 50mm f/1.4 Art lens. With the Sigma USB dock and updated Sigma Optimization Pro software, you'll be able to activate a full-time manual focus function that will allow you to switch the lens to manual focus mode without touching the AF/MF switch on its barrel. Simply turning the focus ring will be enough to tweak the focus manually, even when autofocus is active. It's a handy feature that makes last-second focus adjustments easier, and one we're sure photographers will appreciate. You'll need Sigma Optimization Pro Update version 1.2.0 installed to take advantage of it, though. The new software should be available in a week's time, on April 18th.

Sigma's clever USB dock allows detailed control over microfocus adjustment and more.

And obviously, you'll need the dock too. The lens ships in Canon, Nikon, Sigma and Sony-mount trim, but right now, the dock isn't available for Sony-mount users. That changes from the end of this month, as the dock is set to arrive for Pentax and Sony-mount customers, at least in the Japanese market. Sigma USA hasn't yet made a corresponding announcement, but hopefully if you're shooting a recent Pentax K-mount or Sony A-mount lens from Sigma, you'll be able to buy the dock and adjust it soon. The following lenses will work with the dock on Pentax and Sony mounts: