Last month, Sigma announced 4 new lenses, including a trio bearing the heralded ART moniker. A bit unusually, Sigma chose not to include any pricing information with that announcement. Product pages were created on B&H, but with no option to pre-order, and no price listed. Well, Sigma has lifted the veil: the new 135mm f/1.8 ART  will retail for $1,399 and is available for pre-order, with expected availability in late April.  It is available in Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sigma SA mounts.

It’s an exciting lens. It will be the fastest lens available in that focal length for Canon or Nikon, beating the legendary Canon 135mm f/2L  by a third of a stop. This will give photographers excellent compression, and paper thin depth of field for portrait work. It still may be a tough sell for some Canon shooters. That 135mm L lens, though it’s a bit of an old design, has great numbers on DXOmark, and is a favorite of many fashion photographers, and the Sigma comes in at $400 more.

In tradition with the rest of Sigma’s Art lenses, this 135mm will likely score extremely well in test results and reviews. If so, photographers will need to decide if that extra bump in performance and an extra 1/3 stop is worth the extra money. At this point though, it’s all still conjecture, as no one has yet been able to get their hands on a production copy of the lens. As it makes its way into the wild, we’ll do our best to get one into the office and give you our impressions.

What do you think? Are you intrigued by this new lens? Does the price seem right? Let us know in the comments.

Pre-Order here.