Third Parties Filling Lens Gap for Sony cameras

[rpcrowe]

When I first switched to Sony (not really that long ago) there was a problem finding reasonably priced lenses for the Sony cameras which provided very-good to excellent results. The top line Sony lenses were (and are) terribly expensive and the lower cost Sony glass was not all that great. As an example, IMO, the Sony-Zeiss 28-70mm f/4 OSS lens was not all that inexpensive but, the image quality was certainly not top notch.

In the last six months or so, several third party companies have released lenses which are quite good and are in the mid-to-low range cost wise.

Sigma took the lead with lenses like the 85mm f/1.4 but, that lens was quite heavy and, although less expensive than the Sony 85mm f/1.4 lens, it was still a costly item. Sigma then introduced their APSC trio of 16mm, 30mm and 56mm lenses - all with an f/1.4 aperture which were reasonably priced but, these three lenses were for APSC format only. However, the Sigma folks have just introduced a 100-400mm, full-frame, stabilized lens which will; become available in the USA in July of this year. Quite a bit lighter and less expensive than the Sony 100-400mm G-Master.

Tamron dropped a bombshell on the mirrorless world when they introduced the 28-75mm f/2.8 lens that provided excellent image quality in a lightweight package at a reasonable price. I love my Tamron and feel sure that the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 and the new 70-180mm f/2.8, completing the Tamron Holy Trinity of Zoom Lenses, are every bit as good. Tamron is also offering reasonably priced full-frame prime lenses with f/2.8 apertures: 20mm. 24mm, and 35mm. They have also just introduced a full frame 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 full frame lens which lists for an affordable price and which is supposed to produce excellent results.

Besides Sigma and Tamron, other companies are releasing e-mount lenses. Rokinon/Samyang has several relatively low cost lenses which do a great job. Some are manual focus like the 12mm f/2.0 Rokinon which I love for my APSC format Sony bodies and others are auto focus. Other companies are also producing lenses for the Sony e-mount...

Sony recently brought out a really good small form factor 70-350mm APSC format lens which runs under a thousand U.S. Dollars. I have one and it is quite good and weighs around one third of the weight of the 100-400mm GM lens. No problem for me that this is an APSC lens because I always used my Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS ii lens on my crop factor Canon 7D and 7D2 cameras...

We Sony users are no longer the "red headed step kids" regarding lens availability and we are now seeing third party companies dropping lenses on the market at a growing pace. That kind of competition is good for the purchasing public and probably might make the purchase of or the switch to Sony easier to contemplate

[pnodrog]

Yes there is no doubt that Sony has made it's impact on the market. Actually it took rather a long time for the third parties to catch on. Maybe it took a bit of time to figure out Sony's mount and make sure of the protocols used to communication to the lens. They may also have had to negotiate royalty payments to use the mount.

[rpcrowe]

I agree with you, Paul, about it taking a long time for third party manufacturers to step up to the plate with e-mount lenses. Perhaps they were waiting to see if the Sony product would catch on.

I'd love to see a long focal length prime lens with a relatively fast aperture like a 400mm f/2.8 or f/4.0 which might be great for sports and wildlife - especially if there were a 1.4x TC to match with it...

[Manfred M]

Richard - it's not quite that simple.

While one can mount a standard DSLR lens on one of the new mirrorless cameras they do not take advantage of the reduced flange to sensor distance. Lenses designed for mirrorless cameras will have less chromatic aberration problems because of this, but have to be designed for these camera bodies. Simply slapping an adapter on the less gets it to work, but not nearly as much as a lens designed that way. Canon and Nikon introduced new lens mounts for their new mirrorless lines, precisely for that reason.

The second issue for third party manufacturers is that they are unlikely to spend money on developing a new lens unless they feel that the market is a large enough for them to make money on their investment. Back when Canon and Nikon had 90% of the interchangeable lens market sewn up, there was no reason to invest in new lenses for the relatively small market share Sony had.

Now that Sony is selling so well and Canon and Nikon are also producing mirrorless bodies, companies like Sigma and Tamron have a larger potential market and can start serving it.

[rpcrowe]

Sony has supplied teleconverters for their 70-200mm f/2.8 GM and 100-400mm GM lenses. I "think" that the convertrs also work on the Sony 400mm and 600mm prime lenses.

OTOH - neither the 70-200mm f/4 G nor the 200-600mm G lenses can accept teleconverters.

However, teleconverters work just fine with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L and 300mm f/4L lenses in addition to the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L series lenses and the 100-400mm IS ii lens.

[tao2]

Hi Richard,

I always was a Minolta man, still am , as I still use my Minolta film cameras regularly. I moved to DSLRs belatedly as I thorougly enjoyed using film. Eventually went for Sony's A700. A great camera which I used for years. Only gave it up as a trade-in for my Sony A7 ll. I've had so much fun with it, that newer models don't attract me. Never been one to accept the hype. Same with my hi-fi - speakers were built in 1976, tuner and cassette player in 1988/1989. Keep telling my friends, relatives etc " let me hear something better and I'll switch".

I bought one, new lens for my Sony - a Zeiss 2.8/35. For two reasons... I really liked it and I had a big discount voucher from my camera purchase. That was the first new lens I'd bought in over 30 years.

The Sony series of mirrorless has opened up a huge line of available lenses. I have a whole pile of vintage to fairly modern, mainly Minolta lenses, built up over many years.Russian, (East) German, Japanese,Korean. Don't let anyone tell you that any lens which is not designed for mirrorless is inferior. I have around 5/6 adaptors from cheap Chinese (around $15-25) to a couple which cost around 4/5 times that. I can use lenses from all my old Minoltas - MC,MD,AF, in fact, any Minolta.

While there was a dearth of lenses for Sony when they came out, (they had published their lens path years before). I honestly think they were overcome with demand for their cameras so that the lens series was pushed down the ladder of progress. Their path is complete now. Instead of spending $1000+ on a new lens, go and have fun with the cheap and cheerful that is adaptors (for now) and open up a new avenue. Canikon are years behind the ball and will spend 3/4 years trying to fix the messes that are their mirrorless cameras. Perhaps they'll just rename them, as is their wont.

Boab

PS re. third party manufacturers - it was ALL about the royalties...

[xpatUSA]

I think that Sigma's recent move along with Panasonic to the Leica 20mm flange distance L-Mount is quite significant - especially if they design lenses for that distance. By which token, I seem to recall that their first L-mount lens was simply an SA-mount (44mm flange distance) body with quite a long extension on it ... perhaps no better than an SA-mount lens + adapter!

[rpcrowe]

I switched to Sony because of the auto focus capabilities of the A7xxx and A6xxx line of cameras. At first I tried adapting my A6500 to use my existing Canon glass and was not all that impressed,

Next, I decided to see what a native Sony e-mount lens could do on the A6500 and I purchased the Sony SL 50mm f/1.8 lens and that lens performed beyond my expectations.

At that time, my problem was that there was no mid range zoom available for the e-mount which had excellent capabilities yet was not overly heavy and very expensive. I tried the 28-70mm kit lens and was disappointed, the same was true with the Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f/4 Vario Tessar, which was quite expensive but, produced mediocre results.

The 24-70mm f/2.8 G-Master lens was more expensive and heavier than I desired. Another reason I liked the A6500 was its small form factor and the GM lens was just too large to mount on that body. I don't generally like zoom lenses with exceptionally wide focal ranges such as the 18-200mm...

I shot with a couple of prime lenses for a while and then tried the Tamron 28-75mm f/2,8 lens which blew my socks off. I use this lens on both my APSC Sony and full-frame A7iii bodies and I absolutely love the combination.