So many nice shots... But i kinda wonder... If Minolta is out of the camera biz who's manufacturing these lenses? S0ny... really? Are the designs from others (purchased Minolta IP) or again S0ny? What's the CZ ones for S0ny, are those made for S0ny by contract or are those efforts from Zeiss with just the standard mount patent fees (if any)?
There is no way to know for sure but according to my info, there are 3 categories:
- The legacy Minolta designs updated and manufactured at Sony.
- The recent non Minolta Sony designs. Some are designed by Sony (probably ex Minolta guys), some by Zeiss (85/2.8 Sonnar), some by third party (28-75/2.8).
- Zeiss alpha lenses, fully designed by Zeiss, but input from Sony regarding specifics such as FL, max aperture, and other rendering aspects. Sony's input varies as some already existing designs are offered to Sony like the 16-35. Lenses are manufactured at Sony under Zeiss supervision.
Bifurcator wrote:
So many nice shots... But i kinda wonder... If Minolta is out of the camera biz who's manufacturing these lenses? S0ny... really? Are the designs from others (purchased Minolta IP) or again S0ny? What's the CZ ones for S0ny, are those made for S0ny by contract or are those efforts from Zeiss with just the standard mount patent fees (if any)?
Anyone know?
There's several categories.
1. Supposedly some of the legacy designs are made for Sony by Konica Minolta in ex-Minolta factories. The legacy G designs (70-200/2.8 SSM, 300/2.8 SSM, 35/1.4) are the ones usually tagged with this.
2. Most of the lenses including all of the Zeiss ZA lenses are made in Sony factories, it's unknown if these are ex-Minolta or Sony original factories (Sony had lens works prior to buying Minolta's Camera division as part of the Cybershot and Pro Video product lines).
3. Some lenses are made for Sony by Tamron. This includes the 18-2x0 super-zooms and DT 11-18. The 28-75 SAM is also likely as it is a Tamron optical design but the Sony barrel is completely new. It was previously sold with the Tamron barrel with cosmetic tweaks as the Konica Minolta 28-75
Note that Zeiss only produces a couple of its 35mm lenses in-house (The ZM 15/2.8 and 85/2), All of the rest are made by Cosina (ZM/ZE/ZF) or Sony (ZA).
philip_pj wrote:
And thanks for the feedback, I am more interested in what other people like or don't like than what I do myself.
Here's another for comparison, this time from the Sony 70-300G, which is a very nice and highly usable lens also and quite predictable, even though the Alpha community seem to prefer the 70-400mm, due to its (maybe slight) sharpness edge.
It has accurate and moderate colour and contrast, is how I see it so far, not anywhere near as much resolution as the Minolta 200/2.8 APO, but not much does. I'd like to see the Minolta stacked up against the Leica 180mm f3.4, and several other of the great 180-200mm lenses out there. Can anyone point me to a comparo thread on this focal length?
I remember Wayne Seltzer saying there were a few on FM Alt....Show more →
There were some early threads than these which talked about various alt alternatives for 180-200mm range. One good one was started by Samuli but I couldn't find it.
Hope these threads help.
I see what you are saying about the lack of tonality and color of that one lens vs. the other.
Kind of like the difference between Canon and Zeiss.
That last shot of the temple in the mountains is incredible.
Bifurcator wrote:
So many nice shots... But i kinda wonder... If Minolta is out of the camera biz who's manufacturing these lenses? S0ny... really? Are the designs from others (purchased Minolta IP) or again S0ny? What's the CZ ones for S0ny, are those made for S0ny by contract or are those efforts from Zeiss with just the standard mount patent fees (if any)?
Anyone know?
Here is a fantastic Sony lens factory mini-site to look through.
Very nice photographs Xavier.BTW: were the pictures No 1,3,4,5 taken in Catalunya,at the feet of Pyrenees?Esp. No 3 reminds me what I've seen from Mare de Deu Sanctuary near Berga.
Thanks, both of you! pictures 1, 3, 4 and 5 were taken in Mallorca, at the feet of our recently appointed World Heritage Site, the Serra de Tramuntana. But, as you can see, the landscape does look very similar.
Thanks again,
