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 p.8 #17 · Pre-order Sony G lenses: FE 24mm f/2.8, 40mm f/2.5, 50mm f/2.5 | |
bjornthun wrote:
The current small Sony E-mount lenses are 28/2, 35/1.8, 35/2.8 ZA, 50/1.8 and 55/1.8 ZA. So the 24/2.8 G immefiately adds to the rsnge of small lenses. The 40/2.5 G and 50/2.5 G are not as obvious additions here and now, but they may share a 40.5mm filter size. All of the G lenses may have aperture rings, which improves operation with the A7c, which has fewer wheels/dials than thevordinary A7/s/r models. The only high quality small lenses currently are 35/2.8 ZA and 55/1.8 ZA. The nifty-fifty 50/1.8 extemds while focusing. So, it’s easy to make a case for the 24/2.8 G as an addition of high quality lenses. The case for the 40/2.5 G and 50/2.5 G will likely be one or more of the following; aperture ring, diminutive size with 40.5mm filter and Sony/Minolta as opposed to Zeiss rendering. A small filter thread is a Leica thing, small M-lenses with diminutive 39mm filter diameter, and 40.5mm filter diameters appears just as small. So enough reasons to make another 50mm and 40mm lens. To some 40mm is sufficiently different from both 35mm and 50mm to warrant a purchase, as it is semi-normal.
Let’s also wait and see the price tags of the 40/2.5 and 50/2.5 compare to 35/2.8 ZA and 55/1.8 ZA. My guess is that the 35/2.8 ZA isn’t that competitive against the Samyang 35/2.8 and Tamron 35/2.8.
A line of compact G lenses may see more lenses, hopefully 85/2.8 and 135/3.5 added later.
135mm is not Leica-specific. Each and every manufacturers have made a ton of them, and they were popular before the advent of cheap and good tele-zooms in the 1970s.
Leica 90mm Thambar is a special portrait lens, not a regular 90mm. We could just as well say that Tamron owns the 90mm focal length with their many incarnations of Tamron 90/2.5 and 90/2.8 MF and AF macro lenses....Show more →
First, I never said that 90mm and 135mm lenses are Leica specific or that Leica owns these focal lengths. I am not sure where you got that idea. All I said is that 90mm and 135mm lenses were developed for the first Leica rangefinder cameras and have historically been a big part of the Leica rangefinder portfolio of lenses. Leica rangefinder including modern ones even includes frame lines for these specific focal lengths, when they don't for others (like 40mm) so if Sony is trying to emulate a Leica like rangefinder with the A7c and small lenses excluding 85 or 90 mm lenses and 135mm lenses doesn't fit that model. I'm not sure why Sony would really be trying to emulate Leica, however. They should stick to their own goals and priorities and those can and probably should diverge from a Leica like system.
I don't dispute that the 24 f/2.8, 40 f/2.5, and 50 f/2.5 would fit a range of small compact lenses for Sony E mount and an 85 or 90 f/2.8 and a 135 f/2.8 or f/3.5 would supplement these well. What I was questioning was the order that Sony chose to make these lenses. It just seems to me that it would have been wiser to build maybe the 24 f/2.8, which as you point out does provide something new to Sony although not new to the platform, and an 85 or 90 f/2.8, and a 135 f/2.8 or f/3.5 both of which would have provided something new to Sony and the platform. A 180 f/3.5 or f/4 would have also provided something new to Sony and the platform. Keep in mind it isn't just the Sony 35 ZA f/2.8 that is a small 35. Sony also has the 35 f/1.8 that is very small. So they will have a small 35 f/1.8, a small 35 f/2.8 and a small 40 f/2.5. They will also have a small 50 f/1.8, a small 55 f/1.8, a small 50 f/2.5 and a relatively small 50 f/2.8 macro, and this isn't even considering 3rd party lenses. It seems to me Sony could have waited on the 40 and 50 mm lenses and made some of the longer lenses where small lenses are totally missing from the platform.
Oh, and if Sony is going to develop a platform of small lenses then it seems like a nice small 28 f/2.5 G would have been a great place to start. To me the focal lengths that really need nice small lenses on the Sony E mount are 28, 85-90, 135, and 180. There is basically nothing small, light, and very high quality for these focal lengths. In contrast, 35, 40, and 50 have many options. I just would have liked to see Sony G lenses for these focal lengths for which there were not small good lenses yet.
Edited on Mar 20, 2021 at 02:52 PM · View previous versions
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Though many of their lenses are very fine.