chiron wrote: Steve Spencer wrote: chiron wrote:
Has Sony ever sold a G lens for less than $900? I'd bet these for $700-900.
Well there have only been 2 prime lenses that were designated as a G lens. One is the 90 f/2.8 macro, which doesn't offer much of a guide and the other one is the 20 f/1.8 G for $900. If one wanted to include zooms, then the 18-105 f/4 APS-C lens is designated as a G lens and it lists for $650, but that is obviously not really relevant here. The bottom line is there really is not enough G lenses at all similar to these to hone in on a price.
And also the 12-24/4 G, 70-300 G, 70-350 G, 16-55 G, 70-200 f4, G, 200-600 G, and 24-105 G. Zooms, but virtually all with strong builds and excellent image quality just short of GM quality. And all, except the pretty old 18-105 aps-c lens, well in excess of $1000. With the 20/1.8 and now these new lenses, Sony is expanding the G line into primes. I'd say the theme of the G lenses is high quality optical and high build quality just below the max quality that is possible when you go to a large GM size. Or, put differently, reduced aperture and size just below GM specs.
Also, remember that people complained the A7C was overpriced when it was first introduced. Increasingly it appears to be cheap and a steal.
I think when you look at the G lenses as a whole, and these new three seem like they are likely to fit right in, they tend to be very sharp but slower lenses that don't focus as much on rendering as the GM lenses. The 20 f/1.8 G seems a bit of an outlier and an almost GM, G lens. Almost as fast as the GM lenses and a very nice rendering. The other G lens that is perhaps like the 20, the 16-55 f/2.8 G for APS-C is another lens that seems to be in this almost GM category and with the 20 f/1.8 and the 16-55 f/2.8 being there last two lenses it seemed that faster G lenses might be emerging, but these 3 lenses seem to make it clear that slower but sharp is what sets GM lenses apart.
Mar 22, 2021 at 04:32 PM
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