gdanmitchell wrote:
I’m currently a Canon user who is likely to move to Sony, probably when the rumored A7RVI arrives. I’ve been haunting the Sony forum for the past few months to try to get a handle on Sony World, in particular on the lens options that would most likely align with my (well-defined) needs.
One thing that strikes me about this forum is the huge number of threads about non-Sony lenses. My experience with other bands has been to rely almost entirely on native brand lenses, and that strategy has worked very well for me. I’ve been trying to understand why there is so much interest in the third-party lenses here. Some possibilities occur to me:
1. Do Sony users feel that Sony lenses are somehow deficient by comparison to third-part optics.
2. Third party lenses are cheaper than Sony products.
3. The third-party products fill gaps in the Sony lens line-up.
4. Something else.
I’m interested in the thoughts of current Sony users.
Let me try to answer your questions:
"Do Sony users feel that Sony lenses are somehow deficient by comparison to third-part optics?"
I think the answer to this question is basically no. Sony makes good lenses and although in a few cases third party lenses might be a little better, such cases are few and far between and almost always debatable.
Are "Third party lenses are cheaper than Sony products?"
In many cases they are and this does to a fair extent drive interest in third party lenses.
Do "The third-party products fill gaps in the Sony lens line-up?"
In some cases yes, but there aren't a lot of gaps in the Sony lineup. It is quite complete and extensive. In fact of Canon, Nikon, and Sony I think Sony has the fewest gaps. I say that despite railing about Sony not having cheap light telephoto primes like Nikon (I like the 400 f/4.5S and the 600 f/6.3 PF a lot but don't want to shoot Nikon to get them. Sigma has filled this gap pretty well for Sony with their 500 f/5.6
Is there, "Something else?"
I think the something else is the deep commitment of several very good lens makers to the Sony E mount. That includes Sigma which brings out all their mirrorless lenses in Sony E mount and has some really top level lenses including the 28-45 f/1.8, the 35 f/1.2 (now in version II), the 135 f/4, the 200 f/2, the 300-600 f/4, and the aforementioned 500 f/5.6 and they just announced an 85 f/1.2 that will be available in the fall. None of these lenses have a Sony equivalent. I wouldn't call these holes in the Sony lineup, but rather Sigma pushing boundaries that haven't been crossed by anyone yet. Then on the manual focus side there is Cosina/Voigtlander that has an extensive set of really high quality small and capable manual focus lenses. Some people including me love the Voigtlander lenses. Some of these lenses are available in other mounts, but their most extensive catalog of lenses for FF mirrorless are for Sony E mount. Viltrox has a lot of lenses that are interesting to a lot of people too. Canon shut them down. Nikon is now suing them. Sony lets them produce lenses for the mount. Samyang also has some interesting lenses and their new collaboration with Schneider looks really interesting. Canon shut them down too, when they tried to make an RF mount lens.So more good third party lenses are just being made for Sony and I think that is the something else.
Feb 27, 2026 at 03:29 PM
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