Are we getting any short prime tele or zoom at short tele ranges.

There is the Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS coming shortly...


Can't find an APSC roadmap, Sony seems to have forgotten us

 

Today on SAR, there is an SR4 rumor (high confidence) that an 85mm fast (as in 1.8 or better) prime is coming later in 2015.
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-fast-85mm-fe-prime-coming-in-spring-2015/



Sent from TalkEmount app on iPad

 

As far as Sony is concerned, we're all set, and whomever wants better lenses than what is already available for E mount will have to splurge on FE.

This would be a valid point of view, too, if some of the available E lenses weren't suffering from sample quality variations.

I.e. If all copies of 18-55 and 16 and 55-210 performed like the best copies.

Then the only thing missing in E mount - from a Sony executive perspective - would be a long portrait prime. Which if you really need one, you'll splurge for a FE lens. Note that Sony doesn't even feel the need for fast zooms or faster primes in their FE setup.

Now, if Sony is willing to admit that some of the E mount lenses are not quite stellar, would they put the replacement on the roadmap, or just quietly issue a better lens under same name ? Although it seems they are really targeting the Full frame market for the foreseable future.

 

I just can't believe they are going to penalise APSC investors with having to carry ~30% larger lenses than necessary - I thought the big point of these camera was compactness!?

I don't mind investing in FE lenses if I'm going to upgrade my body in that direction, but, with the rumours of this new 'active pixel' tech in the next 2-4 years and that likely reaching APSC size before FF, I'm not so sure now that FE is a path I want to follow.

My hope is Sony has been pushing the FE line for the last 12 months (and maybe next year), to ensure it gets a good foothold on the market, and then it will return to the APSC end...
What would really help is if more 3rd party lens manufacturers would fill the gaps - and not just manual, including AF and other advanced features like OSS. Maybe Sony thought more would fill the gaps as they starved us?

 

My suspicion/hope is that, given Sony's financial performance of late, they are focusing now on those things that will have the greatest profit margin, and in ILC cameras, right now that is Full-Frame. Sony's focus over the last 12 months and on into 2015 on filling out the FE lens lineup is entirely understandable as they work to establish and extend their lead in full-frame mirrorless. As no one else has a full frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (other than maybe Leica, and that's a different market entirely), Sony sees a huge opportunity with the FE cameras and lenses right now.

While I don't necessarily expect Sony to release a lot of APS-C lenses going forward, I think (hope?) that they will start to pick up on APS-C lens development a little as the FE lineup fills out and they have established a strong lead in the nascent FF mirrorless market. A lens here or there to slowly continue to fill out the APS-C E-mount lineup would be nice. That said, I imagine their focus will remain on FE lenses for some time to come.

 

My problem with Sony's approach is not the fact that they focus on FE. I agree with Steve on his rationale, they need to ensure they keep the lead in a market they own by themselves. I am just wondering if the approach where all FE lenses must be at pro level cost will be good in the long term. The reason Sony grew in the mirrorless market is price-to-performance. This price-to-performance is what a great camera company like Fuji lacks. It is what keeps them a niche company.

Sony is quickly eliminating their price-to-performance advantage with this new approach and steering themselves towards niche. When you consider the fact that all the FE lenses in Sony's lineup cost more than their best APS-C body (a6000), it's not really practical for non-pros or enthusiasts on a budget to go down that path. When you couple this with the fact that canikon, Sigma, and others have tons of FF lenses of greater or equal quality for far less, you have to admit that Sony is targeting a particular audience now. FE lenses don't have to be expensive, they want them to be. They are no longer focused on their price-to-performance constituents that got them to where they are now.

 

Sony is trying to corner the market in which at the present it has no competition (small FF high quality cameras). They need glass, high quality, and fast. People buying FF will be looking for quality over portablility, as they are still going to get a lot of portablility with legacy glass and even with Sony FE glass when compared to the similar (in sensor / glass performance) offerings by Canon and Nikon, which you could use to club a mammoth to death. I mean, Sony FE70-200/4G when mounted on A7 is still going to be noticeably smaller than Canon 70-200/4L IS attached to 5D MkIII. And unlike 5D, you can make the A7 package very small (relatively) by going to a legacy lens.

In the consumer market, the majority is still buying Rebels, and in the mirrorless consumer market, the competition is getting tough.

Just my speculation.

 

Very true Gary. Sony's approach to FE lenses appears a bit different than their history with E lenses. They are leading first with Zeiss and G models, and only filling in a few mainstream non-G, non-Zeiss units like the 28-70 and upcoming 28/2 and 24-240 units. Totally reversed from the APS-C limeup that started with basic kits, a 16/2.8 and the 18-200 and only last year introduced the first G E-mount lens, the 18-105/4 G. This time around, for FE, they are going high end first.

And in both lineups, E and FE, they seem to shy away from competing models in primes (zooms are a different story) at similar focal lengths, regardless of price point... although the announced Sony-Zeiss FE 35/1.4 is an interesting change of pace. After 4 years now, in Sony's APS-C E line there is still only one 24mm, a Zeiss, and only one 35 and 50, both non-G, non-Zeiss. And no prime over 50mm. There is now some duplication b/w E and FE, of course, but the lineup is far from "robust."

Of course, we all knew this when we jumped onboard the "E-Mount Bandwagon"... or we should have.

 

Yeah, I was surprised to see that Sony didn't have 85mm on the FE roadmap back in September. Seems like a lens that could fulfill a need in both FE and E mounts for portrait duty. Now seeing that rumor on SAR was interesting. Maybe they heard similar feedback, and realized the 90mm macro wasn't going to fit that demand?