Silver lens, yes or no?

[Dr. Harout]

There's a poll on Dyxum.com on the new 70-400 G SSM
We have 2 options, either we visit the link at Dyxum, or create our own poll.
It's up to you to decide.

The link: http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts ... &PN=1&RN=1

[pakodominguez]

How about orange/cinnabar, like the logo?
EVERYBODY will pay attention to Sony that way...

[DrKaushik]

Silver is not a bad colour, but I would prefer the colour that matches teleconvertor.

[Winston]

My Minolta 75-300 is silver...it's hideous.

[bfitzgerald]

I don't have a problem with silver for a kit lens, or something non expensive. But it looks tat for a top tier lens, and makes it cheap looking. IMO of course

[KevinBarrett]

I think Pako could be onto something there with the extended use of the alpha cinnabar color...It would stand out really well against a whole bank of white Canon lenses!

[PhotoTraveler]

I would prefer that as they work on eliminating silver, they work on getting rid of the orange too. It's pretty ugly.

[Jonathan K]

I would prefer that as they work on eliminating silver, they work on getting rid of the orange too. It's pretty ugly.

Intersting discussion...I never actually thought of the aestetics of the lenses... As long as anything you see through the lens looks good
But I got used to the orange... It is caracteristic, and it is shiny. I believe it has more profile than the minolta blue... Sony seems to understand how to present themselves.
But you are all right, the lens in silver looks a bit cheapish.

Jonathan

[Greg Beetham]

I think you'd have too drag me kicking and screaming to buy a silver lens quite frankly, but I guess if the camera was silver the lens would also have too be silver as well, but then at some point you would still end up with a black lens on the silver camera....or even a white lens... or a black, silver or white TC on a silver body, or a black or white or silver lens on a silver or black body with a.....
Orange too me is a hot angry colour, it's taken a while to get used to accessories being packaged in hot orange, I think eventually I'll be ok with it....I guess.
At least you can spot an orange box a mile away in a store...but then I could see a Minolta blue box from about the same distance, so it's hard to say if there is any difference as far as visibility goes...
Greg

[KevinBarrett]

I wouldn't buy a silver lens either, unless it was unpainted metal. I do wonder whether Sony will make more extensive use of the brighter metal accents on the ends of their lenses like the 70-300 G and prototype 70-400 have. It is very distinctive yet tasteful.

[PhotoTraveler]

I'm often shocked when people say they don't care what the gear looks like. I don't believe such people.

Your doing something that is about producing good looking output. The camera is a tool to get you there, it's only natural to want that tool to look good. Further when things don't look good, it means the people making it just didn't care about the end product. They just slapped it together and moved on.

Camera gear should look good, it's just that simple, there is no excuse for it being ugly.

On the orange, if Sony had gone with a darker/metallic orange (like some Caddilac's are painted in recently) it would have been much better. But instead they picked an orange that makes the camera look like it's hunting season, or going to go repair a road. That wasn't a good pick.

[David Kilpatrick]

The 70-400mm is not silver. It is a sort of lustrous pearl grey-white, a more metallic white than the pink-white used by Canon or the cream-white used by Minolta. It is not grey like the Sigma APO 400mm once was, or silver like the cheaper Minolta lenses, or silver like the special editions. But - at photokina, the 70-300mm was display next to the 300mm and 70-200mm SSM and the two converters. Sony has a choice, and will either change the colour of all these lenses to the new 'pewter white' look, or switch the 70-400mm to the existing cream-white, to avoid having to rework the other items. The 70-400mm SSM is definitely compatible with the converters but only the 1.4X offers AF.

The metal front ring I don't understand in design terms. The rest of the barrel is not entirely metal. It seems to be there to persuade people that the barrel is metal.

Sigma's new HSM 70-200mm will be available very shortly (in a few days, or a few weeks, but it's coming). Sigma has a large stock of existing 2X Alpha fit converters left, and will be giving these way with the lens to dealers - it is up to the dealer whether to give the converter free with each lens bought. Sigma UK advertising rather ties them in to doing so. The 2X converter is not HSM compatible (that is why they are giving them away!) and when used, focus is manual only. I'm trying to think of any reason why you would want it.

David

[Greg Beetham]

I've always thought the white lenses look nice, anyway anyone who pays that much for a good lens, deserves to have it look distinctive, don't you think? One thing though I wonder why they don't make the outer lens barrels out of white/pearl (whatever colour) plastic, then the plastic (nothing wrong with good old polycarbonate) wouldn't chip or peel like the white paint does, probably be heaps lighter as well.
With the metal focus "readout" collar, I tentatively came to the conclusion that the lenses with the metal ring were not "IF", such as my KM18-200, when in use the focus grip with the metal ring on the front of it turns and that becomes the distance scale (engraved on the metal ring).
I'm not sure that this is the case in all lenses with a metal distance scale though, but by comparison the focus collar on my 100-300apo does not turn when using AF, but is immediately available for focussing manually, after focus confirmation, (when in DMF mode), and the focus distance scale is located in the little clear window, (the 18-200 doesn't have one), a much better arrangement to actually use, I think, but probably more expensive too design/make.
Greg

[Bengeo]

The 70-400mm SSM is definitely compatible with the converters but only the 1.4X offers AF.

The manual states that both converters are MF only. The 1.4x will be at F8 at the long end and so shouldn't AF?

Andy

[David Kilpatrick]

Hopefully the 1.4X may work. I don't think anyone has tried it. I have often got converters to work at f8 when they should not, in the past, but some do lock out AF through their programming. I was able to AF with my first 70-210mm f4 and a 2X Teleplus 7-element (I no longer have that), despite it being f8, and that was on very early AF bodies - probably the 7000 and 9000.

David