Photoclubalpha

Did you notice that Sigma announced several new lenses for Sony that have HSM *and* OS?

18-250mm DC OS HSM lens
18-50mm f2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM lens
50-200mm f4-5.6 DC OS HSM lens

And these with HSM:

10-20mm f3.5 EX DC HSM lens
24-70mm f2.8 IF EX DG HSM

It looks like Sigma is *finally* routinely releasing HSM lenses for Sony. The OS, I'm sure, does not work in concert with SSS. You have the choice of either using OS or SSS, but not both at the same time. I guess it is cheaper for Sigma to just have one lens design for all cameras and not have HSM and non-HSM lenses and OS and non-OS lenses.

dpreview has the press releases.

It's nice to have the choice, I suppose! I am VERY interested in the new 10-20/3.5 now that the Tamron 10-24 seems to be a disappointment.

KevinBarrett wrote:It's nice to have the choice, I suppose! I am VERY interested in the new 10-20/3.5 now that the Tamron 10-24 seems to be a disappointment.

At f3.5 it won't be able to use the f2.8 AF sensor. Of course, f2.8 would make it much bigger and expensive.

Last year it became clear that Sigma had the Eureka moment after Pentax brought SDM out where they realized all brands now support in-lens motors, which meant they could go HSM on all lenses and make their lives simple.

If Pentax and Sony ever get electronic aperture support, it will be a dream day for 3rd party lens makers. At that point a 3rd party lens can be identical for all brands except just the metal mount bit in the back and the contacts. So they can make the back quasi Adaptal (internally) and have almost 100% part compatibility across all brands. When that happens you will see them bring the lens for all mounts the same day.

Still, the question is why Tamron hasn't had this Eureka moment. I do wonder if some of the Sony motored lens activity we see with the 5 new consumer lenses 2 of which are tamrons is a hint. Maybe Tamron has told Sony they are discontinuing screw drive development. Thus the change to the 55-200 (the Tamron version of which is out of stock at BH, along with a good number of other tamrons).

PhotoTraveler wrote:If Pentax and Sony ever get electronic aperture support, it will be a dream day for 3rd party lens makers. At that point a 3rd party lens can be identical for all brands except just the metal mount bit in the back and the contacts. So they can make the back quasi Adaptal (internally) and have almost 100% part compatibility across all brands. When that happens you will see them bring the lens for all mounts the same day.

It would be cool if they also went one extra step and came out with a changeable mount ala Tamron Adaptall II from years ago!

Might happen.

It would give 3rd parties a real value add.

I don't mind all the DT lenses, Sony sold tons of A200/300/350 and it's fair to provide more options to those users.

But I'm very worried that there is not a single Zeiss lens in these mockups.
Nikon & Pentax users have access to no less than five Zeiss wide angle primes
- Distagon T* 3.5/18
- Distagon T* 2.8/21
- Distagon T* 2.8/25
- Distagon T* 2/28
- Distagon T* 2/35
Why not a single one for Sony?

I switched to Sony because I get Zeiss with AF, and I'm very happy with my Planar T* 1.4/85 ZA & Sonnar T* 1.8/135 ZA. I also got a Sigma 50/1.4 EX HSM.
But the high end wide angle prime land is desperately empty. I even think of going back to Canon on my moody days.

youpii wrote: Nikon & Pentax users have access to no less than five Zeiss wide angle primes
- Distagon T* 3.5/18
- Distagon T* 2.8/21
- Distagon T* 2.8/25
- Distagon T* 2/28
- Distagon T* 2/35
Why not a single one for Sony?

Because they are a completely different pedigree, unconnected with the Sony Zeiss range. In fact, the deal with CZ probably means that Cosina is not allowed to compete with any mount fitting which CZ already offer - i.e. Alpha, or Contax - and where CZ themselves make the lens, as in the 18mm, they also will not compete with one of their own partners. You will note that these new primes have never been made in a manual Contax mount, which would be logical, and they have even been discontinued in M42 thread - because that would allow competition with Alpha-mount CZ glass.

David

bakubo wrote:It would be cool if they also went one extra step and came out with a changeable mount ala Tamron Adaptall II from years ago!

This would be cool but the trend is rather to make things more proprietary (e.g. Nikon white balance encryption). They could easily 'upgrade' the mount with some electronic codes. Even if this would be useless and/or easy to hack, it would mean Sigma or Tamron couldn't make lenses for the mount without violating Sonys intellectual property. Works very well for printer manufactures, allowing them to sell their ink and toner cartridges at ridiculous prices.

David Kilpatrick wrote:

youpii wrote: Nikon & Pentax users have access to no less than five Zeiss wide angle primes
- Distagon T* 3.5/18
- Distagon T* 2.8/21
- Distagon T* 2.8/25
- Distagon T* 2/28
- Distagon T* 2/35
Why not a single one for Sony?

Because they are a completely different pedigree, unconnected with the Sony Zeiss range. In fact, the deal with CZ probably means that Cosina is not allowed to compete with any mount fitting which CZ already offer - i.e. Alpha, or Contax - and where CZ themselves make the lens, as in the 18mm, they also will not compete with one of their own partners. You will note that these new primes have never been made in a manual Contax mount, which would be logical, and they have even been discontinued in M42 thread - because that would allow competition with Alpha-mount CZ glass.

David

Sorry for answering in the wrong thread ...

For people with your knowledge, that might sound normal. But that's strange for most of the people because they all bear the same brand and they are all listed on zeiss.com.
Anyway, I was not wondering about the exact same lenses adapted to Sony, but pointing out the strangeness that there is not Zeiss wide angle prime lens in Sony mount. And that by not showing a single new Zeiss concept (these were not even lenses announcements, only concepts), Sony is sending a strange message to people who switched to Sony because of these AF Zeiss lenses (more and more in my photo club). Especially when seeing the unreasonable prices reached on the 2nd hand market by the Minolta 28/2 & 35/2 on the second hand market (more than $500 here in China). Sellers are also asking for very high prices for other discontinued items like 200/2.8 APO, 100/2.8 soft, 28-70/2.8G, 17-35/3.5G.