bfitzgerald wrote:Well if you think a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 is large and heavy, wait until those Zeiss f2.8 zooms start turning up for E mount! ANd don't expect an 85mm f1.8 Zeiss to be really tiny either.
440g isn't what I call a heavy lens sure it's heavier than a kit lens, but hardly a beast to handle. It's actually pretty compact for a zoom lens of this type. If you're looking for small zoom f2.8 lenses on NEX I think you'll be disappointed.
It's a full pound! It feels heavy after hours of it hanging around the neck. It's my heaviest lens, by far. My tele-zooms aren't that heavy. But if you don't mind heavy, it's a great lens, if somewhat soft wide open, at least in the corners. (If Sony made this lens, there would be howls of disapproval at its f2.8 performance.)
I'm not looking for a small f2.8 zoom, but then, on a non-DSLR like the Nex, it could be made a bit smaller, perhaps. But the Tamron 17-50/2.8 just seems very large and unwieldy on the Nex for some reason, to the point that I don't have any desire to use it. It was often my go-to lens on the DSLR.
The new f4 18-70m looks kinda large; at least performance at f4 is supposedly pretty good. I don't think we'll see a high-end f2.8 zoom at least not any time soon. If we do, expect to hear usual complaints about a large lens on such a small camera and "balance". Personally, I think a lot of these complaints aren't very useful; either you mind the size or you don't. The camera doesn't mind being upstaged by a larger lens.
Having said that, I think if you're buying a smaller camera, you probably wanted something more compact and lighter.
So, I don't mind if Sony (or Tamron...) wants to make such a lens, but I won't be interested personally.