So pity! KTF-Turbo which is right now testing the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 m43 prototype lens just informed me that for now they decided to not go into mass production with the lens. He couldn’t unveil me the reason for that decision. I hope Mr. Miyazaki who is designer of the lens will rethink is decision. I like the design lens a lot and I think quite a great group of current m43 owners would have considered to purchase the lens.
Bye the way, the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 for Q mount already did it into mass production and is in Stock on [shoplink 30286 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
20 Responses
That’s sad. It is an interesting option as it offers big aperture with low weight and size- unique. The CV lenses are great but just too heavy for me. I reckon they might get a more positive response if they fit it to a EP3 or GX1- it looks badly suited to the GH.
The reason is quite obvious. This lens won’t cut it for the m4/3rds sensor. Good only for the tiny Pentax Q.
There is no point in “mass producing” (100 lenses at the most?) such lenses.
BTW, I think the comparison posted against the Macro Switar 26/1.1 is total BS. Somone has to be an utter fool to believe that this lens would compete/compare with the Switar.
+1
The M43 version and the Q versions are totally different besides both being the same focal length and aperture size. Even the construction is different.
Mr. Miyazaki has created many Leica M mount lens that have extremely high quality. A comparison with the Macro Switar may not be that far off.
The Panasonic/Leica 25mm F1.4 is all you need …
That is a real pity! This would have been a great lens because of its small size. Not as a substitute to the Panasonic Leica 25 but as competition for the expensive, big and heavy Voigtländer!
Seems like a reasonable choice under the current form/design. Price was high enough for at least offering full sensor coverage at that wasn’t the case. A pity, since specs and size were a dream came true.
Let’s hope he realizes there is a demand for a small and bright manual 25mm lens that neither the Summilux (no soul, awkward manual focusing) nor the Nokton (too big, too heavy) were able to fulfill.
But it needs to be optically sound – the image samples we saw showed a lot of problems.
too much competition in that focal length. already have the pana/leica 25mm, and the nokton 25mm.
+1
Should have given us a wider F1.1. Pentax Q users would benefit from that as well.
Disappointing. I appreciate the fact that M43 users have so many choices. This lens seemed to have a unique image quality in the samples that I’ve seen and would have been a great addition to the manual lens line up.
OK, I will settle for a stunning f/2.0 16mm! 🙂
Really sorry to hear this news. Is there any way we can petition them to reconsider?
I’d sign!
I think the test against the macro switar showed maybe they could go for a better desgin.
Not sorry at all.
All the image samples were not convincing in terms of image quality. Tiny is a goal, but not at the cost of optical quality.
We need an improved version of Oly 17mm (maybe f2) or Pany 20mm (fast AF response).
I think they should just make these in either M or m42 mount. That would widen their market reach significantly, and m43 users who like it can still use one. I like it cos it’s tiny, but the image samples posted so far don’t look too good compared to the Nokton or Summilux.
I don’t think that’s possible. It’s not a FF lens. That is why it is so small.
That would totally miss the point, which is something at 1/2 scale for the 2x crop factor m43 format. The lens already exists for M mount as the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm/f1.5.
See http://www.kenrockwell.com/zeiss/zm/50mm-f15.htm
People making silly comments again. The lens is designed for a mount where the image circle is smaller than M43. I guess you want an image with lots of vignetting eh?
I think this is not a surprising decision. A lens like this will always be a niche product, selling in small numbers. Hence, the price will probably be higher than that of the Lumix-Leica 25mm f/1.4, so only a small number of enthusiasts would have bought the Sonnetar.