A new source sent me the following info:
1) Sony is working on a feasibility study right now for a full frame Zeiss Tilt Shift Lens for A-mount. This may be an autofocus lens!
2) Also up for debate are two aps-c mirror A-mount telephoto lenses: 350mm f5.6 AF SAM and a 500mm f8 AF SAM lens.
3) From what i’ve heard the 400 f2.8 will not happen, but the 400 f4 has been sent to design.
Don’t know yet of the info is correct. Also in that case I hope trusted sources can confirm or deny this. Thanks!
P.S: In these days I am working on the new A-mount roadmap. Sources can send me info anonymously through he contact form you see on the right border of the website. Thanks!
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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!
51 Responses
the 500mm F8 sound like a mirror lens, surely they are do better. I would like to see a 50-150mm F3.5 telezoom
completely no sense
This rumor sounds like garbage.
“Also up for debate are two aps-c mirror NEX telephoto lenses: 350mm f5.6 AF SAM and a 500mm f8 AF SAM lens” – NEX lenses are not SAM. SAM is on A-mount only!
Also I doubt there’s any point in 500 f/8 for NEX. This lens is just too “fat” to use on any NEX body. And I doubt Sony can design reflex 350mm f5.6 with AF.
sorry, it’s a-mount and not nex.
It sounds like that 500mm f/8 might be a re-issue of the old Minolta 500mm f/8 mirror lens. I use it on my A900 and it’s a good lens when there is ample light. With newer full frame camera’s with better focus and improved ISO, it could become a GREAT lens.
oohhhh… ok. Now it would make some sense. Well, if so, than a big question is image quality and price. Especially for 350mm f5.6. I think this lens would be interesting proposition even without any extraordinary IQ – mostly as a special effect lens.
Hearing that “400 f2.8 will not happen” doesn’t bother me much. Good to hear the confirmation for 400 f/4 though.
>Also I doubt there’s any point in 500 f/8 for NEX. This lens is just too “fat” to use on any NEX body.
Oh man when you stop posting silly thoughts about lenses…. For comparison, Samyang 500/8 reflex is both shorter and lighter than Sony E 18-200. It is lighter (320 grams) than NEX-6 or NEX-7. Of course the Samyang needs adaptors to be used on NEX, but hypotetical native E-mount version would not need them.
AFAIK Samyang doesn’t offer any reflex lens for NEX. And by “fat” I refer to the diameter, not weight or length.
And if anything is silly – it’s using gigantic lenses on tiny camera body. That’s exactly what happens when you use 500 f/8 with NEX. I think you never even seen this lens if you call me silly 🙂
Sky_walker, if Sony comes out with the rumored Nex-7n I’ll be buying one and trying out many huge telephoto lens on it, including my 500mm f/8 and 300mm f/2.8. I think it will be a great combination for birding from a heavy tripod. Wish me luck. It might look silly but I think it will work. The problem I have when birding with long lenses is achieving critical focus quickly. There is need for improvement in the auto focus in the Sony cameras. I hope Sony addresses this issue in future cameras.
I’ve seen only Samyang 500/8 reflex, not Sonys. It comes in T-mount. So by your logic it is not for A-mount cameras either. Its “diameter” is slightly larger than the 18-55 and same as the 18-200.
How is 320g lens “gigantic” and 345g body is “tiny”? Please don’t post your arrogance again.
This sounds like a great plan! Bring on lenses like the TS that people don’t need / want. Skip lenses people can afford and desirel ike the Beercan series… why sell things that people want to buy?
I would consider a A mount TS
Yes, me too.
I would get a T/S lens too! There is very little to choose from for A-mount now, especially if you want a long T/S. There is only the 90mm Schneider for some $3k 🙁
Come on Sony, lets have a 24-120/4 and 70-200/4. Even with the new SAMmk2 motor (to allow DMF) it would be OK.
Tilt-shift and autofocus? That’s moronic! Where would it focus when tilted? A total oxymoron.
??? Your post doesn’t make any sense.
Actually it is possible,at least with 1 focus point in the center.
Ziess TS , yes please !!
Bring it on, a 24mm Zeiss T/S lens to use with the high MP FF sensors which are coming.
Useless rumor…
Also, AF on a TS-E lens is really unnecessary.
Well, in theory AF is not necessary on macro lenses either. It doesn’t stop people from buying AF macro glass.
SR2? Oh well… 350/5.6 RF would be nice /or 250/.
if the 350mm was NEX and the 500 a redo for the A mount that woudl make sense
350 on A-mount would also make sense. As a special effect lens. Think of it as the other extreme of STF – as far as STF creates perfect bokeh – reflex lens would create… erm… imperfect bokeh.
Another reason for it’s existence would simply be a sharpness and price. It might be one of sharpest sub-500$ tele lenses (keep in mind here that cheap tele glass is usually very poor at it’s longest focal length).
good point
also i have to wander if they have got a software fix to “scramble” the rings in the background some after all they fix many other lens issues
This is not a lens issue.
“Fixing” it is nearyl impossible in practice..
Contrary to popular belief, doughnuts do not show up in every shot with a mirror lens. Avoiding them requires shooting in such a way as to avoid specular highlights in the foreground and background. With careful composition, they can actually be quite creamy.
Wouldn’t it be even easier to put IS to a mirror lens? Probably not. That’s why RF lens is not discussed for NEX…
Mirror lenses have donout shaped bokeh because the secondary mirror is centereed in the sweet spot.
I think putting the secondary mirror off to the side similar to a cable satellite dish would result in a much higher quality lens.
It would of course look strange.
Anyone have any thoghts on the idea?
Assemetrical parabolic mirror primary witb secondary mirror off to the side!
No glass elements!
This would have no chromatic abberation an if precisely ground to within 1/4 wavelength could be optically perfect.
It would be compact and light and look like the satelite dishes now in use.
Would this be a good idea?
Off axis second mirror would cause new problems,optically. That’s why off axis design is not popular.
My response showed up in the wrong place
See my 3 questions below.
This idea is more than 200 yrs old, started by Herschel… It requires usage of too-complex aspherics to keep IQ within limits.
Where is the Nex 7n? I thought it was rumored to be released in May 2013? Has there even been an announcement of the Nex 7n or when it ships? Has anyone checked to see if Sony has stopped its manufacturing lines at the plants? I know they do runs and then re-tool, but are they even tooling at this point. Someone need to stop by and take a look.
Dan
Looks like TS has a market here, every major brand should have a TS lense! Bring on something wide please! TS for sony is long due! Bring a AF TS for Emount too please! And a AF mirror for Emount too! No more silly prime at 30mm to 50mm range please.
Sony should release a camera body with TS mechanism inside.
TS lenses should die.
An official, electronic tilt-shift adapter for existing lenses would be nice (like the mirex adaptor). However, I am not sure how feasible it may be because I believe that the lens must project a larger than 35mm sized image to shift about. The mirex adaptor uses medium format lenses. The canon t/s lenses have very large front elements presumably to project a larger than standard image.
The only problem here is conservative thinking.
350mm. This is what I have been waiting for. If this is true and Sony is making a prime at an uncommon length, I’m going to be super happy about it. 200-300-400-500 is overrated. Multiples of 35 are the way to go.
Multiples?? I want a prime lens with focal length which is prime too! The prime closest to 350 is 347!! And no more boring f/4, I need f/3.987 !!!
Well played. While we’re at it we may as well use the square root sign to clean things up.
3 questions
What are the new problems?
Can these new problems be solved? How?
If the problems are solved would we indeed then have an “opically perfect” mirror if we use no glass elements an ground each mirror to +/- 1/4 wavelength?
Non-rotationally symmetric aspheric surfaces. Pain to manufacture. Big cost.
More Tilt/shift a-mount lenses would be fantastic. Product photographers need them for deep focus (like a 90mm) and obviously architecture / interior photographers need them for to prevent parallaxing and aid in stitching.
I would happily but a Sony zeiss 17mm tilt-shift.
I’ve never heard of autofocus on one, but I suppose it could be useful if it kicks in when not tilting/shifting to use as a normal lens.
What about starting with a machined magnesium blank, prescored on the back with excess metal removed. A large full parabolic mirror is ground polished and coated then laser cut on the score lines to make 3 off axis mirrors from a single blank.
A similar process could be used for the secondary.
Tamron produced the SP Adaptall-2 350mm f5.6 mirror lens. Wonder if Sony is just updating that to AF? If they don’t mess up it’s optics going AF it might be sort of interesting. I have the Tamron lens, it’s a pretty good small mirror lens. Sometimes use it to chase butterflies and such.
Yes that Tammy 350 is legendary. Supposedly the highest IQ focal length for mirrored offerings. Wouldn’t doubt if if the Sony is a complete copy of it.
I find it more appealing than the Rokkor 250, or the Sig 400. Although the Cambron 300/5.6 Mirror actually had an iris for aperture control… 15 blades. That would be a neat addition to the Sony design.
if thts the case then the 400f4 might also be comming off the same shelf over at tamron
How will Sony accommodate the protruding viewfinder nose for A-Mount T/S lenses? Lots of vertical shift unavailable because of that. Only Alpha that doesn’t have it would be the a99. Perhaps new T/S is only for newest SLT’s to come?
Minolta 35 Shift had the auto aperture with a genuine manual linkage. Novel for its day. I’d rather have that than AF. Would be great to include the Minolta VFC function, to really set it apart from competition.
I use TS on the a700 without any interference problems. So it’s not just the a99 that can use TS.
In the last few years Sony has behaved more like they don’t want to acknowledge the existance of the Minolta connection, so I don’t really expect to see much of any of Minolta’s special stuff out of them anymore, even stuff they did for a while.