Sony US patent Number 20140204265 discloses the design for two new Full Frame prime lenses. The 20mm f/2.8 and 28mm f/2.8. These primes are designed to be very compact and high speed autofocusing lenses. As Sony writes these lenses are suited for both still and video shooting and have fast inner focusing.
The 20mm could be the updated version of the current SEL-20F28 while the 28mm lens would a complete new entry. According to the patent both lenses will cover the APS-C sensor area only (no FF).
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That guy’s FIRST BLOOD belongs to me now
“discloses the design for two new Full Frame prime lenses” – Umm, title and rest of the article say APS-C only, unfortunately. Interesting to see what changes they make to the 20mm, I have the 16mm and it’s pretty bad, wouldn’t mind an upgrade…
we all get used to this kind of information from admin… like the 24-700mm lens…
Wow. F/2.8 primes. Because that’s never been done before.
The current 20mm are fullframe. And you write that it gets updated and is only for aps-c. Thats pretty confusing.
Greetings David
So we will have these primes: 12,16,19,20,24,28,32,35,50,60 , but still nothing above 60….. How about adding a 22 and 30 sony?
There’s already a 30mm Sony macro and Sigma 30mm 🙂
so 22 and 26 is missing 🙂
22?
+1
That’s my biggest gripe with APS-C E-mount prime lenses, nohing above 60mm. Well okay, there is the manual Samyang 85mm and 300mm. But come on Sony, give us some real tele primes! Something like 70, 85, 105mm. I don’t care if they are not small and no, I won’t buy a LA-EA2 and some A-mount lenses, that’s just silly. Native lenses please.
Unfortunately anything above 60mm is generally going to be about as big as any DSLR lens. (See the 70-200mm f4 and 55-200mm lens).
Of course it doesn’t mean Sony shouldn’t make them but I think their design principle for E mount is being compact which is unfortunately not what everyone wants. 🙁
Do you even read what you write? In the first paragraph you write that these lenses are for full frame, in the second one you write that they are for aps-c. Are you completely retarded? This site gets worse everyday, I don’t know why I’m still reading your bullshit
Just my thoughts too
I agree. The worst ‘news’ recently was when he claimed the a7 was under $1000 but it was actually ‘virtually’ because it included the lens for a rip off price of $500. He’s a sell out now, this site definitely isn’t what it used to be.
He has made a mistake. This isn’t his full time job and he isn’t a native english speaker. If you don’t like it you can take all your negativity and leave. We will not have to hear your whining anymore and as it there are plenty of whiners around here.
There is enough info to see that these are APS-C primes and not FF primes as he mistakenly mentioned.
Do you keep voting up your own posts? This site has become a psychopath slug fest, with psychopaths dueling each other in an insanity soup. This site is starting to sound like sociopathworld.com. if anyone else has been to that site, you will know it takes just 5 minutes of reading through the comments, to get a head seizure. These guys are completely different to us humans. I hope the Admin takes a tougher stand with this crazy bunch.
Not for a-mount?!
If they’re apsc it’s most likely that they’re e-mount (outside chance that they’re new a-mount easy choice lenses, but compact strongly implies e-mount). A 42mm equivalent doesn’t make a lot of sense to me though…
It’s 2014, the Yet Another Year of E-Mount, remember?
I stop visiting this site for a month because of horrible grammar and mistakes, and I come back to read this. All I can do is shake my head.
I agree! Admin should continue writing these news in German (it’s his native language, afaik), so that all of us could enjoy the perfect grammar.
Vicken trähatt!
Such a terribly rude thing to say !
The admin is not a native English speaker and honestly as long as his message comes through that should be enough.
If you still don’t like it you are most welcome to leave or start your own grammatically correct rumor site !
OK he made a mistake! But lets look at this patent! Everybody who said that Sony was not designing any new APS lenses for the E-mount could be wrong! How great will that be?
I agree that some longer primes (85mm, 135mm) would be very nice too.
About the apperture, Would it be nice to have larger apperture? Yes, would that make the lens larger? Yes! would that be nice? No! So maybe these specs have a reason. Think of a 28mm pancake, that would be nice for our system!
“could be wrong” Or not. It’s just a patent. Anyway, a pancake 28mm would be nice indeed.
I think an f2 pancake in this range is very doable on APS-C and staying compact. Canon and Samsung have both managed high quality f2 pancakes (22mm and 30mm). Both kit lenses actually do pretty good in this focal range and you can have pretty compact size with the 16-50 kit.
I do agree that I’m happy Sony looks to still be designing APS-C emount but these don’t really fill any gaps.
Oh, another bunch of optically compromised APS-C mirrorless lenses. The best part is that they’ll cost something between 300 and 400$ each with performance just marginally better than the 18-55.
Not a single ultrawide prime, not a single sharp tele… only option: buy needlessly large and expensive FF lenses. Fail. My AF is spot on but the images are still blurry YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
But you can use a-mount tele lenses with adapter. Yes, they don’t have IS, and your pics will be blurry, but you can use them…
Yes, buy an LAEA that costs 2/3 of a used SLR 🙂
And use a heavy and expensive A-mount lens without IS 😀
Yes. Oh wait, no, IS is a crutch for sad internet ‘photographers’.
Fair enough, you clearly don’t need stabilisation to shoot your meals and selfies. People shooting low light/wildlife/macro have been known to take advantage of it though (and some of them are even proper photographers).
Wow, wildlife, low light and Macro? Three things that don’t need IS unless you are a witless moron. Selfies and meals on the other hand, I’m sure you really get that IS cranking, as an expert photographer and all.
My my, I can’t believe that wildlife, low light and Macro photography didn’t exist before the invention of IS, what a glorious age it is that we live in hey?
No need to get snarky. A friend of mine shoots macro without a tripod and with IS regularly. He gets stunning images and since he isn’t bound by a tripod he can shoot many more subjects that those who use a tripod for every shot.
The world is changing. Tripods are nice but they are cumbersome to carry around everywhere. IS has saved my bacon a few times and I got some good shots. Don’t discredit things others may value.
Sorry but they got there first. The suggestion that you can’t take anything but blurry photos with a non IS lens makes them sound exactly as I pointed out.
Strange, I do wildlife every now and then. I own the Sony 70-400mm G lens and an A700. this combination is great as the lens has a FOV comparable to a 600mm lens, so to get good steady shots you need say, 1/1000 sec. As many of the animals show themselfs at daybreak light is not always very good, IS is then very handy, otherwise you need an tripod and that is an extra weight. I think wildlife benefits greatly from the IS. Is it possible without IBIS? Yes! you can use the tripod or some natural things to steady your camera on.
Low light and IS is great, take pictures inside homes or a museum, flash is often not allowed, and tripods are not easy to use (and often forbiden) in a crowdy museum..IS can be very handy then… Again possible without but not realy important.
Food can be done with flash, in low light without flash IS is handy true
Selfies, can benefits from IS.
Could you clarify this article please? Is it APS-C now or FF? I still guess it’s FF as 20 and 28mm don’t make much sense on APS-C. And they are both 2.8 only, which is maybe too slow for an APS-C prime => another hint that they are FF.
I can’t see anything in the patent that refers to either APS-C or FF. As it seems to be a fairly generic patent referring to the arrangement of lens groups, so I don’t see why it has to be characterised as either APS-C or FF (or, for that matter, any other format) although it may be there are some physical constraints which might come to bear.
If only they were full frame! Unless they’re budget, I can’t see Sony is bothering with apsc lenses. Surely killing 2 birds with stone and give apsc e-mount owners an upgrade path to ff makes business sense?
When these are small pancake like lenses then APPS and F2.8 makes sense, a larger apperture and/or FF would make this lens larger. It do make sense to create a lens like this in APS format to keep the people who want small lenses sattisfied.
For the larger long FL lenses you are right, making them just a tiny bid smaller for APS format makes no sense as most people do not buy these long lenses at all!
The 20mm is pretty slim anyway and I can’t imagine a 28mm FE would be much bigger, given the size of the size of the minolta 28/2.8…
Sony already has some cheap and small APS-C pancakes. Also, FF pancakes don’t need to be any larger. Canon’s 40mm is brilliant on both FF and Crop, while being really small. Sony hopefully won’t release another APS-C only lens for a long time. It really makes no sense for them not to pad out the FE lineup first. They’re killing it when it comes to camera bodies and features, but their lens lineup is still woefully lacking. There are just way too many holes.
Sammy has small 30/2, Canon has small 22/2. (that’s fast enough) Sony… can’t.
APS-C lenses are totally worthwhile making and focusing on, as they give a big weight advantage over FF. Which is one of the primary benefits for many for going mirrorless in the first place!
My guess is these will end up as 24mm and 35mm pancakes after the in camera distortion profiles have been applied.
Seems kind of slow IMO. We can do 1.8 here guys.
I wish they’d update the a-mount 20. It’s one of my most-used focal lengths yet the Sony glass is not that sharp and focuses slowly. I guess there’s hope that Sigma will beat them to it.
So, APS-C or FF? seems unclear
Its APS-C.
Last line clearly says – According to the patent both lenses will cover the APS-C sensor area only (no FF).
Article is confusing! What was wrong with the current sony APS-C 20mm F2.8 Pancake? How could they make it smaller?
WTF? so is this APS-C or FF?
Yes, how much more poorly can this article be written – is it full frame or not? – It says both in the text.
Its APS-C guys. The title says APS-C and a whole line is dedicated at the end that says “According to the patent both lenses will cover the APS-C sensor area only (no FF).”
Honestly guys its a mistake that shouldn’t have happened but a little reading can sort out the issue once and for all.
“Sony US patent Number 20140204265 discloses the design for two new Full Frame prime lenses.”
Reading? That is the first sentence!
So thats ONE mistake ! The headline and the end of the post clearly says APS-C.
Admin is just covering his a$$ for his rumor.
It may be FF, it may be APS-C
It may be for A-mount, it may be for E-mount
It may be this year, it may never come
That way, he’s right regardless.
I’m guessing their just updates of Sony’s A-Mount 20mm, and 28mm lenses.
You mean you’re hoping.
Yeah, everyone is hoping lens announcement fit the body they own or aspire to own because Sony’s line-up sux so bad. Then they hope the other guys mount dies so they get their stuff sooner.
Shut up, Fargis. You don’t speak for everyone.
Doubt it – the 28/2.8 was discontinued a while ago and the 20/2.8 has always had pretty major limitations, which would need to be ironed (given the last update was just coatings and branding)…
I do wonder about the merit of this sort of patent. What is actually new? From what I read, it appears that it is a lens with 4 groups in a particular order with an internal focusing arrangement that moves only some of the groups. Further, it is for “wide angle”. It’s difficult to believe that this hasn’t been done before, albeit maybe not in this exact combination of groups, focal length and aperture. Such things surely more appropriate to copyright legislation than patents.
I can’t help but feel this sort of patent is largely defensive. Such is the broken state of the US patent system that patent trolls pop up all over the place patenting all sorts of stuff with dubious merit and no plan to actually produce anything; not even a prototype. However, manufacturers can get mired in litigation such that it’s cheaper to but these guys off rather then go to court.
2.8 is not a prime number.
So you would prefer an f/13 prime lens?
Maybe a f/2 lens? 2 is a prime!!
Well, the half angle of view of the 20mm is listed as 35.98 deg. or ~70 deg. total which is what you would get on a FF sensor. I think these are FF lenses for the E mount and that would be good news indeed.
image diagonal: 2* 20.42 * tan (35.98) = 29.65 mm. It’s APS-C.
No. 35.98 is the half-field of view in degrees which is consistent with FF.
Nope, I just checked my math and you are correct – this if for APS-C. Too bad. Sony really needs a 20mm pancake for the A7 series.
It needs a 20mm, but it doesn’t have to be pancake. Image quality is the primary concern for me.
The problem at the moment is Sony’s prioritising compact over everything else… Don’t get me wrong, I can see why they’re trying so had to differentiate the mounts, but it’d be nice to know the direction of travel on FE in the long term (eg are we not seeing OSS primes yet cos Zeiss).
A7 series needs a new pancake lens, but it doesn’t have to be a 20mm.
😉
the 20 mm is NOT an updated SEL20F28. It is *THE* SEL20F28. (yes, patents often get published AFTER product appears on the market)
On the other end of the focal length spectrum, is there any indication from Sony that they will bring back their auto-focus 500F8 cat lens for either a-mount or e-mount?
That would be fantastic, but…it costs more to manufacture than they can sell it for – that’s why they stopped making it. It wasn’t due to “low demand.”
So…no, that is not likely.
I think you are correct. I have two Sony 500 f8’s because I love the lens so much, if one ever dies I cant fathom not having a backup. It’s so dang sharp and so fast to focus. But, if one came along with SSM, I’d buy that too.
I’d definitely buy one even if it cost a couple hundred bucks more than the original. It’d be great for those few occassions when my 70-400 doesn’t have the reach.
So much has changed in manufacturing technology, it seems likely they could manufacture it today less expensively. Also, there are probably small technology tweaks already in the lenses pipeline that would be good for Sony’s bottom line.
Well I sure hope this 28mm pancake sees production! A compact (true) normal lens for the a6000; this would easily become my most used camera/lens combo.
It’s already there, it’s called Sigma 30mm f/2,8 – cheap, fast, compact. There is really no need for such lenses.
We need something better than the 16-50mm and less expensive than the 16-70mm.
Well we already have a 20mm APSC so I can’t see that, more likely FF.
F2.8 yawn; I was hoping for another F4 zoom to add to my collection
f2.8 is good for FF but for APSC must be f1.8!!!
Wow, Sony is upadating their current lenses before completing their lens lineup. Way to go Canikon killer.
Yeah, they are really updating the hell out of that 28mm 😉
As for the 20mm, haven’t you noticed the constant cries for ‘pancake’ lenses has disappeared, now the cries are for top quality inexpensive lenses and FF lenses.
Sony have plenty of lenses in this range, yes they need something longer, but these lenses aren’t ‘instead’ of those necessarily.
come on, sigma has 18-35 F1.8
So admin… is it FF lens or APS-C lens?
Yeah…. reading the article and it comes across a little contradictory.
They should better upgrade the awful 16mm… I need a 24mm equiv that is useful, not like the 1650 pz or the 16 prime!