We got some new info thanks to the German Fotomagazin and Photoscala websites. Schneider is considering to make an E-mount version of the just announced 14mm f/2.0 Micro Four Thirds lens. Meantime we have more news about that lens. Price will be less than 1.500 Euro ($1900), it has autofocus and nano coating. It will be in Stock by early 2013. Two more m43 lenses will be unveiled 2013.
For Sony NEX owners this is good news because the system desperately needs new lenses. Although a 28mm focal length (m43 has a 2x conversion rate) is (too?) close to the other stellar Zeiss 24mm lens.
24 Responses
If they are going to do an E-Mount version, it will be 14mm, not 28mm…your logic is weird.
Agreed, focal length is focal length on any system. The 14mm on NEX would be nothing like a 24 mm Zeiss on NEX. Unless they plan on making a different focal length for NEX (like a 19mm or something).
It would be nice to have a quality wide angle, but it definitely isn’t a pancake, and it definitely is expensive, but I think owners of the NEX 7 would definitely buy them.
I would buy one for sure, this will be priced much lower anyway than the cheapest of my m-mount lens.
On NEX, a fast 21mm-equivalent is very welcome. On m4/3, it’s an expensive 28mm-equivalent, when there’s already a fast 24mm-equiv. and only slightly slower 28mm-equiv. pancake — LAME!
Make lenses for m4/3 with focal lengths that make sense on m4/3, dammit!
It would be great if this lens covers APS-C and they just change the mount–I would LOVE a 21mm-e Schneider wide angle for my NEX-7. 21mm was my favourite wide angle on my Canon 5D. I made many of my favourite landscape images with an adapted Olympus OM 21mm f/3.5 (and drooled over the legendary Contax 21mm). A 21mm-e, 36mm-e and 75mm-e (though a 85mm/90mm would be even better) would be a perfect three-lens kit for me. Bring it, Schneider!
If it really has autofocus that’s quite significant, not many third party companies make AF lenses aside from the big three. The price is high but there’s potential for very high IQ, it could be the perfect landscape lens for E-mount.
another lens I certainly was not waiting for, where are the high quality pancake lenses to complement the small Nex form factor??? maybe it’s time to jump ship – 1.5k for this, the D600 suddenly looks very interesting
> where are the high quality pancake lenses
Still there where they’ve always been: in hallucinations of marketroids.
The smaller lens you make the harder it becomes to have any kind optical quality.
You would need to decrease size of image circle (meaning sensor) for that high optical quality with smaller physical lens size.
Just check Photozone’s reviews of X-Pro 1’s 18mm and 35mm lenses. After all the hype they have basically cheap consumer zoom lens resolution drop outside center.
A 14mm lens for MFT has a diagonal field of view: 75º
A 14mm lens for APS-C has a diagonal field of view: 92º
A 21mm lens for 135 has a diagonal field of view: 92º
I don’t expect the curvature of the front lens to be able to cope with the change from 75º to 92º, if this same lens is adapted from MFT to APS-C (suiting Fujifilm, Sony & Samsung).
It would be an expensive waste of glass for the intrinsic MFT user, if the lens actually was originally designed for APS-C.
But if a NEX user will pay the same amount of money, for a 21mm FOV on NEX, as the MFT user for a 28mm FOV, then this sounds like a big rip off.
Look at the front elements of various 20mm or 21mm 135 format lenses and you’ll see they don’t have very heavily curved front elements.
They have an 18mm coming. That will be for nex. The 14mm is specifically for m43.
Source?
I, for one, really hope not. That actually makes it worse: m4/3 gets a lens we don’t really need, while NEX gets a lens we do! m4/3 could really use a high-quality fast 35mm-equivalent with AF.
To the gentleman above who says that because this lens is not a pancake, its not worth considering. Consider this: Samsung has small lenses, not pancake like exactly, but small. Are they good? not really. Do they have character? no. I know many professionals consider the NEX as a potential work tool because it gives small form factor (even if you think the lenses are big, they are not compared to SLR lenses) and the better than M9 price and IQ.
I am working with the NEX 7 and the 24mm. Cheap? for professional prices they are quite fair. A 21mm equiv f2? for 1,500 EUR? its quite good. See how much Zeiss charges for its own 25mm distagon for Canon and Nikon. See how much Canon and Nikon charge for their 24mm 1.4 (yes, 1.4 but they are nowhere near the 24mm for Sony full frame in IQ – see photozone-)
I want quality and for quality I will pay. The size of the lenses is NOT disgraceful. It is acceptable and I will happily carry 2 or three of these same sized lenses and two NEX 7s instead of 2 SLR lenses and one SLR body.
Bring it on, Schneider, I and many others are waiting.
Patrick
Well said.
I would love to say good bye to my Canon 5DMKII!
If the 14 has sharp corners that don’t need corner fix for my NEX-7 I’ll get one.
fast 21mm equiv for NEX? Tasty!
Holy shit, E-Mount is going to get Zeiss AND Schneider autofocus glass!
fotomagazin says E-mount is NOT considered…
They now CHANGED the text!
I dont know why they bother targeting NEX, zeiss has it covered and it is a much smaller market than micro four thirds.
They are not going to make any lenses in E-mount. Admin got the wrong idea/info.
Schneider is considering developing two other lenses for µ4/3: a 30mm f/1.4 and a 60mm f/2.4 for macro and portrait.
Source: Photoscala report, 2nd addendum (“Nachtrag (15.6.2012):“)
http://photoscala.de/Artikel/Schneider-Kreuznach-Objektive-fuer-Systemkameras-kommen
These focal lengths look more “APS-C” than “µ4/3” to me…