Sony Japan officially marked the current [shoplink 34489 ebay]Zeiss 16-35mm A-mount lens[/shoplink] as discontinued. This means the new version anticipated at Photokina will be released within the next 1-2 months.
The new 16-35mm and 24-70mm A-mount Zeiss lenses will have following improvements:
– Improved AF speed
– Updated design and weatherproof body
– Image Quality improvement (like ghost reduction)
44 Responses
Everything is always announced that like 2-3 months will be something new.
And a new body for A-mount for months, only to hear that it will permanently – and nothing else !!!
Are they optically the same as the original lenses?
Most likely it is an update similar to the the 70-200II.
And likely rise price ?
To me this is news and not a rumor.
They should have rather updated the 85/1.4 and 135/1.8 Zeiss lenses with SSM and weather sealed. The 24-70/2.8 is already great.
Everyone has a different opinion. Sony can’t please everybody at the same time.
No, but they should try. It’s wrong to give parts of their loyal fanbase a slap in the face like that.
Get real. They owe you nothing. You buy a product. Once your guarantee runs out, that’s it. By your rationale, no company could discontinue a product line because apparently that’s a slap in the face of their loyal fans.
We live in the Age of Entitlement it seems.
These companies only exist because of the life support that we provide them by purchasing their products. They owe us everything!
Even if we assume you are right, who cares? Nobody at Sony cares. Like any other company. They all say, that they care about you. But they don’t. Thats no secret.
I hope they get an upgrade too so that I could buy the older version for cheaper 😉
Agree! The 135 with its screw drive should have been on the redo before the 24-70. Maybe it’s due to its greater demand or sales. But to me the present 24-70 has very few faults, none of which I can think of. However, it would be nice to see a new lens addition as well as design improvements to the old line.
I totally agree! 2470 and 1635 are both amazing, and the optically amazing 135 really needs SSM. I’d prefer that update first.
It doesn’t ‘need’ SSM at all.
Where are new lens? Not refresh. Where are new bodys? A88? A99ii? New a58 or 65? Why sony do not do anything?
What new lenses do you need? There aren’t that many gaps in the A-mount line-up, unless you need some exotic specialty lenses.
most lens should be with the ssm!! (certainly all prime). New lens? Could be:
85/1.8, wide for apsc (sony 11-18 is to poor and dark), 70-200/4, 100-400.
Sigma and Tamron delay all new lens (sigma prime art, tamron 150-600,15-30) and simga art lens it is not known whether come for a-mount. How do we know that in a few years will be a new body? Sorry for my english.
Because they don’t expect to sell enough to justify the R&D? Just a wild guess.
Sony no longer will make low end A-mount Bodies.
They probably are going to only make the A77 and A99 series.
A77II just came out. A99 is only 2 years old.
A99II…maybe within the next year or two if A mount is still alive.
I hope it will be a bit lighter.
These updates make zero sense.
It’s not development of A-Mount (most unnecessary updates with a big price bump…)
and it’s not transfering to FE, which has so far only got 35mm f/1.4
Sony seems to be moving nowhere
Sorry, but I don’t get it. What’s wrong with updating the two best zoom lenses for FF A-Mount?
Exactly that – they are already two best zooms for FF A Mount.
There’re many lenses that really are far mr, like screw-driven 85mm and 135mm ZA, SAL 35mm is old as hell… and many holes in the A Mount line up that need new lenses, if they were serious about keeping it on.
I understand why they are making mk II examples. So if they make this sharper in the corners, weather sealed , and inner focus. Then the upgrade is welcome.
For me i will use zooms for my A77 mk II, and A99.
Other lenses that is not zooms. Thats for my A7 mk II, and when they make a A9 s
Pretty much same approach I take. My A99 sings with 135mm, 85mm, and 16-35mm, so that’s how I pair them, in order of how often I use them. A77II is my “action” set that I use with 24-70mm and 70-400II … super fast for my needs and perfect FLs.
I’m using A7II with primes most of the time, and bought 70-200mm for travel.
These updates would make perfect sense if they had AF updates to allow fast (comparable to native E AF lenses) autofocus on current and future (A9) E-mount bodies with the hallow adapters, not SLT. That would make them reasonably future proof for current A-mount users, while providing good performance for current E-mount users.
Can that be done without major major redesign of focusing optical element groups (lighter) and focusing motors (DD-SSM or steppers)? I guess only Sony knows.
That’s an excellent idea. It would also mean that native E-Mount versions of the same lenses would be easy to develop, albeit perhaps not as compact as they could be.
Will there ever be a chance Sony will release a 16-50mm or 16-70mm with F2.8 for E-Mount APS-C? Or any zoom lens with F2.8 for e-mount like the one above..
Sure, once they make A7000 in a DSLR form factor, they could modify SAL1650 to fit E-Mount. Would be a good match, just like it is with A77. Current APSC e-mount cameras would fell like toys with a lens like that.
You note the fact that the lens is discontinued, but missed the part where it says 「国内向け商品の生産は完了いたしました」meaning that this announcement pertains only to production for domestic(Japan) sales. Realistically, I would agree that this is an indication of the end of production globally, although this announcement leaves an admittedly slim chance that this is not the case.
Well I wthink it’s very safe to say that if they discontinue it on the very important Japanese market than this means the successor is coming soon.
Sony’s jp site report “SAL16-35F28ZA SSM-II available in spring 2015”. Unfortunately any news for 2470F28.
sony why not do the conference does not provide a new map releases a-mount? new bodys lens accesoriers? finished to a dispute. I think They held their many users. Sorry for my english
The 16-35 is built like a t34 tank. Mine has went through a 2m meter fall on concrete, all sorts of nasty downpours and holi festivals and it still works like a charm, with no signs of anything appearing inside the glass.
No matter how well intentioned I am, if I use my gear, it will eventually get scratches- maybe drop it. Some people refer to these as cosmetic imperfections. I prefer the term, “battle scars.”
Why work on ghost reduction? If you mention A mount to most people they think your referring to a ghost.
Ghost= glare
Good clickbait article title as this is a known update, not a discontinuation. 16-35 is the one glass I use the least, but on a rare occasion that I do, it’s hard to fault. Great to use with filters (I prefer Lee system). It’s not bad for video too, especially since it has the DOF scale and decent manual focus. IQ is quite outstanding, weather sealing would be nice, but I can live without it, and better AF (which already is very very fast with the SSM) is unlikely to justify the upgrade for most. If the price stays same at $2K than it’s a welcome update, but if it follows the same path as the 70-200 II, with an absurd 33% hike then it’ll be hard to swallow.
P.S. I looked at the used prices for the 16-35mm… they’ve dropped a ton recently, all the way down to about $1,500 for a 9/10 condition.
Looks like a manufacturing update (AF, weather proof, lens coating) only.
Isn’t it time to expand the optical design team to provide both new E/FE lenses and A lenses?
Or maybe they just discontinued it.
I read it as NO replacement will be coming soon…
They work fine for me, best bet is you don’t use any of these lenses and will certainly never buy any of them or their updates either.
Well I was going to, but yeah, it’s a safe bet now that Sony has abandoned this system.