SAR reports that Zeiss will announce their new Prime lenses for Sony NEX and Fuji X system on Tuesday, May 7th. The final price is still unknown although many expect it to be somewhere between $1,000 and $1,200. The first two lenses to ship in June will be the 12mm f/2.8 and the 32mm f/1.8 lens. The 50mm f/2.8 macro will ship in late 2013. All lenses have electronic Aperture and Autofocus control.
25 Responses
Announced again? Hah, how many times do they have to tell us they’re releasing these lenses… we know! Just deliver them already! Or at least get early samples into the hands of reviewers.
but know we know the exact day, may 7… so stay tuned on FR that day 🙂
Of course Fuji already has 14/2.8 and 35/1.4 so essentially the same FL as 12 and 32 are covered by OEM lenses, Why even bother with Zeiss, both are great lenses. 50/2.8 would be mildly interesting if it was F/1.4 or so, but there is already a 60/2,4 and 56/1.2 is coming. So for Fuji what is the excitement there?
well – for one thing: choices?
its also rather different with a 12/2.8 than a 14/2.8 since the equivalent focallengths in 35mm are 18mm and 21mm which are a lot more apart than immidiately suggestsing… besides the 50/2.8 is originally reported to be a macro (and perhaps even true 1:1 macro compared to the weak 1:2 by the fuji 60/2.4?) and knowing zeiss’s competance in that area i think it’s actually quite interesting…
i can follow you on the 32/1.8 to some extent but i guess zeiss is simply looking for a complete alternative line-up of focallengths in the wide/standard-range instead of simply supplementing fuji. that really does make good sense rather than simply basing your business on some other company’s products. if people loved the 12+50 perhaps they chose to go for the 32 as well for a complete and homogeneous solution?
best
klehmann
Or it could be that the Zeiss is actually doing all of these lenses to address the Sony market, not thinking much about Fuji, and doing Fuji versions in addition (well same size as Sony sensor, so only the mount is different) it is more of a ‘we might as well’ thing for Zeiss? Or it could be that Fuji asked them to, saying, Look you guys are doing it for Sony anyway, here are the specs for our mount including electronic aperture connections etc, just add a different mount for your Sony versions – won’t cost you much in R&D, and release them for Fuji. You, Zeiss, will make more money with minimum additional investment
It could be that with both Sony and Fuji combined the market is large enough for Zeiss to enter and perhaps make a profit. But then they do have to satisfy both markets and the lens do look more “Sony” than “Fuji”. Having said that they do look cool on that XP1.
Since the lenses are more or less the same FL as existing Fuji lens I hope that Zeiss is going to offer something other than a more expensive price tag, and IMO a nicer looking lens.
hi david,
yup – there’s sure a lot of speculations/variables which i don’t really care for or even worry about… to much ‘conspiracy theory’-ish for my taste – i just use the tools to shoot – no more.
the fact of the matter is that lenses are coming from zeiss and one can get them soon if one so chooses;o) i know i will try them out when available and if they suit me better than the fuji’s – well, i switch! if not – no harm done;o)
the most if not only part of my 1st reply to your post is really the only one thats relevant to me here. not so much the speculative part – that was more on a suggestive basis.. but offcourse your remark about making more money with minimal investment: i think all classic school of business has that as a major if not core value at heart. so why not zeiss?
best
klehmann
David….ask anyone who shoots ultra wide-angle lenses and they will tell you the 12mm and 14mm are light-years apart…not even close to the same FOV. I for one am very excited about the new Zeiss 12mm.
Does Autofocus control mean autofocus?
Will there be distance scale on the lenses? Judging by the pictures – no. But does anyone know for sure?
Used some Contag G lenses on my Xe-1 and though I do like the result quite a bit, not “knowing” where your focus area is without having to use the viewfinder is more than a pain the ass imho.
I do love the x series for it auto-focus and that is the most important thing but since there is a Manual focus mode I would like to get most out of that when I´m in the mood.
Anyone know if leaving out out of Focus is a technical or merely a design decision..?
A rep at Focus on Imaging told me they where manual focus. He was the design optics devision engineer. And no focus scale. He confirmed that too.
Maybe the camera can read the focal distance? but it is manual focus. Possible focus peaking addition in firmware?
well,unless zeiss design the lens micro-contrast more than fujifilm,i might be buying it..hopefully the 32/1.8 can give more ‘pop’ and 3d rendering..
Yawn. IMO Ziess is way to late to the party. I’ll stick with the superior Fuji glass and happily pocket the extra cash. I am sure the Ziess stuff is excellent as well ( I have the entire line of 645 glass), but I doubt very much if they can surpass this Fuji lineup
If they had a 23 1.4 and a 56 1.2 coming I might be interested
😉
Not interested in these focal lengths, really need a fast 85 mm equivalent
Zeiss need to surprise us all with a 85mm F2(130mm). Now that would be something that would sell well for NEX and Fuji.
I wonder if Zeiss will use some sort of USM/AF-S motor for the auto-focus. That would be a key point when comparing them against the Fuji glass and it’s (relatively) slow and noisy motor.
If that was the case then buying the Zeiss lenses could be a good investment for newer Fuji bodies when they inevitably improve the auto-focus computing.
I was thinking about this as well. It could be a significant difference.
Would love this one for x-mount > http://blogs.zeiss.com/photo/en/?p=3427#more-3427
Maybe later down the road…
Do we know if the interface will be the same for Manual/Aperture/Shutter/Automatic modes? i.e will there be an ‘A’ setting along with the F stops?
Just read a review for the Sony Zeiss 24mm 1.8, which looks to be similar in construction. The adjectives fast and quiet were used to describe the autofocus 🙂
Why r they even messing with these non ff lenses. Come on Fuji just give us ff. The sensors out of the current cropped x cameras just look too baked. You should should call them instgram SLR’s. I guess its look people are after these days, I just want a good ff rangefinder.
Since they haven’t completed the lens road map, and those lenses don’t cover full frame, there will not likely be a full frame X series camera for at least a few years. However, if the current and soon to be released lenses can cover about 30×20 (APS-H), they would be very smart to introduce the X-Pro 2 with an APS-H sized sensor, which would be close enough to full frame, while using their lenses.
Since they have deferred the release of the X-pro 2 until next year, and they don’t seem to be considering upgrading the X-E1/X-Pro 1 with the features in the X100s, I would expect significant improvements in the x pro 2, including a larger than APS-C sized sensor.
As for the Zeiss lenses, if I buy an X-Series camera, I would consider the 12mm, since the 10-24mm is still not available – I prefer wider than 21mm.
you just want a good ff rangefinder? – well; there’s a couple of leicas to choose from these days in digital and offcourse in analog it’s a little more diverse;o)
certainly these fujis are not rangefinders in the first place anyway so your wishes are slightly misdirected in this segment of fuji-cams….
best
klehmann
Any idea what the filter size on the 12 mm will be? I hope they are of 77 mm.