What you see her eon top is the prototype of a new 21mm f/2.8 Full Frame E-mount lens developed by Zhongyi. That is the company that already makes the following Sony products:
The 50mm f/0.95 FE lens ([shoplink 31838 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]).
The 35mm f/0.95 E-mount APS-C lens ([shoplink 31839 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]).
The Speedbooster clone, Turbo adapter ([shoplink 31840 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]).
A Zhongyi company responsible wrote on Xitek. that this FE21/F2.8 lens is optimized to be used on the A7r. It means that unlike so many other wide angle lenses it has no magenta shift issue. Those are the lens specs:
21mm
f/2.8
manual focus ring
manual aperture ring
72mm filter size
weight is 290 gram
Price is 1900 Yuan (around 300 dollars)
The lens is heavier than similar Konica or Contax lenses because the corner image quality is better (says Zhongyi). Here are some image samples taken with the lens (Click on the image to enlarge)
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Thanks TDTW
54 Responses
From the sounds too good to be true department (native E mount lightwieght performant ultra-wide for $300)…
Samples are too small to judge sharpness, hopefully we wont have to wait to long to find out.
Too good to be true? It’s manual focus only.
Doesn’t bother me in a an ultrawide, not going to shoot sports or fast moving people with a 21mm lens, with this focal length + peaking manual focus is easy through the viewfinder.
“What?! AF is teh Future !! who cares about MF lenses!!???!!”
Sigh…
Meanwhile the Leica fans are out there making photos…
…as we sit here contemplating nothing…
AF is future but AF not always focus well especially with lack of contrast ;)… Then only your eyes, Focus peaking and MF will help
The 50/0.95 from the same company is also too good to be true. IQ is mind blowing on that one.
Great buy for $900 USD. Sony could take a lesson. AF isn’t a deal breaker for me on focal lengths under 100. It is nice to have but defiantly not a deal breaker. That f/0.95 looks attractive.
Mind blowing? Hardly. Unless I have a bad copy, (which is possible since they sent mine damaged and then charged me an arm and a leg to fix it) it’s probably one of the most finicky, non-legacy lenses I’ve ever owned. It’s fun and can be beautiful for sure, but once you step out side of it’s sweet spot it get pretty nasty.
What Sony should do is to get a nice range of high IQ (espacially high resolution) primes in the 20, 24, 35, 50, 85, 135, 200 region with moderate speed which are not that big. It’s nice to see that other manufactures join the FE mount. But to be honest, it won’t help to sell me an upcoming A9. I have some Canon gear and while I’m not happy with teh Canon sensors, Canon did a pretty good job with lenses in the last years. Fo rme the question is when one of them catches up (Canon: – sensor, + lenses / Sony: + sensor, + size, – lenses).
You can cross out the size, the difference is minimal. I’d also cross out the sensor because the differences are second order and not all on the same side.
“It’s not fast enough!! Make it 1.4 !!1!1!!!”
Because we all want to make ultra shallow DOF wide angle pictures!
Oh and make it 200gram and even smaller , at F1.4. It has to be the sharpest lens in the world and no chromatic abortions and zero distortion!
Oh and 149$ please, or better 99Dollars and send 2 for 1!
And it still wouldn’t be not good enough 😀
Why do the samples look like pictures of prints as they all have vertical lines in them.
For 72mm filter size, I’m expecting it to be a F1.8
The verdict still out before you can judge the optic qualities. Hope it is really solid!!
The Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 also has a 72mm filter thread, it’s not uncommon in a modern lens if you want to reduce vignetting wide open.
Zeiss Distagon 21mm f/2.8 has an 82mm filter thread!
according to Dr. Liu, the developer of Zhongyi Lenses, also the original post at Xitek, he confirmed the 85/1.2 is coming next year.
Wow!!!! 😀
PRICE AROUND 330 USD
I love what they are doing! All the more power to them!
Damn, that’s big. I was hoping for the next set of Zeiss Loxias to offer a 21mm f/2.8 while retaining its compact size and 52mm filter diameter. I guess that might be asking to much for this focal length / aperture combination. Wonder if Zeiss will either settle for a 24mm instead or a f/4 to keep the size down.
No AF no deal. Can use sal20f28 already with af.
No skills > endless whining
Some people have so much skill that they can do ultra wide photography with a 500mm mirror lens.
You’ll need the LA-EA4 adapter with that and that lens has a serious focus field curvature, which means you can’t focus and recompose using above f/8 as the adapter has all the focus points in the middle.
That’s like saying no zoom no deal, moron. You don’t have to buy it but you also don’t need to add another senseless comment.
do you really need af on a 21?? 21 is usually for panoramas, architectures, ecc… and everybody usually use f5.6 or more and with that aperture it’s almost all in focus in Hyperfocal.
Lenses like these are not meant for idiots that haven’t mastered manual focusing, look elsewhere or learn some skills.
Better than a Contax 21/2.8? good corners with an A7r? $300? Whoa there…..
Mind you, if they can deliver on those claims this is something special….
Contax 21/2.8 is much heavier – 515 g
515g plus the adaptor.
Please make it f/2.0 and around 18mm ….
Images will not be as unique as the Voigtlander 21/1.8!
But three times cheaper, and who knows about corner sharpness, yet to see…
A pixel peeper eh? More to an image than just the corners!
Or just the centers. 🙂
It might come as a shock, but some folks print photos. If you only need 800×600 JPEGs for the web, why bother with FF, APS-C, or even m43?
It depends about your subject of predilection. Those of us shooting architecture or astro photos need sharp corners and low distorsion.
Actually, almost four times cheaper, but then it is slower. Btw, the VL has pretty decent corners.
17mm please and we can talk.
The comments on this are ridiculous. “No AF” blah blah. If you can’t manually focus a 21mm quickly with one of the Sony cameras you should probably just hang it up.
Bunch of freaking babies. You want everything for nothing and have unrealiatic price expectations for everything.
I use the AF Min 20/2.8, and it works great. I paid $230 for it on ebay IIRC, in perfect condition.
The only thing it lacks, I would say, is contrast. The AF is not super-fast, but does work for some shots, and can be nice to have. For most of my stuff, including architecture, I MF anyway.
the sony e mount 20mm f2.8? that’s not for full frame
I have a Tokina 17mm 3.5 RMC now- old lens. You know, pretty dang sharp stopped down to about F8. Speed never a problem with the wides, Please Voigtlander, remake your 12mm for us Sony users. Day one purchase.
Speed doesn’t matter *for you*, but it does to some of us. Sorry, but I can’t shoot aurora or stars at f/8.
You may as well say that no one needs ultrawides – you can always stitch together a few 28mm frames.
Am I the only one that thinks these pictures don’t look very good? Not sharp, poor contrast.
those jpgs look optimized for the web considering the artifacts arround the buildings
Another large lens to get around the problems posed by Sony’s sensor toppings. Wish Sony would change the sensor architecture instead of forcing retrofocal designs for wide angles.
They need to be able to sell sensors to Nikon in high volumes so going back to the drawing board to design a sensor optimised for mirrorless isn’t an option.
High quality wide angles will always need to be retrofocal, plus ultra-thin filter stacks haven’t exactly been proved viable, see the Leica M8 IR filter problems and M9 sensor glass corrosion issue.
Uh, such high-tech, mirrorless. Yet such classicness, manual focus. Much irony, Hipster fgts going to love lens…oh wait…Hipster fgts buying Sony = Sony fgts!
I am still surprised this hasn’t been released yet it was a Prototype in December Hopefully they will release it by the end of this year.