Sony didn’t please us with any new NEX lens so we can be glad that Sigma announced two new lenses. One of them (the 30mm f/2.8) is now available for preorder at BHphoto (Click here) and Amazon Germany (Click here). The lens has no spectacular specs but it doesn’t cost a lot (199 Euro). A far more appealing lens is the new 50mm for NEX which is (now was) in Stock at Amazon Germany (Click here). And it will be in Stock next week at Sonystore US (Click here) and Bhphoto (Click here). Announced back in late August 2011 that lens is finally being shipped to worldwide stores.
One more thing: The A77 is now almost regularly in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and Adorama (Click here). I hope all that means that the SOny factory in Thailand is now back to 100% full production. Time to announce new stuff Sony! 🙂
59 Responses
Unfortunately Sigma lenses don’t come close to making up for the lack of Sony lenses.
Perhaps not, but the A-mount to E-mount adapters more than make up for that 😉
It helps, but it doesn’t make up for it. Put an A-mount lenses on a light, compact NEX body and it’s no longer light or compact.
Other than slowish, fixed focal lenses in the 20 to 135 mm range, it’s hard to think of light, compact lenses for any camera.
I do aggree that Sony will need to introduce a wider spectrum of new lenses, designed with the smaller image circle in mind, making them at least somewhat smaller and lighter, but in the meantime, I’ll be mostly using my A-mount and Minolta manual focus lenses … whenever my NEX-7 arrives. I have an old Tokina 50-250 mm that I can hardly wait to test. I does macro down to 1:1.4, and I used to think it was the sharpest lens I had at 50 mm.
Kinda looks good on a NEX. But how does it perform on the NEX7?
I’d rather have a real portrait lens for the Nex: 60 or 65 mm. 50 mm is neither flesh nor fish; I’d never use a 75 mm FF portrait lens. Patiently waiting for a FF-Nex to use my Minolta 2/100 mm on 😉
Just stand back and crop it a little. On an NEX-7 you’ll still have over 16MP to play with the same perspective as a 60mm. That’s enough MP for all but very large prints.
it’s would be nice if come with f/1.8 or f2.0..
Think even Sigma will hold back on the large aperture lenses for a while and wait to see if real enthusiasts will adopt the NEX-system.
Lots of enthusiasts have bought a NEX already, but I’m not sure they buy a lot of lenses. Instead, there’s a huge market for all sorts of adapters. Actually, that’s good news for Sony, because camera bodies are replaced something like every two or three years, whereas lenses are kept for decades.
I disagree, the Sigma may be the same FL as the Sony macro, it’s 2/3 of a stop faster and smaller. It’s in fact the second smallest (after the 16mm) AF lens currently available. And for a system that is all about size and portability, that’s important. And being cheap is a nice bonus too. Will be interesting to see how it performs.
definitely…black lenses look better on black bodies =)
if the Simga NEX lens sell well, it will sure tell Sony where the market is at.
hopefully the success of Simga NEX lens will wake up Sony.
if sony is going anywhere in this business they better start spitting out lenses faster than ever before, if sigma want to sell any lenses in e mount the better make them fast the 30/2.8. is??. The. 18-55 with oss probably performs better with it’s oss in lowlight.
Do sigma have bad luck when they brainstorming for new lenses? 30/1.8 would be the choice that many buyers would want why don’t sigma engineers do the same????????
You are aware of that A LOT of people never buy another lens after the initial one right?
Why is Sony making all those slow zooms that enthusiasts (who do buy lenses) don’t want ??? Maybe they are confused ???
Olympus isn’t confused/ Their new 45mm f/1.8 will be joined by a 75mm f/1.8 in the fall.
First time buyers typically either buy only the standard zoom or accompany it with a slow tele.
Now i do agree that Sony should put more effort in pro-like lenses (although to be honest, large aperture doesn’t always mean “pro”). But considering how Sony as a company is going up and down each and every day financial-wise. I don’t blame them for taking it safe.
Also, you have to take in consideration that, these lenses that now are coming on the market probably was planned as early as a year ago. In other words. We are lagging behind a considerably amount of time as to what Sony decides to produce.
I use a 24mm lens for DX sensors, an there is a Zeiss 24mm f/1.8. The other lens I use is an 85mm, there are no 85mm lenses on the two year road map 🙁
I got a 5n to use as a video crash cam. I was very impressed with the quality of the picture 🙂 I’m trying to find a system to replace my Big/Bulky/Heavy Cano DSLRs. It looked like a couple of NEX 7, with some Zeiss lenses would be the answer. Sorry, but my business can’t wait for Sony.
I’m a tool user, not a FanBoy, so I’m free to use whatever works best. YMMV 😉
The Sigma has no spectacular specs? Who’s been whining for Pancakes?
The Sigma is NOT a pancake!
Well, compared to Sony SEL-30M35 with 55.5 mm and respecting E-Mount’s extremely short Flange Focal Distance Sigma’s 30mm with 38.6 mm is definitely inside the pancake league.
But you’re right, they could have done better comparing it to Samsung’s EX-S30NB: That’s 21.5 mm plus 25.5 mm Flange Focal Distance = 47 mm, while Sigma is: 38.6 mm + 18 mm = 56.6 mm – additionally the Samsung gets outstanding reviews, has got f/2.0 and is sold for the same price.
This Sigma lens looks beautiful on Nex, and it’s small enough. The 19mm F2.8 is even smaller than this one.
Plus these are cheap affordable, and they AF.
These two lenses are the best thing that has happened to Nex so far.
Stop your ant-Sigma crusade, admin.. You have been posting ant-Sigma diatribe from the very beginning. These lenses aren’t good on m4/3, but they are pretty close to perfect on APSC Nex.
FOr the most part I agree, but it’ll come down to Image Quality that ultimately decides Sigma’s future on this mount.
My hope is that it’ll beable to keep up with the NEX7 sensor resolution.
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Some first pics with the Sony E 1.8/50 OSS are published here together wit a rolling review:
http://3d-kraft.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:e-18-50-oss-is-hot&catid=40:camerasandlenses&Itemid=2
F2.8 … I guess we’re now witnessing the battle for the highest F-stop 😀
Sony wins here, their 30mm is a 3.5 😛
😀 😀
wasn’t able to preorder last night or today via BHPhoto… anyone else just seeing the Notify when in stock button?
That means you’re too late.
Or it was never available…
I filled in the Notify me thing about 24hours ago, surely if it appeared since then I would have been notified.
I never trust B&H’s notification system. Doesn’t the email say they’ll update you like once a week? I think the lens had been available for pre-order from B&H for a while now.
The Sigma 30/2.8 will def look slimmer on the NEX-7.
I really don’t get the backlash against these Sigma lenses. Anyone designing a lens for the NEX system is faced with the difficult task of keeping the size down while compensating for the tiny flange distance in a way that’ll still provide good border performance. Sony has so far proven completely incapable of doing this (small 16mm with awful borders, giant 24mm that still doesn’t have great borders). Sigma had to make a compromise, and f/2.8 was it. If the IQ is spectacular (MTF charts look pretty good so far), it’ll be totally worth it.
Another option for lens makers might be to go the way Fuji’s done with their X lenses; i.e. reduce size by implementing focus-by-wire. It’s important to note that Samsung’s awesome 30/2 (which has been mentioned several times) is also a focus-by-wire lens. You have to compromise SOMETHING.
This lens wasn’t designed for NEX – Sigma designed this for their DP line of compact cameras. Releasing this in E-mount and m43-mount is a bonus. Because Foveon X3 sensor (used in DP series) has a even more problems with rays of low angle of incidence, than NEX sensors have, lens is so large.
“focal flange distance” is mostly irrevelant – not an optical property at all.
By the way, my quick n’ dirty mockup with the NEX-7:
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/6788/nex3028.jpg
A handsome combination.
Nice Balance, probably my new walk arround lens.
It is actually smaller if Admin’s NEX-5n picture above is to scale. The Sigma lenses have the same diameter as the mount.
At first I was angry that Sigma released a slow normal prime that wasn’t a pancake, but for $199 it’s actually looking quite good. Better than the gigantic slow Sony 30/3.5 macro.
only really half a stop difference, so I’d be temped to go for the Sony, if it wasn’t twice the length.
The benefit of the Sony, is that (1) its 1:1 macro (2) its gonna have a better Bokeh (circular aperture) (3) we don’t know yet with the Sigma, but the Sony is Silent and has Direct Manual Focus.
the 30 2.8 sounds like a great lens and its very close to the much loved 28 2.8 contax g which is longer btw, and i bet a lot heavier with the adapter, not to speak of missing AF .i dont get all the complaints, for 200,- there is not much wrong i can find about this lens.. and Sigma claims its designed to meet very high iq standards, so lets see
I don’t know what’s the problem with Sony europe (especially france). The SEL-55210 is available since autumn 2011 in the US (I bought it on amazon US and a friend brought it back with him ). It’s still not available in europe. The SEL-50F18 still has no price on Sony france website. It feels like sony doesn’t give a crap about europe users. There are always people travelling between the US and europe so i can get the 50f18 from there also, but it’s a big risk since the warranty is not international…
Sony needs to know that this issue is really ennoying to European Nex owners…
Grass is always Greener….
The A77, NEX5n and NEX7 (body only) was available in the UK before the US. I travel between both regularly. Usually I’d agree that the US get things sooner, but recently its been the other way round.
I’ve had my Sony NEX7 on pre-order since Aug2011 (I’m currently situated in the US), my buddy in the UK ordered his the first week of Jan and got it last week. I’m still waiting! (2 preorders now, one with Amazon, one with BHPhoto).
I’ve seen both the SEL 55-210 and 50 for sale in NL, already weeks ago, so it seems to be varying from region to region in Europe.
Fake picture and preorders of a lens that no one knows about..
Any sample images available anywhere?
I don’t see the relevance of this lens—had it been an f2, then those who are actually buying lenses would be interested.
Well, the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 it’s the only real E-Mount option for a standard lens with auto focus so far. Sony SEL-30M35 is half a stop slower and SEL-1855 is 1.5 stops slower at 30mm. Assuming the Sigma’s quality is really good it’s not bad at all.
As I mentioned before Samsung’s NX 30mm f/2.0 is 9.6mm shorter than the Sigma. With these specs I would have already ordered one, but I never shoot that often with standard lenses anyway and never used my old manual 50mm as much before as since my NEX-5’s crop made it a 75mm.
I’m guessing it’d be a fair size larger if it was F2, and probably only be tack sharp once stopped down to F2.8.
If this is sharp wide open, at its price I think it’ll sell well.
Quite simply, Sigma have managed to release a short lens for the Sony, it’ll sell.
It’s not compact enough, it’s not fast enough. Then what’s the point?
There is a place for it in the market.
the 30mm has a good field of view on APS-C… It is compact ‘enough’ for some (i consider the 16mm tiny. This, I’d say is small). Alot of people think the Voigtlander 35mm + adapter is perfect.. the sigma works out the same size.
I won’t deny that I’d rather have had F2 or F1.4 and sacrificed the AF, but fact of the matter is, you just wont get that from Sigma/Tamron/Sony…. Expect ‘SLR Magic’, ‘Samyang’ and other cheaper up-comming brands to be the ones to build with MF, or Size in mind.
For $200, I think this will sell well. I know its appeals to me. The fact that allegedly it was pre-orderable but now isn’t, means that there has been a high demand.
My only concern is what Image Quality is like. I’m hopeful, but for me this Lens’ usefulness will be measured on its Bokeh Pattern and Center and Corner Sharpness wide Open. Close Focusing and AF (speed/noise) are not deal breakers for me.
This is the MTF chart from the Sigma’s German site. This is at f/2.8. It looks pretty awesome!
http://www.sigma-foto.de/fileadmin/content/products/lenses/30mm_F2.8_EX_DN/MTF_30_28_EX_DN.jpg
Oh, and I don’t think it was ever actually pre-orderable (not the NEX version at least). It just showed up on the B&H.
It’s cheap, light, and probably very good at f2,8
Assuming that this has fast AF, I’d prob go for it as well.
Sometimes I do need the AF, and 30mm on the kit lens is like F4.5 or something.
I was just checking out some youtube videos where they demonstrated the AF speed of the Sony 35mm 1.8 (A mount). Absolutely horrid.
Looking at the choices, well, if it’s sharp wide open, at least I can fiddle around with F2.8, gives me an extra stop in shutter speed and ISO.
with the LA-EA2, the 35mm F1.8 SAM is actually hard to beat (AF wise).
Personally its my favourite lens right now for MF on the NEX, and if I need AF, the LA-EA2 makes it perfect.
I get that the size is a bit of a problem for most though.
But that thing is pricey (The LA-EA2).
But maybe that’s the only way to go: I really do need a F2.8 standard zoom also.
Actually, if it’s anything like the DP2x in terms of sharpness and colours, it’ll be an absolute blast. 🙂
Let’s not bash on sigma @ least they r doing something Sony keeps making us wait n wait
There are some samples in the net but the forum is blocking the link I want to post.
Here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7005920461/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/6859803548/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7005921505/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7005921305/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/6859804084/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/6863263556/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7009378377/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/6863263802/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/6865356714/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7011472031/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/7011471075/