The super new 500mm f/4.0 $12.999 lens is right now in Stock for the very first time at BHphoto (Click here). I know you were waiting for that moment for a long time now! 🙂 Don’t worry, the next two lenses that Sony will announce within the next couple of weeks will be way cheaper! 🙂
Other US deals:
$100 off on selected lenses at Amazon (ending April 28).
Seven 50mm f/1.8 lenses in Stock at Amazon (Click here).
More than ten refurbished 16mm pancakes are for sale at [shoplink 12373 ebay]Sonystore eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
More than ten refurbished VG-10 are for sale at [shoplink 12372 ebay]Sonystore eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Interesting note:
While the NEX-7 is the most sold mirrorless camera of the moment the 55-210mm is the most sold lens of the moment (Click here to see the ranking). I am surprised!
82 Responses
If you’re certain the new lenses will be cheaper, that implies you have an idea what they will be. Of course, there are maybe 10 lenses on the planet more expensive than the bazooka barrel, so you never know. I’m hoping there are more than two lenses on the roadmap.
There are a lot more than 10 lenses more expensive than this.
Indeed. My biggest weakness is I have a sarcastic voice identical to a serious voice. I guess it reflects in my typing as well.
And I hope that we’re not talking f4,5-f6,3 shitty zooms. That’s not exactly what users need. Way to go is latest 16-50 f2.8. We need a new more mature ff brother for such a zoom. 24-105 f4. 😀
Was waiting for this lens forever, turns out I didn’t really need a new car after all.
In all seriousness, hoping that at least one of the lenses is an e-mount. 35mm f/1.8? Please?
http://matthewdurrphotography.wordpress.com
+1 to a 35mm 1.8. I would buy that in an instant
Agree! I think many, many of us are waiting for such lens. I don’t understand how come not even the third party makers take advantage from that!
So… next 2 lenses are A mount or A and E mount will get one each?
Any news when Zeiss 50mm prime gonna be released?
Zeiss 50mm in second half 2012.
+100
It going to be a long wait for this lens. I wish it was here for the spring.
AWWW YEAH
If it’s 50/1.4, not bigger than the kit-lens, priced at $1000-$1300
Then, HELL YEAH!!
I’m guessing $1800
The price will be more that $1,300 USD if its a Zeiss maybe as much as $1,800.
The best Nikon and Canon are now about that much
And it will be bigger than the old Minolta/Sony 50f1.4 🙁
Where on earth did you pull these prices from??!! If it is 1.2 then perhaps that and more, but it will probably be 1.4 to replace the ageing Sony/Minolta current 1.4 which is very dated & a bit pants. Both the Canon & Nikon 50 1.4 can be had for less than £300, so even if it is an AMAZING lens/best in class, & you are paying a premium for the blue badge,I really don’t see how they can justify charging more than £500 with £350-£400 street price being far more realistic if they actually want to sell it in any numbers.
LOL, seriously, are you guys really going to pay more than $1000 for a huge 50/1.4? I would rather have my “lowly” Sigma.
Ya, your right……
I was thing more of pricing for top 85/f1.4 not 50/f1.4
Nikon and Sony are both about $1,600 USD for them and Canon’s 85/f1.2 is over $2,100.
Current price of a manual Zeiss 50/f1.4 is $725.00 USD so add AF to it I bet its $999.99 😉
Only manual Zeiss is fully metal construction with uber-good quality control where every single lens is checked manually by a buy that signs on a paper you get.
It won’t be the case for Sony.
Canon 50mm f/1.2 runs for 1000 pounds – my bet would be that Zeiss f/1.2 will have similar pricing. With f/1.4 somewhere near 700 pounds.
For around $1200-1800 it would need to be a 50mm F1.2
Both Canon and Nikon have 50F1.2 in their inventory but Sony only has the cheap 50F18 and the $450 50F14…
If they are going to come out with a 50mm lens it needs to be a Zeiss F1.2 otherwise what is the point!!!
I’m guessing more $800-1000 USD. 50mm 1.4 shouldn’t cost more than that. 1.2 different story.
I think so too, about $1,000 USD
The Zeiss 24/f2 sells for $1,400 USD
If its as good as my 85/f1.4 and my 135/f1.8 paying under $1,400 would be just fine with me.
Sony hurry and take my money before my wife does 😉
My only 50 prime is a Minolta 50/f1.4 I purchased in 1985 that was fine on film bodies and on a700 but sucks in the corners big time on my a850.
Awesome 🙂 Looks like I’ll pass manual Planar 50 f/1.4 and wait for native version 🙂 Only I have high hopes for watersealing, or at least: metal body of the lens. I can pay, sure, even twice as much as current price for Sony 50mm f/1.4 as long as it’ll be solid lens with good optics 🙂
*reserves spot in queue*
I am really impressed. We can’t see in USA stock sel-50f18 for long time and this monster for unreal price, even for such a monsters, in stock? Oh I understand why Sony has production problems. They are working all the time constracting that RPG.
Where is the wide zoom for NEX?
Yes, but Sony makes 25 of these lenses and maybe that will fill the inventory needs of a year or more.
One short production run and the job is done!
Now that guy (yes I said one guy) can make a shippment of the 50m lens for the NEX 😉
Damn that A99 delay. If the A99 came out the same time as this lens, then Sony would kick ass.
Especially in the summer, Airshows, Wildlife, Sports, Summer festivals etc.
Sony’s delay the A99 is a terrible move IMO.
Joke all you want, but these 500mm lenses will sell like hotcakes. There are many pro shooters who can afford to take their studio outdoors. Given the time it took Sony to develop this lens, it must have a solid market.
Pros don’t shoot Sony. What are they going to mount this on, an A55, haha.
What a joke
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Well, some pros DO shoot Sony, but at $13K, you can get the same thing in a Nikkor AND a d800 at 36 MP.
So why would you?
Dusty
lol. “One guy.” Funny!
I believe this lens is the first Sony lens with “nano anti-reflective coatings.” And we’re talking about 6″ elements. I’ll let you look that up for yourself why this is an amazing technology. And not cheap.
Take a look at the other specs. Bottom line, this is in fact an amazing piece of optical and opto-mechanical engineering, and it’s price tag is justified.
And 11 elements in 10 groups. Quite a bit of glass. And weather sealed. And incredibly sharp for 500mm.
If I could afford it, I would buy it..
The Nikkor also has the nano coating, yet comes in $3k cheaper, is weather sealed, etc. Of course it’s black and not white, but it also has stabilization for that price.
Dusty
I would like to see what nano-coat glass can do. It must be a major step ahead.
I haven’t heard many people complain about A77 firmware in a bit. Any word on 1.06 or 2.0? I am sure they’ll need to update the A77 for the lens profiles of these mystery lenses.
I do hope they add correction for the tamron 17-50 soon.
Short production run? I remember in the Minolta days they said the front element of the 300mm f2.8 takes two weeks to cool down for crystal formation.
How long does the 500mm take to cool down? A month?
At several grand more than the equivalent Sigma 500mm how does this fare against it? Negligible I would guess.
Beauty parade item methinks.
GB
Everything has its price. This lens has features that warrant the hefty price tag.
It’s not the lens that cools down for 2 weeks, it’s the glass boule the lenses are “cut” from. That happens at the glass factory. Might be a bigger boule or not for the 500 f/4 (125mm entrance aperture) vs. 300 f/2.8 (107mm entrance aperture.)
Regardless, when costing a lens, size matters. (But we already know that…) Cost/performance is always quickly diminishing above consumer-level anything.
You pay double to go from 80% to 90% (quite noticeable),
double again to go to 90% to 95% (noticeable),
double again to go to 97% (somewhat noticable),
double again to go to 98% (noticeable if you know what you’re looking for),
double again to go to 98.5%… getting into specific-need applications…
What happened to the A900 firmware upgrade for this lens?
@Joe
I believe the profiles for the 500mm were in the last FW update. Gustav over at Dyxum has the new 500mm F4. Coupled with the a77 in his capable hands the results speak for themselves. Stunning IMHO.
http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/i-got-the-500mm-f4-and-my-first-pictures-with-it_topic87008.html
That’s for the A77 but there was a rumor an update for the A900 was about to arrive for better AF with the 500/4.
@harpo… thanks for the link… great photos… I have an A77 but $13,000 is pushing it a bit for a lens… Nice though!!!
Gustav’s shots would make me lust after the 500/4, were it not completely unaffordable to me. Some work there.
13000$ for a lens, I find it ridiculous. Why do wildlife photographers always get punished ? I would say 4000$ is a reasonable price for a lens. Now only a few people can afford this kind of lens.
You know how much these lenses cost, don’t you? (a hint: usually it’s cheaper than Sony but still more than 4000$)
the price is what it’s worth to the end user, not what you think is fair. Do you have any idea what the big box lenses on the TV cameras you see covering all sporting events cost? They AVERAGE $140,000 each. The long 200x ones cost almost $250,000. Both Canon and Fujinon cannot make them fast enough. there is usually a 10-12 week backorder when a customer wants to purchase them (frankly, they’re usually ordered with new cameras which also go for about $100,000 each).
Other than speculation, you have no idea what actually goes into making this 500mm lens. Even though SAR is full of people that will trash Sony for any reason whatsoever, Sony doesn’t just make prices up out of thin air….. there is always a reason for a price. Also, Sony said these lenses are hand made (like all expensive lenses are), so there is no “production run” as some other commenter said.
Damn laws of physics.
+ (7^(EXP(1)/1-1/EXP(1))-9)*PI()^2*1e4
465000$ for a Lexus LFA Nurburgring, I find it ridiculous. Why do race drivers always get punished? I would say 13,000$ is a reasonable price for a lens I mean car. Now only a few people can afford this kind of car.
That price is BEYOND ridiculous!!! And Sony “hopes” to compete with Nikon and Canon, hahaha!
In the 70’s there were three camera manufacturers that equally shared 90% of the market.
In the 80’s, one of them said, “you know all the money’s really in the consumer market, let’s drop the real high-end pro gear and focus on what makes money.”
By the end of the decade, that company had only a 10% and shrinking share of the camera market.
Can you figure out why? Simple. When the pros quit using the gear, the public’s perception of that company wained.
In the 00’s, that company sold their camera division to another company.
in the 2012 the new owners released a ultra high-end lens showing their commitment to re-enter the pro market in a big way, that new cameras and other high-end lenses will be coming, allowing pros to re-consider the rebranded company’s gear, which is essential to cementing the consumer market, if anything is ti be leaned form the effects of the 80’s decision.
Within hours, supposed users of the new company’s gear flood forums berating the new company’s initiative and goals and products…
Everyone is always talking about professional photographers and professional equipment. Give us a camera that we can take out in a tornado and survive they say. There are professionals out there that can afford to pay between $14,000 and $45,000 for a Hasselblad body and average $5000 for each lens and still make a profit at the end of the day. For this class of professional, $13,000 is a drop in the bucket. And it is a tax deduction, just the cost of doing business.
Good points.
Exactly. And look at cinema lenses, $45,000 easy for a zoom lens.
What do most professional photographers net after equipment? I find it hard to believe, even with a tax deduction $13000 is a drop in the bucket. The average professional makes $43000 a year. I assume the average pro uses a 5D2 or a D700 and has a good $5000 in lenses. Think about what the average is though… For every Peter Lik you have 15 single moms doing senior pictures and the occasional wedding pulling $12000 and getting welfare. The target demo has shifted and Sony knows this. I have a feeling the target demo is the tech guy or accountant or lawyer making $120000 a year who doesn’t want to be fixing computers/doing taxes/suing people when he’s 50. That guy can spend $10000 on equipment and probably can’t deduct it (maybe the accountant could fudge it by). Hasselblad’s target demo is Peter Lik. The 1-in-1,000,000 pro that makes the money they spend easily. Personally, I don’t claim to be a professional. Would I accept money to shoot a wedding or senior pictures? Hell yes. Would I cover my ass with a giant disclaimer? Yes. Would I license my photos to a magazine? Yes. Do I see this becoming a career? Hell no. I make too much money doing what I do now. I’m closer to the tech guy. I don’t want to wait one second for my shot to fire like 95% of the point and shoots or cell phones do. I know a pro who shot on the red carpet of the Oscars with a Fuji X100. I also know a tech guy who uses a 1D4 to shoot basketball games for a college as a hobby. Why? They let him in to the games for free. The game is different than most people think. It is all about marketing and figuring out who is spending money and what they are spending money on. Everyone keeps saying Sony needs to release the A99 for the Olympics. Watch the Opening Ceremony carefully and tell me what the ratio of Photographers to Olympians is. Then tell me what the ratio of Olympians to actual people is. So the people shooting the Olympics – how many of them make more than $120000 a year? How many of them have a media giant paying for their equipment? I doubt most of them make more than $60000 a year. Why? Because their employer sends them to the frickin’ Olympics, likely with an expense account! Sure $13000 is pennies on the dollar for a media giant. But not for the tech guy. And Sony needs to release lenses for that guy first. Come to think of it, they need to release lenses for SOMEONE! ANYONE!
Didn’t they just do so?
Just wondering, who shoots a wedding with a 500mm lens? …Though you could get some wicked cool detail shots from the balcony!
Imagine of you ended up with a bad copy….
Part of the cost of a piece like this is tight tolerances and quality control – They produce less lemons, and weed them out for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if units ship with certifications.
Hey, at least for the price its free shipping..
Seriously, they should have put OS on this lens not only to be competitive with Canikon lenses, but it also gives NEX users OS when used with the A mount adapters.
Those refurbished items price tag are ridiculous!(SEL16F28 and NEX-VG10)
But looking at the 500mm…it is really impressive that lens it’s already in stock and delivering to users around the world while other lenses take more time to get in owner hands (talking about the time taken between announcement and delivery)…
Free shipping? For 12,999.99 USD it better be! XD
In stock? I thought these were hand made to order?
Why would anyone buy this 13K 500mm rather than a Nikon 600mm f/4.0 with stabilisation for 10K? You can buy a D800 for the differance between. Lens stabilisation can be used with video and is better than sensor stabilisation hands down.
Sony should have put stabilisation in such lenses and given us the choice to choose between them.
Maybe it is a better lens.
It’s just sad that Sony isn’t ready or willing to market a camera as good a d800e to use it with.
I think I made a mistake comparing Nikon top of the line to Sony top of the line lens. A better comparison is:
Sony 500mm f/4 : 13K USD
vs
Nikon 400mm f/2.8 VR II: 8K USD
Nikon 500mm f/4 VR II: 7.9K USD
Nikon lenses are 5K cheaper with state of the art optical stabilisation. How good can this glass be, I just pixel peeped 400mm Nikon and it is simply amazing. I hope it is good as you wish Steve, still it would not make it buy-worthy economically IMHO.
It is as if Sony is filling some pro-grade lens gaps in their lineup but does not wish anyone really buying it for their own reasons. I am sure they know basic mathematics.
I agree!
And I have no idea how good this lens is, but I do hope its very good for money like that…
I would like to know how many will be sold
IMHO Sony needs to market Three to five new or updated Zeiss primes for full-frame, about five new or new or updated Zeiss zooms at and under 200mm and four big lenses under the 500mm shown right now if it has any plans to be a player………….If not give it up.
If Sony did that they would still have fewer choices for full frame and Nikon and Canon but that would get Sony where it needs to be.
Have Nikon got full watersealing? Afaik – Sony does. This could be what makes the difference in price.
Sony USA 500mm f/4 lens weatherproofing detail:
The dust and moisture resistance design makes this lens appropriate for heavy-duty outdoor use, especially when combined with a DSLR that employs weather resistant measures.
Nikon USA 500mm lens f/4 weatherproofing detail:
Rugged, reliable and lightweight, this lens features a magnesium die-cast barrel and professional-grade dust- and moisture-resistant construction.
I do not see any differance in technical explanations in terms of weatherproofing. As far as I understand, their weatherproofing concept does not include use under showering rain.
Hm… no idea than why so high price.
Even if Sony is better than Nikon – it hardly can be so much better to justify the price difference. As someone pointed out – it’s cheaper to get Nikon 500mm f/4 with Nikon fullframe than this lens.
Good comparison, thanks Sekiz. Given that Sony has made great value/performance lenses, and that they are well aware of the competition prices, my point is that it’s not insane to assume that you are getting what you pay for – even if it’s that extra couple % improvement in sharpness, color, contrast, usability, durability, etc.
The gap being filled may be one higher than the other lenses even occupy. If that’s not the gap you live in (I don’t) then get yourself a Sigma for $4k, if you even have a use for it. If you suddenly do have a need in that gap, rent it.
It is not the price vs. quality of one lens but the pricing trend of Sony lenses, it’s killing me. I have no use for such a lens, Sony 70-400 would do more than I could wish for.
I make my living on technical evaluation of systems and to my experience unfeasible do not survive. I hope to see some outstanding results when data emerges for this lens.
It shouldn’t be more than $700 USD. If my memory didn’t disappoint me there was a rumor (SAR5) ranked said this lens will be @700 USD. Only 2 months to find out the price of 50mm f/1.4. And for 500mm, I need as many Sony owners want replacement of 500mm REFLEX instead of very expensive one (for my use).
Where’s the 16mm pancake (or just prime even) for A-mount?
I’d rather buy a Nikon Full Frame AND Nikon 500mm for the same price.
wow, what a deal! a $6,000 lens to build with a $7,000 mark up.
I was WONDERING how much it cost to make – Thanks for the info!!! Please, do tell us more about your optical design and fabrication experience, including production, tolerances, integration and test, etc…
I’m hoping that people are catching on.
Some differences with Nikon:
Sony f4-f32 Nikon f4-f22
Sony 7.10 pounds Nikon 8.5 pounds
nice one sony (again) … über-pro lens but no up to date FF camera for it 😉
Still in stock because no one is stupid enough to overpay for it.
one already did, and posted pictures on Dyxum forums and he isn’t stupid. Sponsored? self paid? who knows, but he seems reeaaaally happy with it. I would.
Anyone tested the 500mm on a Sony Alpha 900 or 850 yet? Is the image accurate on the corners of the full-frame?