The lens suprise: Zeiss 50mm and Silver 16-50mm pancake (and NEX-6 preorders in Europe)
We had a big and a small lens surprise. The big one is that Sony announced the development of the new Zeiss “Planar T * 50mm f/1.4 ZA SSM Full-frame lens. It’s based on the classic Zeiss lens that exists in different version like for example the 50mm Planar for Nikon and Canon (Here at Amazon). Filter diameter of the SSM lens is 72mm. The lens will be release in Spring 2013 and there is no price info yet.
The other smaller surprise is the Silver 16-50mm E-mount pancake. There is no info about the availability nor preorder for that lens now. The Black version can be preordered at Amazon, Adorama and more links at Alphacameradeals (Click and than scroll down)
European Sony preorder links Europeans like me have a much harder time to find preorder possibilities:
NEX-6 links to Jessops, Wex Uk, Wex Germany, Sonystore DE-UK-FR-IT-ES-NL-CH (Click on the nationality code to open the sonystore site).
A99 preorders at Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany.
VG30 at Wex Uk.
RX1 at Wex UK, Wex Germany.
10-18mm at Wex UK.
16-50mm at Wex Uk.
35mm at Wex UK.
VG900 at Wex UK.
Let me know if you can find more!
New Sony Accessory: Damn, not only cameras and lenses but also a huge amount of new accessories has been announced and an overview can be seen at Amazon (Click here). Longer accessory preorder list of course on Alphacameradeals.
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A99 competition rumor. The Nikon D600 having a 1500 Euro price tag was fake. CanonWatch (Click here) posted the real info. 2100 Euro (very likely $2400) is the price.
Abit77
9 months ago |I need 70-200/2.8 G-II
NEXfive
9 months ago |You can see on the picture that it’s not the glass causing the 72mm filter diameter – even vintage legend Canon FD 50mm 1:1.2L managed to fit 52mm.
BTW want that silver SEL-P1650 as kit lens with a NEX-5R, thanx.
Carl
9 months ago |It’ll probably never happen, though. The 85/2.8 is, in spite of it’s plastic fantastic build, a superb piece of glass that’s about as good wide open as the Canon and Nikon 85/1.8s are stopped down to f2.8.
If you just want cheaper but still fast, you’re likely to be stuck using a manual focus 85mm (eg the Samyang) with focus peaking. Phase detect autofocus isn’t that precise faster than f2.8 anyway.
A900 Tog
9 months ago |Guys/Admin I just from my new source that THIS LENS IS IN FACT 1.2 aperture. This would also explain the size and filter diameter, there are no 1.4′s with 72mm filter diameter! I hope admin can confirm!
Maxwell
9 months ago |I guess Sony will also update their own 50mm.
A new version with SSM.
50mm F1.4 lenses people excpect are cheap, so I think
Sony should always have two options of the 50mm F1.4 lens.
Sony version $400-500 and Sony/Zeiss version $1000+
admin
9 months ago |700-1000 Euro.
Antony
9 months ago |Has there been any mention of a rumored price for the 50mm f/1.4?
Brian
9 months ago |I’m sure there are people who are wowed by this lens, but I have been wishing for a middle of the road 85mm lens, like an 85/1.8… Right now we have the choice of a $1600 paycheck-busting 1.4 monster, or a plastic $300ish small 2.8 lens that doesn’t offer me much that my zooms can’t already do. Can’t Sony offer something useful between those two?
Nikon has not one but *two* 85/1.8 lenses to chose from, and Canon has one. I really would like some of the gaps filled in before we start replacing existing lenses with updates.
austin
9 months ago |i think the silver 16-50 looks better honestly, that’s the version i would get for my nex. the silver lenses don’t look as bad as i used to think
Kevin Alpha
9 months ago |I used MinO 50 1.4 to shoot wedding all the time, and get dreamy bokeh and sun backlid effect, probably Carl is right, this lens is good for Portrait but not for landscape and buildings where you need sharpness all the way thru. and YES, this new CZ 50 cant beat the size of this MinO 50 1.4, it’s small and portable
Sky_walker
9 months ago |well, I for one know lots of people who got 50 f/1.4 with APS-C. Got it myself. So I can’t agree that “the market for such a lens is almost entirely for people who can afford to buy into full frame” – even if it’d be in price comparable to current Zeiss Planar 50 f/1.4 – I’m quite sure sales of this lens for APS-C cameras will outmatch these for FFs (even solely by the fact that there’s many many times more serious APS-C photographers then there are FFs).
Sony wants as good 50mm prime as it gets cause that’s the lens many review portals use for testing cameras – hence: having good one can give and edge in scores!
So price and size are secondary topics here.
acolyte
9 months ago |Amazon has the silver 16-50 in display. Is it incorrect? Does Amazon actually have the black one?
Carl
9 months ago |I have the Sony 50/1.4, which is somewhat different from original 49mm filter version optically, but the results seem fairly similar.
I find it fine for people shots. The centre is good from about f1.7 and the bokeh is better up close than is generally credited to it.
Not a lens I’d use for landscapes/architecture at all. The corners are still aren’t very good at f8 and the coma is the worst out of all my serious lenses.
So opinions of it will differ somewhat with the intended usage. It’s the weakest of my f1.4 trio, but still capable of taking quality shots when used within its performance envelope.
Carl
9 months ago |The train of thought is probably like this; if you’ve estimated that product X and product Y will sell in similar numbers, but product X has twice the profit margin of product Y, you’d opt to manufacture product X, as that means the highest net profit. Of course that is a big oversimplification, but given that Sony already has a 35 and 50/1.8 for APS users, the market for such a lens is, I imagine they’re thinking, almost entirely for people who can afford to buy into full frame. Those people can also, assumedly, afford a more expensive 50. Whether or not it’ll work out that way is another matter, of course.
Steve
9 months ago |Do you shoot the Minolta 50/f1.4 on a full-frame?
I think mine sucks on the a850 but was fine on the a700
For me,and my camera I find the first Minolta 50 released in the mid 80′s unusable below f2.0.
Steve
9 months ago |Spring 2013 ………….
Well, I guess I’ve been waiting this long what’s another six months.
I recently found a faded old receipt from 1986 for my current 50/f1.4 made by Minolta for $349.00 from a rip-off camera store in Downtown San Francisco, and In those days you could easily carry a 50mm lens in a coat pocket with its 49mm filter thread.
I see good glass as aLong-term affair, and I’m so looking forward to start replacing my old Minolta glass.
Andrea, you posted winter for the new 70-200/f2.8……..this winter?
And is that to announce or to ship?
cd
9 months ago |really?that’s exactly what I want most,cuz I don’t wanna lose any feature of the current NEX-5N.
PhotoNut
9 months ago |The new Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 is stupid as a replacement for the Sony 50mm f/1.4.
For one it is too large and expensive.
Once the 50mm f/1.4 is discontinued, Sony will no longer have any affordable 50mm lens for fullframe.
I don’t understand why Sony just couldn’t improve the old Sony/Minolta 50mm f/1.4, add SSM and keep the filter size at 55mm or so. Even the original Minolta 50mm f/1.4 had a filter size of 49mm. So it can be possible.
I like the rendering of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 but I will not buy it because it is so large. A 50mm standard lens should be a lens that you can fit in a pocket and take with you whenever you need it.
Gabriel
9 months ago |Always the same comments about Zeiss, big black lense with blue Zeiss pill make mens harder
Alpha Mark
9 months ago |Agree, ZA 135 F1.8 is by the far the best lens I have used in the Alpha mount.
Carl
9 months ago |Nothing against “character bokeh”, I think it can make some shots more interesting than simple cream does. If I was going for that look I’d go for something like a Trioplan, or the Rokkor 58/1.2 wide open, or the original Noctilux, or even the Zuiko 50/1.8 MIJ which have their own distinct brush strokes, whereas to my eyes the Zeiss 50/1.4 is just a normal, nervous rendering lens (though one that’s quite sharp stopped down a little).
Kevin Alpha
9 months ago |I personally love my Minolta 50 1.4 bokeh and color tone, Zeiss is good in contrast and sharpness, but when it comes to the “feel” of the image, I still love Minolta one, I’m currently having both the 85 1.4 CZ and Minolta 85 1.4 G D, the Minolta is little bit less sharp at 1.4 but it beats the CZ in color tone and bokeh, anyway, the CZ 135 1.8 is exception here, it’s the best of the best portrait lens I ever used. if I have extra money, I will get this one, but if I don’t, i will stick with my MinO 50, at least for couple more year before this lens is even out.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |it doesn’t have any coma correction what so ever – hence the looks of bokeh. I personally enjoy it – it’s nothing alike 50 f/1.8 SAM which got much more smooth bokeh, it got it’s own distinct “feel” which reminds me much of a film era lenses – and for that I praise it.
Sometimes I want to get a shot that is not a perfect one – for perfection we got gear like 135 STF – but rather a shot that looks like taken from The Camera – and Zeiss provides it better than any other lens I got in my backpack. For that purpose I found it’s bokeh more then great.
It’s quite contrary to, for example, Tamron 70-300 USD which also got issues with coma, but this lens makes bokeh that’s just ugly near the edges (although very neat at the center) – nothing close to the beauty of Zeiss. No idea why is that, nor I even care. Fact is that – there are lenses that make just ugly bokeh, there are lenses that make smooth, beautiful bokeh, and there are lenses that make a bokeh with character – Zeiss falls into the last category
Carl
9 months ago |The RX1 would have benefitted from a faster lens too, considering with modern high quality sensors the primary advantage of full frame is depth of field rather than image quality.
Varn
9 months ago |We need 35mm f1.4 for A-mount, f2 is not enough.
Carl
9 months ago |Sounds like it was designed specifically for the RX1, complete with deeply recessed elements and a leaf shutter/aperture, which means we won’t see a NEX version, let alone an A-mount version.
emopunk
9 months ago |I was exactly wondering the same thing, two days ago!
emopunk
9 months ago |I could be interested too. Please link these auctions. I am sure you hold great gear to sell!
daenur
9 months ago |So, is the 35 mm f/2 (from the RX1) coming to Alpha???
Carl
9 months ago |Okay, fair enough. I think the Summilux-Rs are both comfortably better as well, for what it’s worth, although the E60 isn’t the greatest for bokeh either.
I don’t think the Zeiss has very nice OOF rendering at all. Lots of overlapping specular highlights and worms, overcorrected SA and high edge acutance results in a rather discordant rendering style. The old Zeiss 35/1.4 is a completely different kettle of fish so it’s not like Zeiss couldn’t do it right, just that the 50 seems to have been designed along the old “fast to make focusing easier” paradigm.
Jurka
9 months ago |Nex 6 autofocus looks really slow… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGRw9zBgeCo
Joe
9 months ago |The 85mm is near-perfect. SSM would make it perfect. I lost the rubber protector for the lens hood and now when it rotates, it is loud!
Stewe
9 months ago |Hey Andrea, what about Zeiss 50/1.2? It was just a prototype or there will be even more impressive lens?
Sky_walker
9 months ago |Since when Summilux-M is comparable in any way to DSLR lenses? You can’t use it on ANY DSLR, not even a single one.
And it’s suppose to have a poor bokeh? Huh? Not even close. It got quite decent one. I really like it. It’s not the best one, but got this feeling of classical SLR shots what’s more then precious.
Michele
9 months ago |yeah, ok, 72mm… got it mixed…
Carl
9 months ago |The STF is 72mm (almost identical dimensions to the old Minolta MD 135/2, incidentally). It’s the ZA135 that has a 77mm filter.
Carl
9 months ago |For the first two hours or so. After half a day weight starts to add up.
Corner sharpness issues are due to using an asymmetrical Gauss lens design a long way from the sensor plain. Aspherics and high refractive index glass would achieve the same result as larger elements, it just comes down to the almighty dollar.
Michele
9 months ago |If the final product’s gonna be like in the pic at the top of the page, the 72mm diameter’s not gonna be “full glass” like the 77mm diameter of the 16/35, 24/70, 135 STF, 70/400G… But I’m with you: I think it’s gonna be a really nice lens.
I wonder how’s gonna be the competition against the (seems to be) really good Sigma 50/1.4: that one has a nice huge piece of glass in the front (77mm!)
Carl
9 months ago |I’d be very cautious about calling the current Zeiss 50/1.4 sharper than eg. the Summilux-M ASPH. It’s not one of Zeiss’s best works even compared to Japanese offerings (cf. comparisons between it and the Yashica ML), and seems to be less sharp stopped down than its little brother the C/Y 50/1.7 is.
Throw in its distortion profile and poor bokeh, and it all adds up to a fixed focal length lens that’s past its prime.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |sure, just post a link to your stuff on ebay or wherever else. If you’ll in UK – I’d be interested.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |I’m fine with large filter if it improves corner sharpness.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |Yea, it looks like a new design, nothing “based on the classic Zeiss lens” as Admin suggest. Press release doesn’t tell anything alike either.
It seems like it got larger diameter (less vignetting) and completely new optical design.
That’s good cause old Zeiss – even though it’s the sharpest 50mm f/1.4 prime on the market – was missing quite a bit in terms of corner sharpness, especially on full frame. This lens seem to have a potential for being much better making a new records
Marek
9 months ago |72mm – I going to love this huge prime. Probably SSM plus edge to edge sharpness by Zeiss adds to its dimensions.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |dPreview article is full of errors. Seems like they just copied A900 article and changed the title.
Frank
9 months ago |The Minolta f1.4 is soft as shite wide open too.
Frank
9 months ago |You haven’t tried it and are jumping ship based on price? How odd…
Carl
9 months ago |Looks like a new optical design to me. A step up from the Contax N and Z* lenses which have the same optical formula as the ancient Contax C/Y design.
I’m not sure if I approve of this trend of making all prime lenses have 72+ millimetre filters, though. Still, better than the new manual focus Zeiss 55/1.4 is supposed to have 82mm filters which is just…crazy.
David Garmont
9 months ago |Price difference between US and UK means this is a non-starter – it’s a whole £700 more. It’s a joke. Even with VAT at £350 it’s back to rip-off Britain.
Hello Nikon D800 at £2k here I come. Anyone want a load of Sony gear?
Robert Bell
9 months ago |Depends what you think is not expensive? Will be at least double the price of the Nikon or Canon 50mm 1.4. I should imagine it will be better though. Zeiss lenses usually are!
zstan
9 months ago |does the minolta have SSM?
ChenAlan
9 months ago |Dpreview has lots of mistakes.
Look at their specs (specifically on ISO) on the A99. It’s actually the A900 copy-pasted.
They even say the A99 has a CF card reader!
RVN
9 months ago |that’s right, still wait for zeiss 50mm/1.2 SSM
maybe there will be two different zeiss lens, f1.2 and f1.4
smells good
RVN
9 months ago |oh yeahhh come to me baby, this year sony look rise the ball!!
hahaha
JonasM
9 months ago |I dont think a Zeiss 50mm F1.4 is enough to replace the Sony 1.4. Probably getting the Zeiss 85mm makes more sense over this. Too bad it wasnt a new F1.2…
emopunk
9 months ago |Now they have to update CZ 85mm and 135 with a nice SSM motor. Any chance?
Mike
9 months ago |The Minolta 50/1.4 has 49mm filter diameter.
The Zeiss 50/1.4 has 72mm filter diameter.
Seems like a lot of redundant glass
commsbloke
9 months ago |Its a bl**dy lens
Sharp shooter
9 months ago |Finally, something I had been waiting for. Any indication on the cost?
koolbeep
9 months ago |wow… thats huge… from the picture I thought it was 1.2
but glad its 1.4 so its not that expensive… crossing my finger..
Varn
9 months ago |Looks like a new design, hope the IQ is better than the Canon & Nikon version.
Linton5zero
9 months ago |That A Mount 50MM looks upper class and slutty at the same time – I wants it
zstan
9 months ago |It’s written in the press release. Yes to your answer.
John Maverick
9 months ago |To confirm because I can’t see it written anywhere. That Zeiss 50/1.4 is full-frame image circle. So that means A mount right?
zed
9 months ago |yes .. finally
would love to see this 50mm ziess lens in my bag
MdB
9 months ago |Actually I think that was some kind of error from the A900 launch (or was it A850) when they launched the ‘new’ SAM 28-75mm f2.8 (Tamron rebadge with SAM) three years ago. It was noted in the DPR comments and subsequently removed. Still ‘might’ be offered as some form of kit though I guess?
Dirk
9 months ago |Finally Sony answers to our prayers.
Have been waiting so long for a capable 50mm prime.
The legacy (covered Minolta design)50/1,4 is not all that bad, but contrast and sharpness was/is a bit annoying at large apertures.
Milan
9 months ago |And why on dpreviews announcement of the A99 it was also mentioned (now removed) that Sony also announced a new 28-75mm f/2.8 lens? Doesn’t look like someone made a typo when trying to write 50mm f/1.4, so that lens might be coming soon.
hugo
9 months ago |The 50mm f/1.4 planar made by cosina has a 58mm filter diameter only.
Based on filter diameters I would say this ZA version has a new optical design (nevertheless certainly a planar design, aka double Gaussian).
Gab
9 months ago |Both french and us official websites confirm the touchscreen for Nex6.
I guess dbreview made a mistake here
physica
9 months ago |Some retail friend said those stuff annouce recently will hit the store at the early OCT…… (around 4/10?)
really hope to have the NEX-6
, BTW , good to know that those 3 new E-mount lens are in black ^^
Jusual
9 months ago |Sony spanish page says that NEX6 has a touchscreen!!!