Nikon currently has two 500mm and 300mm Fresnel lenses in their range. This technology allows to make smaller and lighter lenses compared to traditional lens designs:

The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. A Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet.

One of the downsides of Fresnel lenses are the Flare artifacts. But a new Sony patent proves that they are ready to launch such lenses with a new tech that can suppress the flare issue:

The present invention has been made in the light of the actual situation described above, and one of objects thereof is to provide a Fresnel lens and a method of manufacturing the Fresnel lens which can suppress a flare which is generated in an image visually recognized through the Fresnel lens so as to extend toward a center of a lens.

Finally we might get closer to our dream to have both small FF cameras and small FF lenses?

The Sigma 200mm f/2.0 optical design described within a Sigma patent

One of our Sigma source told us about a new kind of Sigma lens. He said the 200mm f/2.0 development has been approved and we can expect a release as early as in second half 2021. This lens would obviously be available as native E-mount option too (along the other FF mirrorless mount versions).

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A Czech store listed the new FX-6 with a price tag of 169k Koruna which is roughly 6.000 Euro ($7,000 with tax). That’s very similar to the previously leaked UK price so I guess we can really expect a price like this once Sony unveils it.

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Thanks to the anonymous sender

There is yet no price info about the new FX6 E-mount camcorder. A UK store listed it for 4,999 pounds. Not sure if it’s a place holder or the real final price…

Optical design of the 300mm f/2.8 FE

A new Sigma patent published today unveils some superb new lenses options for us Sony shooters:

1. Sigma 300mm f/2.8 for mirrorless system cameras (which definitely means there will be an E and L-mount version).
2. Sigma 250mm f/2.0 for mirrorless system cameras
3. Sigma 200mm f/1.8 for mirrorless system cameras

Now usually patents are no guarantee these lenses will make it into final production. But it would make sense from a business point of view because currently Sony doesn’t offer affordable telephoto prime lenses. Not everyone can spend $12,000 for the Sony 400mm GM :)

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via Asobinet and Asobinet. Thanks Lu!

SAR note: This post has been updated with new patent info!

Image on top shows the current two fast wide angle primes: 20mm f/1.8 G and 24mm f/1.4 GM (via CameraSize).

A trusted sources gave me the info about a new Sony GM lens. If the rumor turns out to be true this will be the world’s fastest 16mm FF lens ever made: The new Sony 16mm f/1.8 GM will be announced in early 2021.

The currently widest fast FF lens from Sony is the 20mm f/1.8 G and the widest f/1.8 is the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 FE. I have been told it has about the same size and build quality of the 24mm f/1.4 GM.

I don’t know the price yet but I am sure it’s going to be rather expensive. Landscape and Astro photographers are going to like this lens a lot. Now here is a question for SAR readers:

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Let’s go crazy with this rumors I got that have high BS possibilities :)

About those rumors: I have no idea who sent them and 90% of the times they turn out to be wrong. But, it happened in the past that a couple of those were right. So I will post them today, and we all together can eventually keep track of this. If one of the sources turns out to be right than we will know we can trust it a bit more!

Source 1 (A7IV):

I have rumors according to the a7iv from my trusted salesman at Sony which says, the camera will have a 48 MP sensor and will be available for Christmas 2021.

Source 2 (RX1 successor):

They are working on a full frame bridge camera with zoom also on a zeiss  hologon type camera with a 11 mm wide angle lens  two technician said so they work in the Sony dream works

Source 3 (FE lenses):

FE 24-105mm f/2.8 GM will release after FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM.

Source 4 (FE lenses):

Sony will release SEL300F28GM, SEL50F12GM, SEL200F28G this year.

Source 5 (RX10V):

RX10V, released in FY’20 Q4 to FY’21 Q1. It features Bionz XR and new 20 megapixels 1.0-type stacked CMOS image sensor, AF/AE calculations still up to 60 times/s. But the dynamic range extended and supported 14bit uncompressed RAW. And Full-Res 5K Oversampling 4K/60p 10bit 4:2:2 Video in XAVC HS / XAVC S / XAVC SI Mode.

Source 6 (A9r):

Sony a9R: FY21’Q1;
48 Megapixels Special CFA Stacked Sensor.
Internal 96 Megapixels output without Pixel Shift Multi Shooting.
Full green channel resolution’s 24MP 20fps HQ Mode for sport-shooting user.
The oversampled 8K video support HLG curve only.