I spotted another Sony patent describing lenses designed for a medium format camera with curved sensor. Of course, we don’t know yet if Sony is serious about this or if this is just a theoretical exercise and way to protect possible future ideas by patenting them.
These are the Sony patented lenses designed for the curved sensor medium format camera:
- 387mm f/2.8 (lens length: 679mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 240mm f/1.7
- 323mm f/2.8 (lens length: 576mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 200mm f/1.7
- 258mm f/2.8 (lens length: 380mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 160mm f/1.7
- 161mm f/2.8 – in Full Frame terms this is a 100mm f/1.7
- 84mm f/2.9 (lens length: 123mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 52mm f/1.7 (it would be only 2cm longer than the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 FE)
I think it would make a lot of sense for Sony to make a medium format camera with curved sensor: the curved sensor allows for a more compact lens design (around 30% less in size and weight). It would give Sony a distinctive advantage over the competition!
The real problem is price. Making such curved sensor is likely to be a bit more costly. But let’s say for the sake of argument Sony can match the pricing of the Fuji GF camera system which ranges between the $4,500 of the GFX50R and the $9,900 of the GFX100…here is the question you gotta answer:
