New "inexpensive" PL primes from Sony !?

[Patrick Grossien]

Throughout the whole new F-something announcement nobody seems to have mentioned these

Sony introduces a second generation of inexpensive PL mount prime lenses, with improved mechanical design. Focal lengths are 20, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 135 mm, all T2.0. All have the same widest diameter of 118 mm, the same front diameter (114 mm), and geared barrel locations. All are 120 mm long, except the 135 mm, which is 145 mm long. They each have a 9-bladed iris, The focus ring rotates 240°

http://www.fdtimes.com/2012/10/30/sony-f55-and-f5/

 

[Patrick Grossien]

The last inexpensive lenses from Sony got a "nice try, Sony" from Matt Duclos... Wonder how these new ones will hold up

Link to the post on Matt's Blog

 

[Brandon J.F.]

I think these lenses will only work on Sony cameras. The PR material says they are "exclusive". That's how it was with their last lenses (from what I've read)...

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Thanks Brandon! Haven't found their PR material on these yet. Do you have a link?

 

[Peter Arnold]

I think Sony learned from the mistake they did with the first generation PL lenses the made for the F3.
The new lenses seem to be much more sturdy and they come with a metal housing.
I think these lenses could come in very handy, if they are offered a at good price point.
The ones I miss are of course the 18mm t2.0 and 100mm t2.0. But hey, time will tell.
And since RED seem to go off the lens market more and more, I will definitely have a closer look at those Sony lenses.
After all they are PL-Mount. And a PL-Mount is a PL-Mount. (At least in my book)

From the cinescopophilia.com website:
"Sony CineAlta PL-mount prime lenses: A new generation
With the F5, Sony introduces our second generation of cost-effective PL mount prime lenses, featuring a dramatic improvement in build quality. Thanks to refined glass, all are certified for 4K capture, while minimizing geometric distortion, vignetting and breathing. A 9-blade iris delivers beautiful bokehs. The focus rings rotate 240°. The series includes focal lengths of 20, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 135 mm. For easy lens changes, all have the same T2.0 aperture, the same external diameter, matte box diameter, and gear locations for follow focus and aperture. All are the same size except for the 135 mm."

From the Film-TV-Video website: (Beware, it's german!)
"Zu den neuen Kameras passende PL-Objektive aus eigenem Haus bietet Sony in Form eines Dreier- und eines Sechser-Sets an. Zusätzlich zu den von der F3 bekannten Festbrennweiten mit 35, 50 und 85 mm Brennweite (Dreier-Set: SCL-PK3), kommen parallel zu den neuen Kameras weitere Primes mit den Brennweiten 20, 25 und 135 mm in den Handel (Sechser-Set: SCL-PK6). Alle erreichen eine maximale Öffnung von T2.0, sind für 4K-Auflösung gerechnet und bieten ein Metallgehäuse."

Cheers

Peter

 

[Bal Deo]

This was on duclos site so I wonder if its the same with this new version

I work at a rental house called Tamberelli Digital in Manhattan. We purchased a set of these lenses a few weeks ago with one of our PMW-F3 cameras because they seemed like a good solution for clients who can’t afford to rent more expensive glass. It turns out, however, that these Happy Meal lenses only work on Sony cameras, despite their claim as “PL mount” lenses. The ears on the PL mount are larger than those on an Ultra Prime, and so they wouldn’t fit on our Canon 7D with FGV PL modification, our AF100 with Hot Rod adapter, or our Alexas. They slide right onto our F35 though.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Sony's last attempt at PL primes were garbage in terms of the materials used and serviceability. I'm seeing people here and elsewhere claim these new primes are made by Cooke. Hmmm... If they're Cooke optics and coatings, I'll be very surprised. But like others have pointed out, if they're the Minolta glass in Cooke-made housings, they could be quite nice.

I hope they are good lenses at a good price, the market definitely needs more reasonably priced options!

Oddly enough, I'm about 100X more interested in the primes than the new cameras. Sony cameras, even the new modular 4K ones, just don't do it for me. I admit that I have a strong aversion, even an allergy, when it comes to Sony's marketing and business practices, so I guess I'm biased in that way. But the F65 has failed to impress me in any way, including the images it captures, so I don't see anything to get excited about here. The F55 is positioned below the F65, the latter remaining the flagship of the Sony CineAlta pro line.

 

[Curt Pair]

Sony's last attempt at PL primes were garbage in terms of the materials used and serviceability. I'm seeing people here and elsewhere claim these new primes are made by Cooke.

The first rounders were made by Cooke too...

 

[paul schefz]

i noticed the lenses as well....
sony has been incredibly aggressive in the last years....and smart....
if you have bought a panasonic, olympus, nikon, samsung or obviously sony camera (p&s, compact, DSLR,...) this year, you probably bought a sony sensor....
the are really doing things right now....not just marketing....
these cameras and lenses look great and will shake things up....funny thing is, everybody compares to RED (modularity?) but really canon should be very, very afraid....i just don't see a place for the C line anymore.....
red with price cuts is still right there, shipping now (not in 6 months) and proven....dragon can not come fast enough at this point to keep an edge.....the meizler looks a little strange right now...especially for the price....

 

[Ketch Rossi]

The design of this lenses are actually very nice, better then UP's or even Leica Cine Primes for that matter, (Hate that Leica in 2012 deiced to put out such OLD design, tradition my rear).

This look more in the line design of the Cooke, and towards the Master Primes, even so a far cry from it, I again like the decision of their design on the actual lens... However...


Needs to be seen what they can do, as far as image quality Focus Markings distance and precision, as well as Artifacts containment and Breathing, Price and PL adaptability.

This lenses are not PL, are FZ a Sony proprietary Mount, and they also have the PL adaptor.

 

[Matt Ryan]

I think these lenses will only work on Sony cameras. The PR material says they are "exclusive". That's how it was with their last lenses (from what I've read)...

by exlusive they meant manufactured by Cooke exclusively for Sony. They are PL mount, but if your remove the PL mount they have the FZ mount, then you can adapt that to EF mount, etc...

These lenses look great. That is what's exciting in the Sony announcement.

We didn't miss the lenses, they are in another thread:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?87222-Worthy-competitor-for-the-EPIC

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Sony's last attempt at PL primes were garbage in terms of the materials used and serviceability. I'm seeing people here and elsewhere claim these new primes are made by Cooke.

The first rounders were made by Cooke too...

What are/is the first rounders?

The design of this lenses are actually very nice, better then UP's or even Leica Cine Primes for that matter, (Hate that Leica in 2012 deiced to put out such OLD design, tradition my rear).

This look more in the line design of the Cooke, and towards the Master Primes, even so a far cry from it, I again like the decision of their design on the actual lens... However...


Needs to be seen what they can do, as far as image quality Focus Markings distance and precision, as well as Artifacts containment and Breathing, Price and PL adaptability.

This lenses are not PL, are FZ a Sony proprietary Mount, and they also sale a PL adaptor in order to mount any stander PL lenses on the F55.

What in the world makes you say all of this? Ultraprimes are T/2.1, small, very light, and are incredibly matching in length and diameter. I don't understand what it is about the Sony lenses to throw such a well designed set of lenses under the bus. Can you explain? They (new sony primes) are quite big for primes, when compared to Ultras or Summilux-C's... 114mm front is zoom territory, in my opinion.

I do agree with you that the optical quality has definitely yet to be seen and I'm excited to see what happens.

Also, again, your last sentence is confusing. The lenses are PL mount. Just look at a picture of them. The FZ mount on the camera is like the F3... it's just a launching point for many adapters so you can use any mount you'd like. I only know of one Sony zoom lens that is native FZ. I don't think there will be much native FZ lenses.


I think you've been up too long buddy.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

by exlusive they meant manufactured by Cooke exclusively for Sony. They are PL mount, but if your remove the PL mount they have the FZ mount, then you can adapt that to EF mount, etc...

These lenses look great. That is what's exciting in the Sony announcement.

We didn't miss the lenses, they are in another thread:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?87222-Worthy-competitor-for-the-EPIC

Did you use their first generation PL mount lenses? I heard they don't use a standard PL mount and can only be used with Sony cameras. If these new lenses can indeed be used with a standard PL mount then that is exciting news.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Did you use their first generation PL mount lenses? I heard they don't use a standard PL mount and can only be used with Sony cameras. If these new lenses can indeed be used with a standard PL mount then that is exciting news.

yeah they suck but they worked on any pl mount camera. I saw them being used on a RED before...

The glass was terrible and supposedly the F3 had some lens correction function to help in some way which is why people might have said they only work with Sony. PL is an industry standard so if Sony's PL mount is standard it wouldn't make any sense that they are proprietary on the lens side. That would mean you couldn't mount a standard PL lens on their cameras...

This glass is much better from what I saw. Metal housing, manufactured by Cooke, with a very similar Cooke look image wise. This could be huge...Imagine S4's for budget prices...

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

yeah they suck but they worked on any pl mount camera. I saw them being used on a RED before...

The glass was terrible and supposedly the F3 had some lens correction function to help in some way which is why people might have said they only work with Sony. PL is an industry standard so if Sony's PL mount is standard it wouldn't make any sense that they are proprietary on the lens side. That would mean you couldn't mount a standard PL lens on their cameras...

This glass is much better from what I saw. Metal housing, manufactured by Cooke, with a very similar Cooke look image wise. This could be huge...Imagine S4's for budget prices...

Matt,

So you have seen these lenses in person? Where? I figured they were just announced.

S4 quality for budget prices = Cooke Panchro/i's.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

yeah they suck but they worked on any pl mount camera. I saw them being used on a RED before...

The glass was terrible and supposedly the F3 had some lens correction function to help in some way which is why people might have said they only work with Sony. PL is an industry standard so if Sony's PL mount is standard it wouldn't make any sense that they are proprietary on the lens side. That would mean you couldn't mount a standard PL lens on their cameras...

This glass is much better from what I saw. Metal housing, manufactured by Cooke, with a very similar Cooke look image wise. This could be huge...Imagine S4's for budget prices...

The glass was not terrible. No correction on F3. That's inaccurate. I put them on MTF machine against a Master Prime and the 35 came pretty close. Nothing wrong with those lenses except FUD and perception issues...

 

[Matt Ryan]

Sony focus group...
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/10/details-revealed-sony-f5-f55-cameras-4k-recorder/#comments

 

[Ruff]

Man there is some rampant misinformation being pushed across here...

PL mount is PL mount.

The fist Sony lenses looked fine image wise, but the build quality was crap.

Dissing Ultra Primes?!? Crazy...

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Sony's last attempt at PL primes were garbage in terms of the materials used and serviceability. I'm seeing people here and elsewhere claim these new primes are made by Cooke. Hmmm... If they're Cooke optics and coatings, I'll be very surprised. But like others have pointed out, if they're the Minolta glass in Cooke-made housings, they could be quite nice.

I hope they are good lenses at a good price, the market definitely needs more reasonably priced options!

Oddly enough, I'm about 100X more interested in the primes than the new cameras. Sony cameras, even the new modular 4K ones, just don't do it for me. I admit that I have a strong aversion, even an allergy, when it comes to Sony's marketing and business practices, so I guess I'm biased in that way. But the F65 has failed to impress me in any way, including the images it captures, so I don't see anything to get excited about here. The F55 is positioned below the F65, the latter remaining the flagship of the Sony CineAlta pro line.

Same here, Jeff. If these hold up to their claims, than these lenses are the most interesting part of the announcement. I don't care at all for their reality-distortion-field-cameras and their marketing decisions... its still great that more 4K cameras are coming out of the oven! But if this is Cooke-like glass at still lens prices than hooray for me! And then they deserve their own thread

I guess we will have to wait until Matt did his thing and opened one up

 

[Ketch Rossi]

What in the world makes you say all of this? Ultraprimes are T/2.1, small, very light, and are incredibly matching in length and diameter. I don't understand what it is about the Sony lenses to throw such a well designed set of lenses under the bus. Can you explain? They (new sony primes) are quite big for primes, when compared to Ultras or Summilux-C's... 114mm front is zoom territory, in my opinion.

I do agree with you that the optical quality has definitely yet to be seen and I'm excited to see what happens.

Also, again, your last sentence is confusing. The lenses are PL mount. Just look at a picture of them. The FZ mount on the camera is like the F3... it's just a launching point for many adapters so you can use any mount you'd like. I only know of one Sony zoom lens that is native FZ. I don't think there will be much native FZ lenses.


I think you've been up too long buddy.

Ultra Primes are T1.9. 95mm Front same as Leica's Cine Primes T1.4. ONly the 10mm is T2.1 and the super wide 8R is T2.8 and the 12mm is T2.



Ryan, read again more carefully, much more carefully what I woe, I complemented their new design, as in BETTER then UP's and Leica Cine Primes, as I don't like the design on neither of the two, yet I like the design on the Cooke's just not their look or quality of the image they produce.

Again, the new Sony FZ/PL lenses are very well designed, similar to Coke's no surprise there, but we need to see their image quality and Focusing qualities, their MKI were not good at all, I guess at optitek they got a particularly good lens, we tested 3 sets against my Master Primes, and they were VERY FAR form being close to the Master Primes as far as charts goes, yet their quality in the built was not even close to be a reputable PL lens.

This MKII version looks more promising, just wait it out and see what Sony decides to do as far as price, and sales.


BTW, 114mm, is what the Master Primes have except the 12 and 150mm.