There will be no Sonnetar for Micro Four Thirds.
So pity! KTF-Turbo which is right now testing the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 m43 prototype lens just informed me that for now they decided to not go into mass production with the lens. He couldn’t unveil me the reason for that decision. I hope Mr. Miyazaki who is designer of the lens will rethink is decision. I like the design lens a lot and I think quite a great group of current m43 owners would have considered to purchase the lens.
Bye the way, the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 for Q mount already did it into mass production and is in Stock on eBay (Click here).
Brod1er
2 years ago |That’s sad. It is an interesting option as it offers big aperture with low weight and size- unique. The CV lenses are great but just too heavy for me. I reckon they might get a more positive response if they fit it to a EP3 or GX1- it looks badly suited to the GH.
Vivek
2 years ago |The reason is quite obvious. This lens won’t cut it for the m4/3rds sensor. Good only for the tiny Pentax Q.
There is no point in “mass producing” (100 lenses at the most?) such lenses.
BTW, I think the comparison posted against the Macro Switar 26/1.1 is total BS. Somone has to be an utter fool to believe that this lens would compete/compare with the Switar.
awaler
2 years ago |+1
babbit
2 years ago |The M43 version and the Q versions are totally different besides both being the same focal length and aperture size. Even the construction is different.
Mr. Miyazaki has created many Leica M mount lens that have extremely high quality. A comparison with the Macro Switar may not be that far off.
Fan
2 years ago |The Panasonic/Leica 25mm F1.4 is all you need …
Duchemin
2 years ago |That is a real pity! This would have been a great lens because of its small size. Not as a substitute to the Panasonic Leica 25 but as competition for the expensive, big and heavy Voigtländer!
Luis Sanz
2 years ago |Seems like a reasonable choice under the current form/design. Price was high enough for at least offering full sensor coverage at that wasn’t the case. A pity, since specs and size were a dream came true.
Let’s hope he realizes there is a demand for a small and bright manual 25mm lens that neither the Summilux (no soul, awkward manual focusing) nor the Nokton (too big, too heavy) were able to fulfill.
pdc
2 years ago |But it needs to be optically sound – the image samples we saw showed a lot of problems.
lensguy
2 years ago |too much competition in that focal length. already have the pana/leica 25mm, and the nokton 25mm.
Miroslav
2 years ago |+1
Should have given us a wider F1.1. Pentax Q users would benefit from that as well.
Ed
2 years ago |Disappointing. I appreciate the fact that M43 users have so many choices. This lens seemed to have a unique image quality in the samples that I’ve seen and would have been a great addition to the manual lens line up.
hollandre
2 years ago |OK, I will settle for a stunning f/2.0 16mm!
Mik Avner
2 years ago |Really sorry to hear this news. Is there any way we can petition them to reconsider?
I’d sign!
Phil
2 years ago |I think the test against the macro switar showed maybe they could go for a better desgin.
Atto
2 years ago |Not sorry at all.
All the image samples were not convincing in terms of image quality. Tiny is a goal, but not at the cost of optical quality.
We need an improved version of Oly 17mm (maybe f2) or Pany 20mm (fast AF response).
Ruhayat
2 years ago |I think they should just make these in either M or m42 mount. That would widen their market reach significantly, and m43 users who like it can still use one. I like it cos it’s tiny, but the image samples posted so far don’t look too good compared to the Nokton or Summilux.
Brod1er
2 years ago |I don’t think that’s possible. It’s not a FF lens. That is why it is so small.
pdc
2 years ago |That would totally miss the point, which is something at 1/2 scale for the 2x crop factor m43 format. The lens already exists for M mount as the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm/f1.5.
See http://www.kenrockwell.com/zeiss/zm/50mm-f15.htm
ihateidiots
2 years ago |People making silly comments again. The lens is designed for a mount where the image circle is smaller than M43. I guess you want an image with lots of vignetting eh?
M43Photo
2 years ago |I think this is not a surprising decision. A lens like this will always be a niche product, selling in small numbers. Hence, the price will probably be higher than that of the Lumix-Leica 25mm f/1.4, so only a small number of enthusiasts would have bought the Sonnetar.