Josh Root 
, Jan 18, 2012; 01:06 p.m.
Okay, as I said before, the sales figures for mirrorless cameras I saw when I was at CES were a real eye opener. But there is another indicator of their success that I think has been a bit overlooked.
Sigma was showing some new lenses at CES. Without taking anything away from the beautiful new 180/2.8 macro, the really interesting lenses were the 30/2.8 and the 19/2.8. And in all honesty, it wasn't the lenses themselves so much as the mounts that they were made for. Both of them will be available for Sony NEX and micro four-thirds camera bodies. On the Sony NEX cameras the 19mm and 30mm equal 28.5mm and 45mm field of view respectively (in 35mm equivalents) and the micro four-thirds lenses equal 38 and 60mm respectively.
This is exciting for mirrorless system users because it another layer of legitimacy to the group of cameras under the "mirrorless" banner. When a third party lens manufacturer starts making products for a new mount or system, that can only mean good things for the overall strength of that system. Now, of course, this may mean more for Sony NEX users than micro four thirds because micro four-thirds has been around for a while now and has multiple manufacturers producing lenses. But at the end of the day, I think it still say something very positive about the future of the compact systems when a company like Sigma sees them as being viable enough to tool up for a whole new mount. So in my mind, it's a big deal. Plus, who doesn't like to see more fast(ish) primes around? I know I do. Slow kit zooms may sell to the "moving up from point and shoot" market that the mirrorless systems are supposed to appeal to, but I don't know a lot of serious photographers who are excited about them.
And yes, Tamron did announce a few weeks before that they were making a 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 (27-300mm equiv) for the Sony NEX cameras. And yes, that is cool also. But Sony owns a chunk of Tamron, so Tamron releasing a Sony lens isn't that surprising and doesn't mean quite as much to the mirrorless segment as a whole in my opinion.
Greg Chappell , Jan 18, 2012; 01:34 p.m.
I'm dubious we'll ever see many Sigma offerings on the Micro FourThirds front in terms of lenses. The two introduced lenses are.....less than interesting from a Micro Four-Thirds user view, both in terms of the focal lengths and speed and are obvious Sony E mount-designed lenses where they'll add the MFT mount and electronics to a few units and be able to say they (sort of) support the format.
Fast-ish primes are nice. f2.8 ain't it though. These are slow "kit" primes. There are definitely some holes in the micro four-thirds system....it would be nice seeing something the equiavelnt of the 100-300 f4 HSM Sigma because the two micro-specific optics in that range are not as good as something like the 100-300 Sigma would be, but that lens as it is currently designed is way too big for Sigma to just take the production line unit and slap on a micro four-thirds mount and the electronics. They would need to actually design a micro lens and use a different type motor that fully supports contrast detect AF, and I do not see them doing that.
Yes, there are other third-party makers right now that are making Micro Four=Thirds lenses, but they are mainly just making one or two specialty lenses, like the Voigtlander 25mm f.95 and the Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5. We are not seeing better standard zoom or telephoto options to what the OEM guys are producing, which has been little beyond kit zoom quality to date.
Josh Root , Jan 18, 2012; 01:37 p.m.
All valid points Greg. Most especially about the Sigma focal length on m4/3 bodies.
However, I maintain that it's a good sign and something we should hope to see continuing. It has to start somewhere right? And I don't see the Voigt or the Rokinon as "starting". Because, as you say, they are specialty lenses.
Zach Ritter 
, Jan 18, 2012; 01:54 p.m.
m4/3 support is a bit of a connudrum. The problem is, you have to design a special lens for this exact subset to take advantage of the system, or else you are left with exactly what Sigma did. Aside from companies like Voigtlander, SLR Magic, and a few others, designing a lens strictly for m4/3 is not cost effective. It's easier to design for the larger mount and just adapt it down, but then we are left with large, ugly lenses.
And I'm not surprised it took this long. Probably waiting to see which of the barrage of new mounts caught on.
Greg Chappell , Jan 18, 2012; 03:32 p.m.
Assuming the new lenses Panasonic is coming out with later this year, the 14-35 and 35-100 zooms, are constant f2.8 lenses, and it sounds like they are, at least Panasonic is finally following up with something for those who invested in their really nice 7-14 f4 superwide.
Panasonic is big enough it could easily, fully support their own system much as Canon does without anyone needing to fool around with third-party options. When I had my Canon DSLR outfit, I never bought lenses from Tokina, Tamron, Sigma or any other maker. If Canon made an EF lens for what I wanted, and they always did, that's what I bought.
Josh Root , Jan 18, 2012; 03:36 p.m.
If Canon made an EF lens for what I wanted, and they always did, that's what I bought.
Which is a great option....if you have the money. I think the main reason that there are 3rd party lens companies is that a large group of consumers is looking for a lower cost option to Nikon/Canon/etc lenses. If people had the money to do so, in almost all instances they would probably default to the OEM lenses as well. There are a few products that the 3rd party companies offer that the OEM companies do not. But by and large, I think it's the budget issue that drives these companies success.
Frank Skomial 
, Jan 18, 2012; 03:36 p.m.
Leslie Cheung , Jan 18, 2012; 04:33 p.m.
I doubt they would sell well if they are not, say, $200 or below...
Mark Pierlot , Jan 19, 2012; 10:46 a.m.
For me, the beauty of M4/3 and NEX bodies is that, because of their short registration distance, virtually any lens can be adapted to them. I'm looking forward to using my Canon FD lenses on the NEX-7 I'm going to be buying. ;-)
For users such as myself who acquire mirrorless bodies just to use MF lenses with them, the development of third-party AF lenses for M4/3 and NEX is irrelevant. But it is, indeed, a good sign for the majority of users who are using mirrorless cameras for their primary (or only) system.
Joe Allebaugh , Jan 19, 2012; 01:48 p.m.
Sigma might have more of an impact in the NEX world if it adapted its 8-16mm zoom to the system, and developed wide-angles (<16mm) with larger apertures as well. Sony is lagging here.
