Keith Anderson , Dec 24, 2011; 05:06 p.m.
Do Panasonic and Olympus do a good enough job that they're not needed as much as for the NEX (eg there's an obvious NEX niche)?
Does Tamron, SLR Magic, etc, like the NEX better?
I wish the m4/3 community had a bigger selection of lenses. Where the heck are they?
Mike Earussi , Dec 24, 2011; 05:20 p.m.
I believe Sigma makes some.
Bruce Rubenstein , Dec 24, 2011; 05:31 p.m.
A NEX lens is designed for an APS-C sized sensor, so the basic lens design is the same for a large range of cameras. M4/3 uses a smaller sensor and while a lens designed for a larger sensor would work fine, buyers (myself included) wouldn't want a lens that was bigger and heavier than necessary. M4/3 really needs a lens designed specifically for that format, and it's probably not a big enough market for the 3rd part lens makers.
Jos van Eekelen 
, Dec 24, 2011; 06:11 p.m.
The statement "several 3rd party NEX lens manufacturers and not for m4/3" seems to be a bit premature at the moment. AFAIK several manufacturers have indicated that they are going to produce lenses for both systems but the actual number of 3rd party lenses is small for each system.
Ariel S 
, Dec 24, 2011; 06:53 p.m.
As Bruce says, you can just use similar
lens designs for nex cameras, but not
for m4/3. Historically, the way that the
third party lens manufacturers have
been able to be competitive is to
design a single lens, and then offer it
for multiple camera systems. This lets
them defray the costs among multiple
mounts. With m4/3, you have the
smaller sensor, so any lens that would
be designed for the system would
mean that the Olympus/Panasonic
users would bear the full amount of
development costs.
David Bookbinder , Dec 24, 2011; 10:52 p.m.
That having been said, there have been a few manual-focus m4/3 lenses released by 3rd party manufacturers. I hope
Tamron eventually gets into the game. They seem to be masters of making smaller, lighter, but still decent lenses.
Fred C , Dec 25, 2011; 04:54 a.m.
Fred C , Dec 25, 2011; 06:09 a.m.
Sony is a major shareholder of Tamron. It's not surprising that Tamron comes to their help with the NEX's small selection of lenses.
Ron Hartman , Dec 25, 2011; 08:13 a.m.
Bowers/Rokinon has a 7.5mm fish eye lens specifically made for micro 4/3. Also, Voightlander has a 25mm F/0.95 lens coming, maybe available in some areas. I would think both of these companies have more coming.
Dick Arnold 
, Dec 25, 2011; 08:48 a.m.
There is only one lens on the market for NEX cameras at present; that is the Tamron 18-200. That lens is designed for the Sony E-mount. NEX cameras can be used for all sorts of lenses, with limitiations, with adapters.
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