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Sony announces six new lenses at PMA 2009

March 03, 2009 - 10:15:18 AM:

Sony today has announced six new lenses at PMA 2009. (read the full announcement here)

Six new Sony Alpha lenses

The new lenses are (left to right):

1. Super Telephoto Lens
2. DT 50/1.8
3. DT 30/2.8 Macro
4. DT 18-55/3.5-5.6
5. DT 55-200/4-5.6
6. 28-75/2.8

This announcement surely surprised a few people, and it proves once again that you should not listen too much to Internet rumors. Most of them were not only wrong, but were seriously far away.

Here are my comments to these lenses:

1. Sony still has not issued any specifications for this lens. This means that there will still be some time before this lens actually hits the market. What we can see, however, is that the lens has changed significantly from the mock-up that was shown at PMA 2007. This is no surprise. The 70-400, when it was released, also looked very different compared to the mock-up, and I would not be surprised if the remaining lenses from the PMA 2007 lineup also changed a lot when they will finally appear as a product.
   Unfortunately Sony seems to continue with silver colored lenses.
2. This is one of the lenses that has actually been rumored, but as a full-frame lens.
3. This is probably the most surprising lens. Many were hoping for a long macro lens. Sony has instead released a short macro. This lens is effectively the APS-C equivalent of the 50/2.8 Macro.
4. The 18-55 will be the new kit lens. It's unfortunate that they dropped the 70 mm at the long end, because this was what set the 18-70 apart from the competition.
5. This one looks exactly like the current 55-200, just with the silver ring added. So this is not really a new lens, it just has an updated finish to match the rest of the line.
6. This one may be just a re-issue of the Konica Minolta 28-75/2.8. I don't see how this lens makes sense. Sony has discontinued the 24-105/3.5-4.5, and many were hoping for a new 24-105/4 to fill the gap. But Sony did not fill the gap. A 28-75/2.8 competes more with the Carl Zeiss 24-70/2.8. Of course, the new lens will certainly be cheaper, but I think a similarly priced, wider and slower lens would have made much more sense.

We should not be too surprised to see so many DT lenses. The α900 and associated full-frame lenses (16-35, 24-70, 70-400) were released last year, and this year it's time for another round of APS-C equipment. The new DT lenses are surely paving the way for new APS-C cameras.

EDIT: Added links to lens database.
EDIT 2: Added image.

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