Woot! Sony's Prosumer NEX Lenses May Be Coming Soon!

Big 'n' Stupid

The single biggest weakness of the NEX line of cameras is the absolutely pitiful lens selection. The cameras are just past their second birthday and have a single high quality lens, the Zeiss 24mm. Even Micro 4/3 did better than that.

But worry not, Sony fans. Rumors are circulating that the next batch of lenses to be announced will include some compact zooms for the low end, and,*drool*, some high-quality primes for the high-end. This makes perfect sense since zooms for the APS-C sized sensor have to be enormous. If they use primes, they can keep the size down and thus avoid the silly situation we currently have with the NEX-5n, one of the smallest cameras on the market, being paired with the 18-200mm, which is exactly as big as one would expect an APS-C 18-200mm lens to be.

The lens system for such a small camera doesn't need to be huge. A couple of wide-angles, a couple of standard, and a couple of portrait lenses. There's no need to exceed 150mm-equivalent since the size advantage is completely wiped out by lenses that large. The pros and enthusiasts have embraced the NEX line in a big way, so do it like Leica — give them some sharp glass, and some super-fast glass. The casual users will be fine with their zooms.

Sony is also going to announce, some time soon, a prosumer-level NEX camera. I'm assuming what we will see is a weather-sealed NEX-7, possibly a bit larger to accomodate better processing and more memory as well. It's really the only direction left to go, and I think that it's a pretty good direction indeed. With a viable NEX system, a rejuvenated Micro 4/3, and The X Pro system rising to prominence, Holiday 2012 may be one of the most exciting times in photographic history.

Here's hoping that this is the beginning of a shift in the camera market, where the dominance of Cankon finally comes crashing down.