Schneider cancels some lenses (mirrorless, DSLR)

It seems that Schneider (producer of high quality lenses for the Phase One System among other things) has cancelled its plans to produce lenses for mirrorless systems.

http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/en/ho ... ews%5D=127

According to the following (German only) report they've also canceled the planned DSLR lenses like a 85mm macro lens:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/ ... 36507.html

Not sure why but the German report mentions drops in profit.

It seems that there is a market for high quality lenses from 3rd party manufactures (see the recent great offerings by Sigma and Zeiss
like the Otus and Art lenses or the Sport 150-600 recently reviewed by E.J.).

But maybe there is only room for so many companies.

And with Canon (and for sure also Nikon) probably working on newer high quality primes like a 35mm or a new 180 macro (the old one seems not to be recommended for the 5Ds/5DsR and is and old lens, although still pretty good on a 1DX) the competition will only get fiercer in the coming years.
Maybe Schneider didn't see a real chance here. 

A bit sad as more competition is always good for us customers.

Markus

I honestly think that there will be (and is) a market for e-mount FE lenses. Sony are producing amazing cameras packed with feature and the only native lenses are Sony/Zeiss and far from cheap. I realize the short flange may make it harder to produce a quality lens (?) but if Sigma produced their 35 or 50 mm offerings at a lower price than Zeiss and Sony then they would sell. The A7 series is lacking a wide angle prime or two (currently only the Batis 25mm can be considered wide) and Sony are asking 450€ for their 28mm f2 (which is an OK lens, but not what I consider 450€ worth).

My take is that I think they simply don't have the capacity given the demand for their MF lenses and the incredible profit  margins they make on those compared to the 20-40% margin on smaller form factor lenses.  They want to utilize their capacity on the high margin stuff.

The German link mentions dropping profits, particularly in their photography business.

But what you write sounds reasonable. Maybe the new Phase One camera will help boost their sales.

Sony are producing amazing cameras packed with feature and the only native lenses are Sony/Zeiss and far from cheap.

Samyang offers (virtually) all their lenses in native E-mount. Some of them are very worthwhile - the new 135/2 is supposed to be among the top of the class in image quality. There are also a number of other third-party exotics - a couple of 50/1.0 MF lenses that are not available for dSLRs and an 85/1.2 - all in the $1000 price range (as opposed to $5-10,000 for dSLR f/1.0 lenses).

But you are right - the more the merrier!

Just FYI - The Samyang/Rokinon lenses are simply their DSLR lenses with a longer barrel which is essentially no different than using a converter on existing DSLR lenses although the lolerances due to eliminating one mount pair is a plus. They are not lenses designed natively for E/FE and as such are very large compared to lenses designed for the sort flange distance of the E-mount.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Just FYI - The Samyang/Rokinon lenses are simply their DSLR lenses with a longer barrel which is essentially no different than using a converter on existing DSLR lenses although the lolerances due to eliminating one mount pair is a plus.  They are not lenses designed natively for E/FE and as such are very large compared to lenses designed for the sort flange distance of the E-mount.

Samyang did a great job with the lenses they did for the crop sensor mirrorless models. Small, sharp, and inexpensive. The size reduction they did from the DSLR fisheye to the mirrorless fisheye was shows what is possible.  They really need to do that for Sony FE mount.   Even if it just sizing up the 12mm f/2.0 to cover full frame. Still would be a fairly small lens.