Garth,
I don't think you are correct here. I don't see the need for a manual
focus lens in order to get light weight. Perhaps if you want/need a fast
(f2/2.8) lens. But look at the Nikkor DX 18-55 F/3.5-5.6. This lens has
Nikon's Silent Wave Motor built in, and yet only weighs 205 grams, just
a few grams over the 190 gram Zuiko manual focus Zuiko 35-70 f3.5-4.5.
It does not seem that the motor for the AF really has to add much weight.
Garth Wood wrote:
> I'm also willing to bet that, because all the modern lenses contain
> rare-earth-alloy ring motors to drive the autofocus, you can't reduce
> their size/weight below a certain amount due to minimum requirements for
> things such as magnetic field strength to drive the lens helicoids,
> assembly mass, etc.
>
> Now, if you really wanna shave some weight and size off, ditch the
> motors altogether, make the lenses manual focus and put a focus
> confirmation indicator in the body of the camera. *That* would go a
> long way toward addressing the issues some of the people on this List
> have with the size/weight issue for the lenses.
>
> Unfortunately, it's not what the larger market is looking for -- Olympus
> doesn't need to sell to the four hundred or so old-school stalwarts on
> this List, but the millions of others considering one modern DSLR system
> versus another. If I were an idiosyncratic third-party lensmaker with
> deep pockets, I might consider making "gold standard" fixed-focal-length
> manual focus primes for the 4/3rds System, but I'm betting that never
> happens.
>
> That's business. Oly needs to make profits more than friends of
> old-timers (and I include myself in that category).
>
>
> Garth
>
> ==============================================
> List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
> List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
> ==============================================
>
>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|