Are Camera Brands Slowing Down Lens Innovation in 2025?

So, Nikon, Canon, and Sony are dropping firmware updates like crazy instead of giving us cool, fresh lenses this year. Do you think lens innovation for mirrorless cameras is slowing down? Are these companies putting too much effort into software stuff and forgetting we want spanking new glass?

I want to know what you guys think—is this just a short-term thing, or is this the direction the camera market is going?

DavidHopper said:

we want spanking new glass?

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Do we? IDK really. Maybe the camera companies decided based on their marketing research that we want more features, more pixels, faster speeds, smaller cameras - not glass. I really wouldn't know; I'm not privy to data on where the revenues and the juicy margins are.

koraks said:

Do we? IDK really. Maybe the camera companies decided based on their marketing research that we want more features, more pixels, faster speeds, smaller cameras - not glass. I really wouldn't know; I'm not privy to data on where the revenues and the juicy margins are.

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Okay, I get your point. Specs might sway brands, but for us photographers, new lenses seem way more inspiring than just another software update.

Yeah, I understand; the question is whether we're representative in that sense for the market at large. I honestly don't know how things are going with the market for digital cameras and lenses; so much has changed due to the pervasiveness of good camera phones; dSLR's are pretty much dead already it seems, not sure what the status is with mirrorless...
I can also imagine that in terms of lenses, the market reaches a point of relative saturation. dSLR's ('digital' and crop factor lenses) and mirrorless breathed new life into that for a while, but that may have peaked, leaving the question where to go next.

I don't think there is much left to do with lens design unless you want really exotic materials, adaptive optics, that sort of thing. Particularly when it comes to mirrorless, the lenses are generally probably as good as lenses really need to be. I'm not sure why new lenses would be so inspiring to photographers unless they are of the GAS type. On the other hand as John Sexton has said of photographers "we like stuff".

DavidHopper said:

So, Nikon, Canon, and Sony are dropping firmware updates like crazy instead of giving us cool, fresh lenses this year. Do you think lens innovation for mirrorless cameras is slowing down? Are these companies putting too much effort into software stuff and forgetting we want spanking new glass?

I want to know what you guys think—is this just a short-term thing, or is this the direction the camera market is going?

Click to expand...

I dunno, but I've been pretty thrilled with a lot of the glass that's come out recently, especially on an affordability scale.

• Canon is selling a 45mm f1.2 lens for under $500.
• Tamron makes a 28-200 that starts at f2.8 and actually delivers great image quality for under $700
• Both canon and Sony are offering an f2 standard zoom now.

As someone who both shoots modern digital stuff and vintage film cameras, modern glass often feels like someone broke the laws of physics. It's so good

I dunno... my most "inspiring" lenses are 70-160 years old.

Milpool said:

I don't think there is much left to do with lens design unless you want really exotic materials, adaptive optics, that sort of thing. Particularly when it comes to mirrorless, the lenses are generally probably as good as lenses really need to be. I'm not sure why new lenses would be so inspiring to photographers unless they are of the GAS type. On the other hand as John Sexton has said of photographers "we like stuff".

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The big change that seems to have happened is the expansion (and then saturation) of a market segment that's desperate to haul 24x36 lenses around that make Pentax 67's seem light and small - and don't necessarily want hyper durable mechanical build quality (first-rate optical glass parts seem to have never been cheaper to make or design). On the other hand, Zeiss has been doing this currently fashionable 'modern' style of rendering for 70+ years...

retina_restoration said:

I dunno... my most "inspiring" lenses are 70-160 years old.

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ditto, and that's just the physical lens as the lens design is sometimes even older than that.

DavidHopper said:

Okay, I get your point. Specs might sway brands, but for us photographers, new lenses seem way more inspiring than just another software update.

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While Photrio has support for discussion of film and digital cameras, this place seems to be about 95% discussion of film photography. (this is not a criticism of your post, since it is in an "mixed film/digital" section.) Because of that, most people here are shooting cameras or systems that haven't seen a new lens is 25 or more years, and in some cases even more. In my case, there are some lenses I'd love to try but pretty much all of them are 40-150 years old.