Samyang’s $975 AF 24-70mm f/2.8 parfocal zoom for Sony has been launched, however solely in Thailand

Properly, that is odd. I stumbled throughout a leak from over the weekend in regards to the new Samyang AF 24-70mm f/2.8 FE parfocal zoom lens for full-frame Sony E mount cameras after which noticed over on Mirrorless Rumors that it had truly been launched… Besides, surprisingly, it appears to have solely been launched in Thailand, of all locations.

What makes this specific lens particular over different 24-70mm lenses out there’s that it’s parfocal. Which means that as you zoom the lens from one excessive to the opposite, the main focus distance doesn’t change. That is sometimes extra consistent with lenses geared in direction of video moderately than pictures and is generally fairly expensive. Though this one appears to be a little bit of a discount at solely $975.

The product itemizing on Shopee seems to substantiate the specs leaked over the weekend together with a price ticket of ฿32,900 – or round $975. For a parfocal lens with this focal vary and constant most f/2.8 aperture all through the vary is fairly unparalleled at this value level. When you think about that the Nikon, Canon and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses all price upwards of $2K and don’t have this skill, it’s very spectacular – assuming the picture high quality holds up.

The explanation why parfocal is such a giant deal is that it lets you zoom in, optically, into your topic to confirm that the main focus is precisely the place you want it to be after which zoom again out to get your extensive shot with out that focus distance being provided. This has been widespread within the TV, cinema and common video business for years, however not a lot for lenses which are geared primarily in direction of pictures – particularly autofocus lenses. The lens additionally includes a built-in “customized change” which switches the ring between focus and aperture management.

Based on the product itemizing at Shopee, this doesn’t seem like an organization simply leaping the gun and placing an inventory up early with pre-orders as a result of the knowledge’s already been leaked – which we’ve seen occur very often from one or two USA-based on-line retailers previously. The itemizing at present says that they really have 19 in inventory already, which is a barely odd quantity suggesting that they may’ve had 20 and have already bought one or saved one again as a demo mannequin.

There’s no phrase on if or when this lens is likely to be coming to the remainder of the world, or whether or not it’ll maintain the identical type of pricing. It’s Samyang, so their lenses aren’t sometimes all that costly anyway, however given the value of the competitors, I feel they may justify charging a bit of extra. I’d be very eager to see how the standard stands up, significantly towards Sony’s personal 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens as soon as this begins stepping into the fingers of photographers.