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Lens price supply & demand
  • stoneystoney
    RAM price is getting cheaper while there is harddrive supply issue. Less harddrive, less machines, less RAM demand, lower RAM price.

    Can that apply to the lens price? For whatever the reason if sales of camera bodies go down, will the lens price go down?
  • 15 Replies sorted by
  • DouglasHornDouglasHorn
    More likely, as more cameras of a given format are sold, new lenses become cheaper to manufacture and sell. Legacy lenses, however, would be expected to go up in price since there is a limited supply and more buyers.
  • CRFilmsCRFilms
    Moore's law only applies to integrated circuits, not lenses.
  • stoneystoney
    @DouglasHorn I guess you are talking about lowering manufacturing cost. I'm talking about the price fluctuation after retail price is set.

    @CRFilms +1 haha.

    The resale values of Canonikon lenses are good... cuz they are selling lots of bodies? What would happen when the mirrorless kills the lower end DSLR sector?

    The market price of used and new Lumix m43 lenses except a few lenses have been nothing short of massacre. Losing 50% or more. 8mm, 20mm, 7-14, 14-140 have been exceptional. 20mm used to be GF1's kit lens, but the demand has been crazy. 8mm and 7-14 have never been a kit lens. 14-140 has been GH kit lens, but they didn't sell a lot of GH units. I'm pretty sure the price of newly released X lenses will fall a lot, too. Those resellers drive the price down when they sell kit lenses separately. Isn't Lumix m43 blessed with all those different kit lenses?

    NEX has a few lenses, and their prices didn't fall a lot. That shows the popularity of NEX bodies. Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 for NEX has $1K price tag, and prolly the price wouldn't fall anytime soon. I feel sorry for NEX users.

    It's great to become a m43 user if one can be a patient shopper. Ok I sound like Panasonic fanboy.
  • nomadnomad
    I all depends if you are talking about legacy lenses or recent ones. Legacy will inevitably be on the rise. There are more cameras without a mirror out there by the day and they easily adapt anything that was ever throwing an image in the last 80 or 90 years. More and more people are recognizing the sturdiness and excellent optical qualities of many old lenses. When everybody switched to AF, you could grab them for peanuts on flea markets, yard sales or in the early days of Ebay. Those days are gone forever, they are all on the rise and more and more crap is resold, so it's getting harder to find good samples.
    IMHO, if you are knowledgeable enough to judge the quality of the given sample, high-class legacy lenses are one of the best investments you can make these days – they'll outlast your camera anyway…
  • stoneystoney
    I wouldn't bet on the long term price hike for vintage lenses.

    If there is enough demand, the makers have incentive to make good enough "modern" MF lenses at good price. Unlike vintage lenses, the modern MF lenses do fairly good job in flare and CA controls. Just ask people in this forum. Many will switch to new Samyang lenses next year. 7.5mm 3.5 is just the beginning. They will release more lenses. Woohoo!!!

    e.g. Canon FD 14mm f/2.8 L is more than $1.5K. Geez!!! HyperPrime 12mm 1.6 at $499 would be much better for m43 system.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Old lenses have some advantages.
    But moder primes are getting better and better.
    You already have fairly cheap 12mm, 14mm, 20mm, 45mm for m43
    Add here Samyang 35mm and 85mm and you have very decent set.
  • nomadnomad
    Sure! I already have a Samyang 85mm among all my old Minolta MC/MD and M42 stuff and I'm looking forward to more great lenses from the Koreans.
  • LPowellLPowell
    I expect Canon EOS and Nikon F mount lenses will endure. The rest of the pre-90's consumer glass will thin out, leaving only the rare collectors' items. Electronic lenses will live and die by their software. Leica is a cult that will never die. Zeiss and PL mount will continue to rule the high end. Ebay will eventually require sellers to leave positive feedback as soon as a buyer Paypals for an item. When in doubt, KEH is a canary you can depend on.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >I expect Canon EOS and Nikon F mount lenses will endure

    Canon and Nikon lenses will be the ones that will lost most of the price.
    Just because they are unsuitable for fast quiet contrast AF and do not have OIS made for video work.
  • stoneystoney
    +1. Those once cheap vintage lenses will become cheap again. Optically excellent premium lenses like Leica will go up. Electronic lenses yeap yeap. The mirrorless popularity wouldn't change the overall trend. Same old same old.
  • stoneystoney
    Canonikon FF lenses might have a price correction, but the price will be stabilized. Canonikon cropped lenses will get liquidated. This Thailand flooding will accelerate the process.
  • tinyrobottinyrobot
    >>I expect Canon EOS and Nikon F mount lenses will endure

    >Canon and Nikon lenses will be the ones that will lost most of the price.
    Just because they are unsuitable for fast quiet contrast AF and do not have OIS made for video work.

    What are the chances of stabilizers being built into all camera bodies in the future? Maybe another resurgence of legacy lenses?
  • stoneystoney
    IBIS is not good for video. It overheats.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >It overheats

    IBIS causes overheat of sensor, just because you need to minimise mass and move the sensor pretty fast, so you have big trouble getting heat out of sensor.
    Ideally ,video camera sensor must be attached to big copepr heatsink and it must have water based cooling :-)
  • TraumManufakturTraumManufaktur
    @Vitaliy_Kiselev You mean something like this?image
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