A very incomplete relatively bright sub 1000 euro SLR and Mirrorless lens survey. I didn’t include Sony Alpha or NEX or Samsung NX or Pentax or Four Thirds since I’m tired. Took the prices from topshot.fi.
Summary:
I was assuming Canon and Nikon would get very cheap lenses since their volumes are gargantuan. But once you look beyond the cheap Canikon 50 mm lenses*, it’s not so bad for Micro Four Thirds owners as I thought. Since I own the 20 mm already, the 14 mm (I hear it’s good and it’s really small too which is a plus) and the 45 mm might be good choices. Or maybe some day someone (Sigma or Tamron?) will bring a bright zoom there. If it’s going to be Olympus or Panasonic, it’ll probably be very expensive.
Also if someone’s going to bring a bright f/1.4 or f/1.8 around 35ish mm pancake for really cheap (say 150-200 euros), it might sell very well. I don’t know if the camera firmware has to support distortion and cromatic aberration correction for exactly every particular lens for any of that to be done or if there is a capability in the camera and the lens just has to give a few parameters. The latter would mean it would be easy to sell simple third party designs which could have digital corrections. Otherwise, the camera manufacturers might make it difficult since the lens would compete with their designs and they could keep the gates by giving their own lenses better firmware correction.
*: why is this focal length so popular? Is everyone taking portraits? It’s very narrow once you consider the 1.5 crop factor. Comparing to the “classic” 50 mm with 35 mm film, the APS 50 mm would be the equivalent of 75 mm with 35 mm film. Most fixed lens film rangefinders were equipped with 40 mm lenses.
For Canon EOS mount:
Canon
Only Primes because bright zooms are so expensive
EF 20 mm f/2.8 USM 529 €
EF 24 mm f/2.8 479 €
EF 35 mm f/2 289 €
EF 50 mm f/1.8 II 129 €
EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM 449 €
EF 100 mm f/2.0 USM 489 €
Sigma
Primes
10 mm F2.8 EX DC Fisheye HSM 679 €
30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM 459 €
50 mm F2.8 EX DG Macro 319 €
70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro 499 €
105 mm F2.8 EX DG Macro 469 €
150 mm F2.8 APO EX DG OS HSM Macro 999 €
Zooms
17-70 mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM 449 €
70-200 mm F2.8 APO II DG EX Macro HSM 799 €
Tamron
Primes
SP AF 60 mm f/2,0 Di II LD Macro /Ca 459 €
AF 90 mm F/2.8 SP Di Macro /Ca 499€
Zooms
SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 Di II XR /Ca 399 €
AF 28-75 mm F/2.8 SP XR Di 399 €
SP AF 17-50 mm F/2,8 XR Di II VC LD 449 €
SP AF 70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD (IF) /Ca 749 €
Nikon F mount
Nikon
Only primes
Nikkor AF-S 35 mm DX f/1,8G 209 €
Nikkor AF-S DX 40 mm f/2.8G Micro 279.00 €
Nikkor AF 50 mm f/1.8D 169 €
Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.8G 219.00 €
Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G 399.00 €
Nikkor AF-S 60 mm f/2.8G ED Micro 549 €
Sigma, Tamron
pretty much the same as with Canon
Micro Four Thirds mount
Only primes because no bright zooms exist
Olympus
M.Zuiko Di 12 mm F2.0 799.00 €
M.Zuiko Di 17 mm 1:2.8 pancake 329.00 € (is this bright enough to get on the list?)
M.Zuiko Di 45 mm F1.8 299.00 €
Panasonic
Panasonic G 14 mm F2.5 ASPH pancake 399.00 €
Panasonic G 20 mm F1.7 ASPH pancake 399.0 €
Leica DG Summilux 25 mm F1.4 ASPH 649.00 €
Voigtländer
Nokton 25 mm F0.95 roughly 1000 €