Why do major manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Sigma not make manual lenses?

[Steve5D]

There is a simple solution to your dilemma. Contact Canon tell them what you want, send them a check to cover the costs and they will make it for you.

Doubtful.

The belief that if someone is willing to pay enough money that a manufacturer will make something is actually kinda' silly. They rarely, if ever, will...

 

[table1349]

There is a simple solution to your dilemma. Contact Canon tell them what you want, send them a check to cover the costs and they will make it for you.

Doubtful.

The belief that if someone is willing to pay enough money that a manufacturer will make something is actually kinda' silly. They rarely, if ever, will...

They made this one. Never was a production lens.

 

[manaheim]

Fewer and fewer car companies are making cars with manual transmissions. Even in the low-end.

Why?

Customers, as a whole, don't want them.

It's the same thing.

BTW, you raise this issue, Gav... but let me ask you... do YOU a manual focus lens? Have YOU researched the ones available to see if they meet your needs?

Also, let me ask you another question... you seem to be asking for manual focus, but you want image stabilization and advanced glass and materials. Why? Why do you want all the benefits of so many other technologies but then do not want the benefit of what is probably the most commonly available one? Esp. when you can (as someone else pointed out) just turn it off?

As Amolitor suggested... there's also costs. What makes you think that production of a lens with all of those capabilities but WITHOUT autofocus will cost LESS? Fewer of them will likely be sold. That means that the R&D costs will be passed on to fewer consumers, potentially making the cost the same... and potentially even making them cost MORE.

 

[usayit]

Fewer and fewer car companies are making cars with manual transmissions. Even in the low-end.

Why?

Customers, as a whole, don't want them.

The opposite is true in other markets (ex European). It bugs me because the car w/ manual transmission I want is often just on the other side of the world...

But yeh.. companies that make goods or services that so few want usually end up going out of business.

 

[table1349]

Fewer and fewer car companies are making cars with manual transmissions. Even in the low-end.

Why?

Customers, as a whole, don't want them.

The opposite is true in other markets (ex European). It bugs me because the car w/ manual transmission I want is often just on the other side of the world...

But yeh.. companies that make goods or services that so few want usually end up going out of business.

Here I always thought that Delorean, DeSoto and AMC went out of business because they just had lousy paint colors.

 

[manaheim]

Delorean has the best paint color evah.

 

[table1349]

It was true selective coloring, cause the done forgot to select a color to put in their paint.:mrgreen:

 

[Steve5D]

There is a simple solution to your dilemma. Contact Canon tell them what you want, send them a check to cover the costs and they will make it for you.

Doubtful.

The belief that if someone is willing to pay enough money that a manufacturer will make something is actually kinda' silly. They rarely, if ever, will...

They made this one. Never was a production lens.

And I'd be willing to bet that it was built because someone at Canon stood up in a meeting and asked "You know what would be cool? If we built a one-off 5200mm lens."

Companies do one-off stuff all the time, and they do it because they want to, not because someone calls them up and says "But I have enough money"...

 

[KenC]

Fewer and fewer car companies are making cars with manual transmissions. Even in the low-end.

Why?

Customers, as a whole, don't want them.

The opposite is true in other markets (ex European). It bugs me because the car w/ manual transmission I want is often just on the other side of the world...

I found this out about a year and a half ago when I was looking for a new car. I had to contact about half a dozen dealers to find one manual transmission car. I was happy to get it and even happier when I read that manuals get stolen a lot less than automatics because most of the car thieves these days don't know how to drive a stick shift.

 

[table1349]

Doubtful.

The belief that if someone is willing to pay enough money that a manufacturer will make something is actually kinda' silly. They rarely, if ever, will...

They made this one. Never was a production lens.

And I'd be willing to bet that it was built because someone at Canon stood up in a meeting and asked "You know what would be cool? If we built a one-off 5200mm lens."

Companies do one-off stuff all the time, and they do it because they want to, not because someone calls them up and says "But I have enough money"...

The first two were built at the request of the Chineese Government, reportedly to use to watch activities on the island of Tiawan. It is also believed that the US govenment has two or three of these things squirreled away somewhere as well.

 

[Steve5D]

The first two were built at the request of the Chineese Government, reportedly to use to watch activities on the island of Tiawan. It is also believed that the US govenment has two or three of these things squirreled away somewhere as well.

Perhaps, but that doesn't negate my point at all. We're talking about an individual consumer, wanting a particular product, and believing that enough money will get it for him.

Quite often, it won't...

 

[Steve5D]

Putting image stabilization in Canon's 70-200mm 2.8 lens apparently adds about $700 to the price.

It's not unreasonable to estimate that by removing autofocus and autoaperture, you could shave off another $500-$600.

I don't know how you arrive at that.

My experience is with high-end guitar manufacturing.

In the high-end acoustic guitar world, Brazilian Rosewood is the holy grail. A manufacturer might spend $2,500.00 on a set of this wood for a guitar, but that wood can carry a retail upcharge of, sometimes, five figures.

To say that a $20,000.00 Brazilian Rosewood guitar should be only $10,000.00 if made out of another wood just wouldn't be accurate...

 

[Derrel]

For a better look at the 5200mm Canon lens, see this page. They have a video of the lens, as well as a bit of video shot through the lens.

Ginormous 5200mm Canon Lens on eBay



My question would be, "Why do Nikon, and Sony, and Sigma, and Pentax, not make 5200mm f/14 lenses?"

I bet there's one heck of a market for a Cosina-made model that's faster, like say f/13.9, or maybe a slightly longer model that's say, 5289mm.

 

[runnah]

[h=2]Why do major manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Sigma not make manual lenses?[/h]

Because it's not the 1960's.

 

[gsgary]

Fewer and fewer car companies are making cars with manual transmissions. Even in the low-end.

Why?

Customers, as a whole, don't want them.



It's the same thing.

BTW, you raise this issue, Gav... but let me ask you... do YOU a manual focus lens? Have YOU researched the ones available to see if they meet your needs?

Also, let me ask you another question... you seem to be asking for manual focus, but you want image stabilization and advanced glass and materials. Why? Why do you want all the benefits of so many other technologies but then do not want the benefit of what is probably the most commonly available one? Esp. when you can (as someone else pointed out) just turn it off?

As Amolitor suggested... there's also costs. What makes you think that production of a lens with all of those capabilities but WITHOUT autofocus will cost LESS? Fewer of them will likely be sold. That means that the R&D costs will be passed on to fewer consumers, potentially making the cost the same... and potentially even making them cost MORE.

Probably just true for the US but not for Europe we want manual gearboxes