Is there a reason why we don't see many AF third party X mount lenses?

[oxjox]

As far as I know, only the Zeiss Touit line offers AF for X mount. Is there a particular reason why we don't see Sigma, Samyang, or Tamron offer auto focus X mount lenses when they do offer them for Sony?

[bergat]

I think the problem is the market share. Fuji is small vs Nikon, Canon and Sony

[milandro]

I think that Zeiss cut a deal with Fuji and actually FR har Rico Pfirstinger write some place here that they were “ invited” to transform a lens they already had in the oven.

 

https://www.fujirumors.com/zeiss-touit-vs-fujinon-xf/

 

In other words the only reason Zeiss was involved is because they pretty much were given every possible support to transform lenses they already had in the pipeline into fuji mount and probably Fuji did the mount for them so there was little to do for Zeiss. In fact the Zeiss lenses might really be a joint venture with Fuji...

 

“......But why did Fuji go along with it and invite a formidable competitor like Carl Zeiss into their home, not only offering full technical support and cooperation, but even co-marketing the Touit lenses? I know the real answer but don’t want to spill the beans just yet, so let’s just say that Fujifilm is making money with each X-Mount Touit lens that’s sold. They also like the Zeiss brand’s premium image and the resulting image transfer to the Fuji brand. After all, Panasonic also loves to put a Leica logo on their cameras and MFT lenses...."

 

 

Now, this would be a completely different predicament for a different arrangement for independent makers who would have to do the entire development on their own... unless they would pay their dues to Fuji ( which might happen in future) but only if they were to make a lens that fuji does at a cheaper price ( and still make money out of it).

Edited June 23, 2018 by milandro

[torbjornlunde]

Sony have released full specs for their lens mount (including information on getting AF to work). This means that companies have the information they need to make AF work with Sony.

 

Fuji have not done this. To me it seems like only Fujifilm themselves and maybe Zeiss have the information needed to make AF lenses for Fujifilm.

 

In theory I guess someone could reverse-engineer the data protocol for autofocus and make them that way. As far as I know this is what Sigma does with their Canon DSLR-lenses. This is also why their lenses sometimes have problems on certain Canon cameras or firmwares.

[milandro]

Zeiss has worked with Fuji to make their two lens and pays Fuji a royalty.

 

The same would happen if they would want anyone else to do it , but they don’t want to.

 

However several small companies have realized autofocus adapters for several systems.

 

So this is NOT a really difficult task for any company making lenses to integrate this in a lens but they are not interested or have maybe reached an non competition agreement with Fuji.