Do People Really Buy After-Market Lenses Any More?

You bet - and they never stopped doing so. The big names of the camera-body world are also big names of the camera lens world - according to themselves. And also according to lots of users who would sooner part with a foot than with the big-name lenses that their maker produces. If they have a Flapoflex camera they need Flapanon lenses - no question. Any suggestion that they use lenses from an independent maker would be heresy. Some camera camera makers have even gone so far as to pull up the commercial and design drawbridge by refusing to share specifications, dimensions, and protocols that would allow other makers to provide compatible lenses. Until recently this was a thorn in the side of many camera users. Of course there are some makers who are not served by others because the others have no wish to make the complex or extremely expensive lens mounts they need. Now, however, there are two more possibilities - as there has been some movement at the station in regard to the legalities of secondary - and tertiary makers. a. There are lens-only makers like Tamron, Tokina, and Sigma who can supply many new lenses for some cameras and nearly any kind of lens for others. Users of Canon, Nikon, and Pentax could nearly always count on offerings from these makers in the past anyway, but now there are newer cameras and these firms are now supplying lenses for them, too. Not as many as the N, C, and P DSLR range, but the number is rising. Are they good? Yep. Some are top of their class. Are they cheap? Nope. Nothing that's good is cheap. Could you eschew the body maker's lenses and depend solely upon the big-name lens makers? Yep. b. There are the up-and-coming Asian makers. Samyang, NiSi, Laowa. Again top-quality but sometimes spread out to more specialised or niche lenses. Sometimes not AF. But optically brilliant and mechanically innovative. They can be just as expensive as their competition, but sometimes they can be unique products. c. The internet lens makers. The drop-shipped lenses from less well-known brands in China that feature in online marketing. These are mostly MF, can be imaginatively mounted, and have a bewildering variety of maker's names printed on their lens bodies. Many of the bodies and mounts are well made and the lenses offer great value for money, but the optical performance doesn't yet match the quality from N,C,P or the lens-only makers in Japan. If you are a mid-range shooter who doesn't mind manual focus and aperture and can live with some softness, these lenses are a godsend - knock yourself out. Me? I have lenses from my body maker and one macro from Tokina. I value all of them highly. I've bought internet specials before, used and evaluated them, and sold them on to others for the price I paid. They were a good practical experiment. Final note: Would I use a Zeiss lens like a Planar, Sonnar, or Distagon on my cameras? In a heartbeat - but few are made in my mount. And I cannot afford to change to the cameras they service. So I will not repine.