The Third Element: The Rise and Rise of Third Party Lens Manufacturers

Let’s have a show of hands. Are you confused by the sheer number of different lenses and lens manufacturers we have today? My hand is quite firmly in the air. It seems every time we visit a group or a forum online, someone is talking about an obscure lens brand that we have never heard of.

Being somewhat of a dinosaur, I come from a time when lens choices came down to two decisions. Cheap or expensive, on brand or off brand. Cutting my teeth in the ’80s, there were the original manufacture lenses, and then there was Sigma, Tamron and Tokina. Ok, there was also Vivitar, but no one that had been into photography for more than a week ever bought a Vivitar. 

So why is there such a variety of different lens and lens manufacturers today? 

Ease Of Manufacture 

This is not to suggest that making a lens is easy. It is, however, much easier than it was one or two decades ago. Advances in manufacturing equipment such as 3D printers and similar improvements in design software have made it easier to design and build a new lens.

Couple this with lower manufacturing costs, again due to improved technology, it is now easier for smaller companies to gear up and produce lenses on relatively small production runs. 

Increasing Large And Diverse Market

There is a saying, “Everyone is a photographer these days” while that is a cliche, the fact is the interchangeable lens market is much much bigger than a few years ago. Many more people are now taking photographs with DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. 

They might not all be doing photography as a hobby, but they still want lenses to expand their capabilities. Often they prefer budget lenses to professional level ones. 

Beyond the consumer market, many enthusiast and professional photographers are happy to work with the limitations of some budget lenses. If you are the type of photographer that shoots manual focus all the time, why spend three times the price for an autofocus lens? 

Back To Basics

Many of these lenses are sold at budget prices because they dispense with the advanced features of the manufacturer’s lenses. The most obvious of these is autofocus, many of the lowest priced third-party lenses are manual focus only. 

Another feature that is often cut down is the lenses ability to communicate with the camera body. Camera manufacturers often lock out some of the data that is communicated, meaning that third-party lenses do not get this information.

Things like optical stabilisation three-dimensional exposure and color data and other high-level technologies are often not present in third party lenses.

However, back to basics does not mean bargain basement. Because many of these lenses dispense with expensive extras, the main focus is on optical quality. Here many of these lenses shine and are comparable with their original manufacturer equivalents. 

Exploiting Niches.

Large camera manufacturers are not geared up for relatively small production runs of lenses. It’s simply not cost effective to do so. As such look at the lens line up of pretty much any camera company and you will see strong similarities: professional, fast lenses, consumer lenses, telephoto and wide zooms and a smattering of primes. 

For many years photographer’s would buy into this lens ecosphere because there were little to no niche products or those that did exist were hideously expensive. Because many of these newer third-party manufacturers are smaller, they are leaner and can gear up to small production runs of niche products and still make a profit.

One of the prime examples of niche products that are selling well is cine lenses. High-quality video has been around in DSLRs for well over a decade now. Independent filmmakers soon recognised the power of these cameras. The large sensors, small size and low cost made them powerhouses for low budget movies. 

Companies soon sprang up creating adapters that would allow cinematographers to attach their expensive cine lenses to DSLR bodies. However, the camera manufactures failed to capitalise on the expanding lower end of the video market with low-cost cine lenses. 

Companies like Samyang saw this niche and brought out lenses designed for filmmakers at very low prices. These lenses feature de-clicked aperture rings and much finer focusing control with a longer focus ring turn. 

Another niche that third-party companies have jumped into is ultra fast primes. Ultrafast was once the preserve of very wealthy or top end professional photographers. Apertures of less than f1.4 were virtually unheard of. Today however you can pick up a 10.5mm f0.95 lens for a little over a $1,000. For $700 you can get an 85mm f1.2, portrait lens. The equivalent original manufacturer lens is nearly $2,000. 

Budget ultra wide primes, perspective control and soft focus lenses such as Lensbaby are amongst the other niche products that are available for considerably less than their original equivalents. 

What’s In Name

One thing that might confuse you as it did me for a while is the recognisable names from lens companies. Remember we mentioned Vivitar at the top? They are still around; they were bought out and rebranded themselves and are still producing lenses. I cannot comment on their quality these days.

Another very well known brand from history is Voigtländer. Although the company has long gone, the brand name is still in use today on lenses manufactured by Cosina

Other third-party companies have even stranger branding. Ever wondered why Samyang and Rokinon lenses look so alike? It’s because they are the same company. As is another name, Bower. The parent company is Samyang, a South Korean lens manufacturer who has been around since the 1970s. They are testing the other brand names to see which one suits a particular market. 

Because of this, sometimes, it seems like there are many more lens companies than in reality. With that said, however, there are still many more than we had a decade or so ago and that’s a good thing. 

Final Thoughts

There can be little denying that the rise of new third-party lens companies has benefited photographers. Some of the advantages are:

• High-quality optics for much less
• Ultrafast primes
• Cine lenses for budget lens prices
• Niche and novelty lenses for extra creativity.

It’s a great time to be a photographer. With such a plethora of budget options, we can pick out a niche lens and expand our creative repertoire. 

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite third-party lens is.