[Mistral75]

Who is designing and building the Sony glass?

Cosina and Tamron in addition to whatever Sony do themselves, IIRC.

Sony, first and foremost (in their deal with Konica Minolta they also got the R&D team and lens factory)

Tamron, most probably. However, this is still to be proven by evidences.

Cosina ? I very much doubt it, they have no expertise in designing or manufacturing autofocus or stabilised lenses (they don't manufacture the Zeiss Touit and Batis lenses).

[clackers]

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Cosina ? I very much doubt it, they have no expertise in designing or manufacturing autofocus or stabilised lenses (they don't manufacture the Zeiss Touit and Batis lenses).

Who does, then, Mistral - because Cosina do the warranty on them, right?

[Mistral75]

Cosina do manufacture the Zeiss Otus, Milvus, Classic and ZM lenses. All these lenses, and no other Zeiss lenses, are represented on their website.

Somebody does manufacture the Touit lenses -I strongly suspect Fuji or somebody linked to Fuji.

Tamron designed at least some Batis lenses (as evidenced by the corresponding patents) and most probably manufacture them.

Carl Zeiss AG sell and do the warranty on all of these lenses.

On the other hand, the (Sony) Zeiss ZA lenses are designed (as evidenced by some patents with no counterexample I am aware of) and manufactured by Sony or subcontractors of Sony. Sony sell them (brand licence agreement) an do the warranty on them.

[Winder]

Cosina do manufacture the Zeiss Otus, Milvus, Classic and ZM lenses. All these lenses, and no other Zeiss lenses, are represented on their website.

Somebody does manufacture the Touit lenses -I strongly suspect Fuji or somebody linked to Fuji.

Tamron designed at least some Batis lenses (as evidenced by the corresponding patents) and most probably manufacture them.

Carl Zeiss AG sell and do the warranty on all of these lenses.

On the other hand, the (Sony) Zeiss ZA lenses are designed (as evidenced by some patents with no counterexample I am aware of) and manufactured by Sony or subcontractors of Sony. Sony sell them (brand licence agreement) an do the warranty on them.

The Sony ZA 55mm F/1.8 is a Tamron design and possibly made by Tamron as well. The design was at least patented by Tamron. It is an excellent little lens. Its the type of small high quality lens I hope to see from Ricoh in the near future. Its the main reason I have not sold my A7II.