I received an interesting email from a reader – I could not find any links connecting Nikon with RED, so this remains a speculation for now:
“AF-S 24-105/2.8 VR:
No I don’t came up with this just because I think it might be a nice lens, I actually found a hint where I would not have guessed.
RED, the manufacturer of digital movie cameras, hat announced a 35FF camera that uses a 24×36 mm sensor. The sensor has aprox 24 mp. For that camera they also announced a few AF lenses. This is something new to cinematography. So far there have not been any AF lenses as we have them for our SLRs.
The lenses they announced are a 15-25/2.8, a 70-200/2.8 (stabilized), a 300/2.8 (stabilized) and 1.4 & 2.0 extender. Those lenses sound very familiar to SLR lenses and the 15-25/2.8 actually looks very very much like Nikon’s 14-24/2.8. RED is most likely working together with Nikon for those lenses. It is a known fact that Nikon has provided the design and glass for most Panavision lenses in the past. So it is not something new that Nikon has been working with a movie camera manufacturer.
Now here is the interesting part. Among those lenses RED announced is one that Nikon does not have: a AF 25-100/2.8 (stabilized).
Considering that fact that is very likely that Nikon is working together with RED this could be a hint that Nikon is developing a lens like that (and is also licensing that one to RED).
There is no way to be sure, but considering all these things I think there is a good chance that we will see this lens sometime this year.
if you go to RED’s web site you can see the details yourself.
Why 25-100 and not 24-105? For movie productions, quality is way more important than a little more range. I assume the lens is developed as a 24-105 but RED prefers to stay away from the extreme ends for quality reasons.”
The question is: does RED design their own lenses?
Thanks David.