Sony store closing

In my neighbourhood the Sony store is closing down, and so I went to check out to see if they had anything interesting.  I got really excited when I saw 40% off all lenses, but the ones I wanted, the 35mm f1.8 amd the 50mm f1.8 were all sold out.  The still had the 30mm macro, the 16mm f1.8 (which I have) and the 55-200mm which I didn't really want.  I thought about the 30mm, but as I already have a Sigma 30mm, I couldn't really see the point, even though it would have been only $180 or so.

Given I just bought the Nikon 28mm f1.8 the day before, maybe it was fortunate nothing worked out - I am sure my wife would not have been impressed.

Sackville NS, Nikon D90 and Nikon 18-200mm VR II

Stabilized Primes

One thing that is very hard to find is a prime lens under 200mm that has a built in stabiliser.  There are two exceptions - a few macro lenses out these (though the closer to 1:1 you get, the less well it works) and the Sony NEX 50mm f1.8 OSS.

Unfortunately though, this lens has two problems. One, it isn't that optically terrific; and two it really is quite large, being nearly 3 times longer than the Sony 16mm f2.8.  The second means that, unlike most 50mm lenses, it isn't compact and therefore doesn't suit the NEX that well.  The first point is a little more interesting though.  Two different sites, Photozone and SLR gear have given below average to average reviews for this lens, sighting soft wide open performance in the corners and high CAs respectively.  Interestingly Photozone used a NEX-7 and SLR gear a NEX-5, which may result in the different issues found. 

Stabilizers are an excellent feature, and I am surprised they are not built into more primes, especially those from 50mm upwards.  A fast aperture, stabilised portrait lens around 85mm would open up all sorts of opportunities, as would a fast standard 50mm lens.

Here's hoping the manufacturers hear my small voice on internet and release more stabilised primes, and that the optical performance of these is excellent.

Fujifilm X100