Yongnuo - Now also going to make lenses

It's the perfect lens to start with - simple, cheap, and known market potential based on the popularity of Canon's horrible 50/1.8. For say £100, they'll sell loads - folks will take a punt on that much more readily than say a complex £500 zoom. It's an AF lens, with micromotor drive to save cost.

There's hardly anything to copy, the design is almost as old as photography itself, pretty much public domain. Send a sample to Hoya or any other glass manufacturer, ask them to analyse the compounds and supply. No aspherical elements, easy to grind on basic machines. Simple electronics and mechanicals, hardly any different to a flash gun.

Not sure they can go wrong with that one.
 
Don't think it will be difficult at all to reverse engineer a fairly simple lens on well established mounts. That's why they are doing it, because it is simple and cheap to copy. I can't see them ever doing complex zooms or superteles though. Stack them high and sell them cheap seems to be their business model.
 
As I said thr best they can achieve in terms if quality would be samyang level but probably more quantity.
 
ricky1980 said:
As I said thr best they can achieve in terms if quality would be samyang level but probably more quantity.
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Why do you say that? Do you have some specific information about the company's design capabilities and manufacturing capabilities which the rest of us don't have?
 
StewartR said:
Why do you say that? Do you have some specific information about the company's design capabilities and manufacturing capabilities which the rest of us don't have?
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speculative guess ;) and judging by the fact that RD required to develop any sort of decent zoom lens I wouldn't imagine they won't be producing any in the immediate future. Samyang has great lens so my statement is no way putting down expectation so don't get too sarcy stu

more so the fact do you have any insight information that they have specialist capabilities other than copying simplistic lens designs? how do you know if they can succeed in meeting the same quality and standard as nikon/canon/zeiss or whatever the established brand is. is there any truth or proof with regard to this side of the argument?

all i am doing is stringing along some reality checks thats all no need to shoot me down buddy :)
 
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A quick look on the Global Sources site for Yongnuo states that they have supplied Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Olympus for over ten years. Also says that they have monthly capacity of 120,000 units - I assume flash products. Doesn't sound like a small concern to me. Also sounds like they may well have sufficient resources to perform adequate R&D. May pop to the factory when I am there in early November for a look....

The company overview on their SZ website states 501-1000 employees and sales of 50-100m usd. Often see such classification type claims from Chinese manufacturers. Almost like the SIC code registration classifications for UK businesses.
 
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other than Yongnuo doesn't seem to have produced any optics before...i.e. the new lens they are intending to produce will need to be at least semi decent quality as well as durability, which means they will probably invest quite heavily into a new processing and production line.

The business model of skipping out local distributor might be a bit iffy for the end consumers. I mean in terms of warranty...if the lens has problems how do you deal with it. directly with Yongnuo? then that means everything goes back to china...kind expense for us (if we have to pay the postage) and vice versa. Say if they do setup local distribution centers, then what's stopping these local distribution centers from wholesale to the shops etc and then we are back to the same scenario as every other make of lens. i don't understand the retail side of this enough but would like to see if someone can hypothesize what the likely situation could be.
 
just noticed this today , from their facebook feed.

they're releasing the f/1.8 version, not the f/1.4 shown in this thread back in Sept.
I'm still interested in trying it.
 
if they stick to primes, surely they're optically easier to manage from a build point of view.
Also they're easier to undercut, so 50mm, 85mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm spring to mind.
 
50mm 85mm etcc they probably can cut a bit of corners in producing IQ that are there or there abouts. each of the 50mm and 85mm lenses (from different manufacturers and different f stops) have their own characteristics. so they probably want to create something that has a visual appeal while offer something that is relatively cheap. but 200mm+ lens no chance as the special exotic glass will be the governing cost factor so...no. thats why a sigma tamron nikon tokina canon super/tele-photo prime costs more or less the same.
 
The new Yongnuo 50mm 1.8 is on a well known auction site for £27.49 from china or £45 supposedly in the UK. I've seen no reviews of the 1.4 online but someone must buy them. I'm sure warranty would be an issue but for that money what do you expect?
 
HoppyUK said:
I think the big brands should be worried about this. There is no doubt China has the intellectual and manufacturing capability, and if lenses simply follow the Yongnuo business model of direct supply with no local distributor, while simultaneously dodging import duties and VAT, those two things alone would cut the cost to customer in half.
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This could turn into a nightmare for Canikon. I'd be very surprised if the YN isn't as good as the Canon version (it could hardly be worse, TBH) and it's only £27 delivered! Then Yongnuo cherry-picks the most popular and profitable lenses from the rest of the range, and there's bugger-all they can do about it.
 
HoppyUK said:
This could turn into a nightmare for Canikon. I'd be very surprised if the YN isn't as good as the Canon version (it could hardly be worse, TBH) and it's only £27 delivered! Then Yongnuo cherry-picks the most popular and profitable lenses from the rest of the range, and there's bugger-all they can do about it.
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Canon patents all their stuff, so they can do A LOT if YN comes out with more higher value lenses. Remember how much turd apple has stirred up over smartphones that looks similar from across the room. In fact where is that YN600EX-RT they talked about for 2 years?! However, back in China Canon sales could take a big hit...
 
daugirdas said:
Canon patents all their stuff, so they can do A LOT if YN comes out with more higher value lenses. Remember how much turd apple has stirred up over smartphones that looks similar from across the room. In fact where is that YN600EX-RT they talked about for 2 years?! However, back in China Canon sales could take a big hit...
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YN takes no notice of patents, and I don't think there's anything effective that Canon etc can do. The threat of legal action only works on US and European distribution and retail networks, so they dare not carry stock. YN has no distribution or retail network - they're sold directly out of China by small mail order firms that are beyond legal reach. A few lenses is hardly the same as smart-phones either, so unlikely to be very high profile.

YN600EX-RT has been on sale a while now, plenty on 'bay for about £115. Not a peep out of Canon on that, nor the RT master controller that's been out for much longer. Maybe Canon isn't too fussed about that, but lenses are very different thing altogether.
 
HoppyUK said:
YN takes no notice of patents, and I don't think there's anything effective that Canon etc can do. The threat of legal action only works on US and European distribution and retail networks, so they dare not carry stock. YN has no distribution or retail network - they're sold directly out of China by small mail order firms that are beyond legal reach. A few lenses is hardly the same as smart-phones either, so unlikely to be very high profile.

YN600EX-RT has been on sale a while now, plenty on 'bay for about £115. Not a peep out of Canon on that, nor the RT master controller that's been out for much longer. Maybe Canon isn't too fussed about that, but lenses are very different thing altogether.
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How long can they sit in china and rely on local and some random ebay export sales? They will sooner or later want to come out and they better get their own designs together in place by that time...

P.S. Do you have a link for those YN600s please? I can't see ANY.
 
daugirdas said:
How long can they sit in china and rely on local and some random ebay export sales? They will sooner or later want to come out and they better get their own designs together in place by that time...

P.S. Do you have a link for those YN600s please? I can't see ANY.
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Some people make a good living that way.
 
Good for Yongnuo as consumers we have been getting ripped of for too long by the big camera companies.
 
f/2.8 said:
Good for Yongnuo as consumers we have been getting ripped of for too long by the big camera companies.
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If it wasn't for all those pesky product rules and regulations and environmental clap trap and health and safety and human right nonsense and having to cover the cost of all that needless R&D I might be tempted to agree.

When I worked for a living the most enjoyable part of my job was new product development and approval and being an OCD anal type I took it all very seriously and every product I was involved with complied with all of the relevant directives, statutory instruments and standards, in fact they were class leading. Then there's RoHS, WEEE, REACH, CE Approval, Technical construction files, product testing and all that stuff and effort costs time and money. Lots of money. Which was great for me and I retired at 49 but it's hard for those footing the bill.

Of course it is possible to just copy someone elses stuff and knock out product in an unregulated factory somewhere but God help the people who have to work there, God help the environment and keep your fingers crossed when you buy and use it.

Just sayin'.
 
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daugirdas said:
How long can they sit in china and rely on local and some random ebay export sales? They will sooner or later want to come out and they better get their own designs together in place by that time...

P.S. Do you have a link for those YN600s please? I can't see ANY.
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Well who knows, but my personal opinion is that Yongnuo could sustain a business model like that long term, ie without any internationally based distributors or dealers, and with complete disregard for local duty/VAT. That's where a lot of the savings with YN come from - short supply chains, no costly middle-men, no local taxes paid. That cuts prices in half straight away.

I'd even say that it rather begs the question of exactly how much value local support operations like that actually add these days. With international internet trading, things are certainly not what they used to be and, if the price is right, many consumers have no qualms at all about spending very large sums with an internet seller on the other side of the world.

On the new YN flash, try putting Yongnuo YN 600EX-RT into google or e bay search bar.
 
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