[davidmanze]

I did not mean the lack of/existence of firmware updates and continious support by that. 

 

Most (if pretty much not all) of the native mirrorless lenses depend entirely on electronics to work. If you don't connect them, they can't even focus. You can't change the aperture, you can't even open the aperture wide open. So all these lenses will eventually break down and they'll have to be thrown away as parts won't be available and repairs won't be feasible. A serious lot of them don't even have optical adjustments inside.

 

What is more, most of those lenses are also either planned poorly or planned too well so that the company can/will release a new version in a few years to make the old one obselete and mostly worthless. Fuji's 35/1.4 is an example of that. It is optically alright (although not perfect) but the focusing is so slow, pretty much everyone who loves that lens will jump on the new one if it comes out. I get the fact that technology advances in time but come on, that focusing performance was poor even when the lens came out.

 

Same goes for pretty much every lens Sony made in the past years. If you release a 24/1.8 for APS-C which is mediocre for its price range and a 35/2.8 for FF just a few years later which is smaller, focuses faster, sharper, AND cheaper; nobody will want the 24/1.8 and the one you have will not be worth much anymore. Especially since you can't even get lenses designed for that system as the APS-C mirrorless is not Sony's focus anymore. 

 

They also add a lot of "why didn't you implement this on the previous version" features like a sudden IBIS, focus hold buttons, aperture dials etc. If you like those features on the new lenses, why would you buy an older design of them which doesn't have the feature? Why doesn't the 55/1.8 have an aperture ring and a focus hold button? Design-wise, it's already obsolote in their ecosystem even though it's one of the best lenses at that focal length made by anyone. And there is no true replacement for that lens either. 

 

Newest Nikon lenses don't even work on their bodies from a couple of years ago. Actually the whole F Mount is hilarously and horribly non-compatible within itself so that's nothing new but come on, there are people still using D90s which don't work with the newest lenses anymore. It actually didn't even work with older lenses, when I think about it. Couldn't even meter the light with AI-S lenses.

 

Sigma designed their first generation ART lenses so poorly that no matter what you do, you don't get consistent AF with their 50mm and 35mm lenses. Reported a thousand times by various people and won't be fixed unless they release a new version and sell you that. Who will buy the old one that can't even focus properly? I'm fine with getting an older version for cheap if it's not as sharp or maybe focuses slightly slower but can't focus reliably? Naah, I'll pass.

 

A lot of people said many times, you invest in lenses. Is that really the case anymore? How many of the lenses we have will be in working condition in 10 years? I'm not keeping my hopes high for my mirrorless gear. Even if they end up surviving, nobody will want to buy them.

 

If you want to compare this to traditional AF lenses, I have quite a few 80's Minolta AF lenses that I use on a weekly basis. Same goes for most of the Canon lenses released in the 90's. I'm not even mentioning the all-manual mechanical gear that I have.

  I thought Nikon's compatibility covered most of their lenses dating right back, even my mod on the 55mm F1.2 (Ai)  produces a lens that communicates with the body leaving only MF as it's shortfall, not bad for a lens that was released in 1977, as it happens Nikon even produced an aperture ring and would mod the lens to Ai for a moderate fee.

 

   Pentax also has amazing compatibility dating back to the ark, including a sweet little adapter to M42.

 

 Canon changed mounts fairly early (shrewed move).

 

But your right Obican, optimism and seeing the bright side of life is rubbish and totally overrated........

 

     ...... pessimists on the other hand know that nothing goes right in life and thus are rarely disappointed, even with lens mount changes!  B)