Sony Didn’t Intentionally Brick Third Party Lenses on the a7 V, Viltrox Confirms

Viltrox, one of the most popular third-party lens manufacturers for Sony E and Nikon Z-mount cameras, says it is working on a firmware update that will stabilize performance of its lenses on the new Sony a7 V. Additionally, despite rumors and speculation swirling online, the lens company doesn’t believe Sony made any changes to intentionally degrade the performance of third party lenses on E-mount.

Viltrox says that it is aware of issues with its lenses and the new Sony a7 V and is working on deploying a fix.

“We’re aware of the potential compatibility issues, and our R&D team is actively conducting tests. A firmware update is planned to be released before the end of this week to further optimize performance. It’s mainly related to the complexity of camera–lens communication across different camera bodies, firmware versions, and usage scenarios,” Frank Fang, the US Marketing Director at Viltrox tells PetaPixel.

“In certain edge cases, this can surface as performance inconsistencies, which is why our team is running broader validation and fine-tuning parameters via firmware. This is a normal part of optimizing products across a wide and evolving camera ecosystem. The upcoming firmware focuses on improving overall stability and consistency, and we’ll continue monitoring real-world feedback closely.”

The speculation that Sony was intentionally bricking third party lens performance started during the review cycle, when YouTuber Kai Wong reported issues with multiple Chinese-manufactured third-party lenses.

“All autofocusing Chinese lenses I tried had some kind of problem,” Wong said at the time. “Maybe it’s an early firmware problem, but definitely something to keep an eye on. I mean, I’m not judging. It is entirely up to the brands to decide who they open up their system to but if it’s intentional, some warning wouldn’t go amiss, especially given that some users might be or might have already bought some of these autofocusing lenses from China in E-mount already.”

PetaPixel and multiple other reviewers reported no issues with third party lenses, but unfounded speculation that Sony was closing the E-mount spread nonetheless. The situation was likely not particularly helped by Sony’s reluctance to speak openly on the matter.

“Please contact each lens manufacturer for details regarding the performance of third party lenses,” a Sony representative told PetaPixel last week. This was the only official statement that was received from the company. It’s not much, and has even resulted in some reviewers being taken-in by the unfounded speculation and changing review scores, urging photographers to skip the a7 V until Sony fixes the issues.

The thing is, this was never something Sony could fix. The issue can only be addressed by lens manufacturers, as Viltrox confirms.

“Nothing we’ve seen so far suggests any intentional behavior on the camera side. This appears to be part of the normal post-release optimization that often occurs as new camera systems are introduced,” Fang confirms.

“It’s fairly common across the industry for lens firmware to be fine-tuned after new camera bodies are released, as manufacturers validate performance across a wide range of real-world scenarios.”

This confirms reporting from PetaPixel last week: Sony did not intentionally change anything about its new camera to damage its performance with third party lenses.

It’s unclear why the internet mob was so eager to believe that Sony — a company that has repeatedly expounded the virtues of its open mount — would close E-mount, especially considering how its executives speak about lenses on the platform.

“It pushes us,” Masanori Kishi, Sony’s Senior General Manager of Lens Technology and Systems Business Unit, told PetaPixel earlier this year, referring to the increasing competition from third-party lens manufacturers. “The E-mount has the biggest ecosystem compared to other mounts, making it a mount system that holds greater potential for creators. Our system offers many more opportunities than compared to others, as we are developing it in collaboration with third-party manufacturers.”

As noted, Viltrox expects to deploy a firmware fix for its lenses on the Sony a7 V as soon as this week. Expect other active third-party manufacturers to do the same in short order.

Image credits: Viltrox