Forged Carbon Lens Foot for Sony FE: Inside Our New R&D Exploration
In the Zenelli lab, every component starts as a question: what happens if we rethink the material, the geometry, or the process?
This time, that question led us toward a new direction — a forged carbon lens foot designed for Sony FE telephoto lenses.
Forged carbon is a different world compared to the long-fiber carbon we’ve engineered for years.
It doesn’t replace it — instead, it opens new possibilities for lightweight camera supports, alternative geometries, and distinct production workflows. For a brand built on experimentation, this material is the perfect playground.
Our focus with this project isn’t performance claims.
The goal is to study forged carbon: how it behaves under pressure, how it interacts with our designs, and how it can fit within our philosophy of precision, stability, and weight reduction.
Compatible Sony FE Lenses
This forged-carbon prototype lens foot currently fits:
• Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS FE
• Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS FE (I & II)
• Sony 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS FE
• Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS
These lenses are widely used in wildlife, sports, and outdoor photography — fields where a stable Arca-Swiss compatible lens foot makes a real difference. Our prototype keeps the classic Zenelli feel: clean profile, comfortable handling, and a precise Arca-type interface.
Why Explore Forged Carbon for Camera Gear?
Forged carbon has a unique internal structure.
Its random fiber orientation allows for design investigations that simply aren’t possible with traditional long-fiber laminates. This makes it ideal for an R&D project focused on new camera support technologies, especially components like lens feet where stiffness, weight, and shape all matter.
A Research Project, Not a Product Announcement
This forged carbon lens foot for Sony FE is part of a long-term exploration.
No release dates, no commercial promises — just pure experimentation aimed at understanding a material that could play a role in the future of our ecosystem.
We’ll keep documenting what we discover along the way: behavior under stress, machining response, surface finish, and real-world feedback from field testing.
***This forged carbon lens foot is an ongoing research project, developed to study the potential applications of forged carbon within future Zenelli products.*
