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Thypoch reveals the prime-like price of its autofocus zoom
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| Photos: Mitchell Clark |
Last month, Thypoch announced that it was working on the Voyager 24-50mm F2.8 AF, the first full-frame autofocus zoom lens from a Chinese manufacturer. Now, the company has revealed the full details of it, including its price and full specifications.
The former is perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of this lens. When we interviewed Thypoch's Go-to-Market manager for this lens, we were told the company was aiming to price it similarly to a prime. It turns out that meant $649, pretty much half of what Sony charges for its 24-50mm F2.8.
Despite being a very similar offering, the lens isn't a clone of Sony's. The most noticeable difference is that Thypoch's is an internal zoom design, while Sony's extends. And while both lenses have 16 elements in 13 groups, the formulas are different: the Voyager has two aspheric lenses, three ED lenses and three HR elements, while the Sony uses one aspheric and two EDs. According to our interview, the company hasn't used any software distortion correction in its design, so it has to do everything optically, a limitation Sony doesn't have.
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| For a full-frame F2.8 zoom, the Thypoch is quite light. |
Another difference between the two lenses is minimum focusing distance. Both are 0.3m (11.8") at the long end, but at the wide end Sony's can get as close as 0.18m (7.1"), while Thypoch's is still at 0.3m
The Voyager 24-50mm F2.8 has a 10-bladed aperture, and a clicked ring to control it, complete with an "A" setting that lets you control it using a command dial on your camera instead. It also features a customizable function button, and an AF/MF switch.
At 450g (15.9oz) and 92mm (3.6") long, it's fairly compact for a full-frame lens, making it relatively easy to carry around. We appreciate that, as we've found this kind of lens to be great for travel, given its size and ability to get wide shots to capture everything in front of you, without giving up the ability to get in a little closer. Thypoch also claims that it's sealed for dust and moisture resistance.
Optically speaking, we found the lens to be relatively sharp. While there's some vignetting, it's not more than we'd expect from other budget lenses with a focus on being compact. Where it fell down a bit was in flare resistance; Thypoch says the lens has its "Epoch" coating, but there were times where we found that bright lighting outside the frame would result in a washed out image, even when we were shooting with the included lens hood.
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The flare from the window above the cat has substantially washed out this image. Sony a7R V | Thypoch 24-50mm F2.8 | F2.8 | 1/50 | ISO 1000 |
Autofocus performance was mostly fine. We tested the lens with a Sony a7R V, and it was usually able to lock onto a subject and follow it, even if it was moving. Still, there were a few instances where it had to hunt in lighting conditions that we'd have expected an own-brand lens to handle without any issues. But given that this is the company's first autofocus lens, period, and that it doesn't have an official E-mount license, its performance was quite impressive.
While there's a lot to recommend the Thypoch 24-50mm F2.8 on its own, it’s also hard not to feel like this is the just start of something exciting. Obviously, third-party autofocus zoom lenses are nothing new; we’ve seen them from Sigma, Tamron, LK Samyang, and others. But it’s hard to ignore what happened with primes, where Chinese lens makers came in, started competing, leading to a flood of especially interesting, or affordable (or sometimes, both) lenses. That wave has also coincided with similarly exciting lens releases from the major manufacturers, too. If the same thing happens with zoom lenses, the next few years could be very interesting, and we may finally get some options that we haven’t had before.
The Thypoch Voyager 24-50mm F2.8 will available for Sony E-mount starting in June. The company says it's running a special launch promotion, selling the lens for $619.
Buy at ThypochFor more impressions on this lens, you can watch our video on it below. You can also check out our sample gallery to see how it performs for yourself.
Sample Gallery
Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Thank you to Sony for the loan of an a7R V to capture this gallery. All images were processed using our standard lens workflow in Capture One, with no vignetting correction applied.
Press release:
Thypoch enters autofocus market with Voyager 24-50mm f/2.8 for Sony E-mount
The first full-frame autofocus zoom developed by a Chinese optical brand, in a constant f/2.8 internal-zoom design
Shenzhen, China, May 14, 2026. Thypoch today announced the Voyager 24-50mm f/2.8, the first full-frame autofocus zoom developed by a Chinese optical brand and Thypoch’s first AF lens. Built for Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras, the Voyager uses an internal zoom mechanism that holds physical length fixed across the focal range, with a constant f/2.8 aperture from 24mm through 50mm.
Three Primes in One Lens
A photographer working with primes typically carries 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm. Those three focal lengths cover the working distances that define documentary, reportage, environmental portrait, street, and event photography. The 24mm captures a full scene when there isn’t room to step back. The 35mm sees roughly the way the eye sees, which is why it remains the working perspective of reportage and documentary photography. The 50mm isolates a subject without flattening the space around it.
The 24-50mm range was chosen as a balance of size, design, and price point. It covers the focal lengths working photographers reach for daily. The Voyager fits an internal zoom mechanism, holds f/2.8 across the range, and stays compact enough to live on the camera all day.
The Voyager is designed to deliver image quality comparable to a dedicated prime across the zoom range, whether the working perspective is the breadth of 24mm, the reportage view of 35mm, or the subject isolation of 50mm. The result is one lens that does the work of three primes, in the size and weight of one.
Fixed Length, Constant Aperture
A fixed-length zoom that holds f/2.8 across the range removes two of the most common interruptions in fast-paced shooting: rebalancing a gimbal between focal lengths, and recalculating exposure as the aperture shifts.
The Voyager’s internal zoom mechanism keeps the barrel length constant from 24mm to 50mm. The center of gravity stays in place during a take. The fixed barrel is also more mechanically stable in the hand than an extending zoom, which translates to a steadier grip during handheld work.
The f/2.8 maximum aperture is held throughout the zoom range. From dim interiors and twilight streets to backlit portraits, f/2.8 delivers the brightness and subject separation that working photographers need when light is scarce. Exposure stays consistent across focal lengths. The lens stays out of the way of the shot.
The fixed barrel also eliminates lens creep when the camera is stowed, and removes the extending external moving parts that complicate weather sealing on conventional zooms.
A First for Chinese Optical Engineering
The Voyager is the first full-frame autofocus zoom developed by a Chinese optical brand. Combining autofocus, full-frame image coverage, and zoom architecture in a single lens requires coordinated development across optical design, mechanical engineering, AF systems, and electronics.
The Voyager’s autofocus system is designed for fast and quiet operation. Thypoch built the AF unit to stay out of the way of the shot, with response speed intended to keep pace with documentary, street, and event shooting, and quiet operation suited to video work and sound-sensitive environments. The lens features native Sony E-mount autofocus, with support for eye AF, AF-C tracking, and in-camera and lens-side AF/MF switching.
The lens has been tested with current-generation Sony Alpha bodies including the ZV-E1, A7C2, A7CR, A7IV, A7V, A7RIV, A7RV, A7SIII, A9III, and FX3.
Built for Bokeh
Rendering character is where Thypoch has built its reputation, and the Voyager carries that priority into autofocus. The optical design uses 16 elements in 13 groups, including 2 ASPH (aspherical) elements, 3 ED (extra-low dispersion) elements, and 3 HRI (high refractive index) elements. The formula is designed to control aberrations across the frame at all focal lengths.
The 10-blade rounded aperture holds its circular shape across most of the working aperture range, producing rounded out-of-focus highlights at mid apertures and sunstar rendering at smaller apertures.
Optical, Not Digital
The Voyager’s out-of-focus rendering is built into the glass, not added in software. Optical bokeh behaves naturally at the edges of the frame, around specular highlights, and in the transition zones that digital blur tends to flatten. The result is depth that holds up at full resolution and on close inspection.
The transition from sharp focus to background blur happens gradually, the way a lens with character renders rather than the way a lens that’s merely sharp does. Subjects sit forward in the frame with weight and presence, separated from the background without the harsh cutoff that flattens an image.
Sealed at Every Joint
Weather sealing is the difference between a lens that works in the conditions a photographer actually shoots in and a lens that has to be protected from them. The Voyager is built with sealed construction at the lens mount, focus ring, zoom ring, and front element. The internal zoom design contributes to sealing integrity by removing the extending external barrel that creates the most common point of moisture ingress on conventional zooms.
The lens is developed for dust and moisture resistance. Whether the shooting environment is coastal mist or a sudden urban downpour, the Voyager is built to keep working. Paired with Sony’s own weather-sealed Alpha bodies, the lens completes a sealed shooting system rather than introducing a weak point in it.
Cinema Zoom Heritage
The Voyager is Thypoch’s first autofocus lens. Its zoom architecture draws on the parent group’s experience in cinema zoom lens engineering, which includes constant-aperture and internal-zoom designs across multiple cine lens families. Cinema zooms are the discipline in which constant aperture and fixed barrel length were first solved as engineering problems. The Voyager applies that discipline to a stills-format AF lens.
Price and Availability
Launch price: USD $619 / EUR €539 (May 14 to May 31, 2026)
MSRP: USD $649 / EUR €569
The Thypoch Voyager 24-50mm f/2.8 is available in Sony E-mount.
Standard package: lens body, front cap, rear cap, warranty card.
Local availability from: early June 2026
Thypoch Voyager 24-50mm F2.8 specifications:
| Principal specifications | |
|---|---|
| Lens type | Zoom lens |
| Max Format size | 35mm FF |
| Focal length | 24–50 mm |
| Image stabilization | No |
| Lens mount | Sony E, Sony FE |
| Aperture | |
| Maximum aperture | F2.8 |
| Minimum aperture | F22 |
| Aperture ring | Yes |
| Number of diaphragm blades | 10 |
| Optics | |
| Elements | 16 |
| Groups | 13 |
| Special elements / coatings | 2 Asph, 3 ED, 3 HR |
| Focus | |
| Minimum focus | 0.30 m (11.81″) |
| Maximum magnification | 0.22× |
| Autofocus | Yes |
| Motor type | Stepper motor |
| Focus method | Internal |
| Distance scale | No |
| DoF scale | No |
| Physical | |
| Weight | 450 g (0.99 lb) |
| Diameter | 70 mm (2.76″) |
| Length | 93 mm (3.66″) |
| Colour | Black |
| Zoom method | Rotary (internal) |
| Power zoom | No |
| Zoom lock | No |
| Filter thread | 67 mm |
| Hood supplied | Yes |
| Tripod collar | No |
