I got some small info about the next three Olympus PRO lenses:
1) 7-14mm PRO lens will ship between late June and early July. It will cost 1399 Euro
2) Olympus got little “interest” from dealers about the 8mm PRO fisheye lens.
3) 300mm f/4.0. Apparently Olympus told to dealers the lens release got delayed. No specific timeframe of the release were given.
Reminder: Two of the future PRO lenses are listed here:
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO Lens (here at BHphoto).
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm f/4 PRO Lens (here at BHphoto).
106 Responses
Olympus should take their time with those lenses. Nothing but near-perfection will be acceptable. Oh, and the 7-14 pricing is actually quite reasonable (if true). I feared something akin to 1700.
“Olympus got little “interest” from dealers about the 8mm PRO fisheye lens.”
What a surprise !
Frankly, who’s in charge of designing stuff, including lens lineups at those companies ? Aren’t there MUCH MUCH bigger priorities than designing, producing, and releasing such a lens ? Wasn’t this blatantly obvious, even at the design stage, or even at the brainstorming stage, that this clearly was never going to be as interesting as, for example, decent wide angle primes for the system ?
I tend to believe lens planning, design, manufacturing teams at Olympus have some other, (maybe better 😉 ) sources of info what might sell well, besides this 4/3 rumors site.
If 4/3 rumors site was consulted only, Olympus would be hard at work on f=0.85, super small, breathtakingly sharp lenses with minimum DOF, pocketable supertelephotos etc… Oh, and on FF lenses and cameras too…
Olympus – just do it your way… Regards from your happy customer
You should look at what the company has in their Four-Thirds lineup and expect that they’ll be replaced with micro Four-Thirds versions.
Delayed…again! Not that I need this lens but the ever-postponed release of these pro lenses doesn’t seem good to me. I mean what takes them so long to produce a lens promised long ago and have been shown in several occasions? Are they trying to redesign the lens after seeing the even tinier new Nikon 300mm?
And why am I not surprised at the little interest the FE lens got lol.
Well, maybe designing and manufacturing lens with superlative performance actually does take a bit more time than baking a pizza… How many lenses have you designed lately anyway?
Lens design is done by software these day. From what I have glimpsed in the Samsung and Sigma videos, it takes about 2 hours on modern PCs to make a design and run it through ray tracing simulation to get its performance characteristics.
The delay can’t be cause by design.
Much more likely Olympus doesn’t see market large enough to justify financially the introduction of such lens at this point of time. Remember, we are talking here about a lens which would cost at least $2000. A thousand of those – peanuts for the production line, feasible number to keep in stock – is at least $2Mln worth. It is a big financial risk.
2 hours? That sounds like the time it took to design Quantaray lenses, and probably the quality a 2 hour design would create, even on the computer.
I like the price for wide angle zoom. But i am very disappointed with the delay of 300 mm. I think oly should have put the priority on that lens instead of fisheye. 300 mm would be a really good seller.
I have to agree. I have the Panny fisheye and I will not be upgrading…and there are a number of inexpensive fish eyes out there so I do not see much of a market for a high-end expensive fisheye, compared to a pro 300mm which would really round out the MFT quiver for a lot of photographers. I think it will be a much better seller. No? I am not a marketing guy, so what do I know?
At least the delay will give me more time to save for it!
NOOO!! Give me the 300mm already. Or take the time to squeeze in a F2.8 aperture in the same form factor, else why does it take soooo much time. More time means more development, means more expensive lens?
While you are at squeezing, then pump some more, and voila – we will have 300/1.8. Robert, do you by any chance work at gas compressing station?
Well yes I do….. Why promise a roadmap and in the end not keeping the promise. It is not so much as this lens is delayed, but more the change of pace and products. Seems to me pro lenses should consider more photographers to get into the system. By changing direction you … well you get the idea.
I hope the 8mm is out when I go to Japan – that was actually #1 on my list of things I wanted. I really hope they don’t cancel it! While I have no interest in the 300mm, that 1.8 aperture and weathersealing makes the lens a real winner in my books
Good news! The O 2.8/7-14mm in summer and for a price lower than I expected. Hopefully the lens quality is as good as the other Pro zooms.
With the O 2.8/7-14mm my line up will be complete. No need for the 300mm.
Well, everybody is using the Panasonic Fisheye 8mm F3.5 underwater at the time regardless of Pana or Oly bodies. I really hope they don’t cancel since this Oly Pro looks like a great option for underwater use.
I would imagine that the number of People who Take pictures above the water, far outnumbers the number of People who take pictures below the water, so that would still leave a very small audience for that lens.
I tend to agree. Not that the only use for this lens would be under water, but it is a niche lens with limited use, and I don’t know many people who would be willing to pay PRO prices for this type of lens. That’s just my opinion though (and apparently the opinion of the dealers as well).
If olympus provides body firmware updates that automatically defish in-camera, I may consider fisheye over 7 to 14. Was set on the wide zoom as I have 17, 25, and 45 primes, but I’m now considering the 12-40 because it can be had for around $700 and is more versatile.
The rumor doesn’t specifically mention the production status, so we don’t know if there will be cancellation…
But then there would be very little to differentiate it from the normal wide angles, that are essentially semi-fisheyes that are automatically defished in-camera…
I think the 300mm should be the top priority. There has never been any really good quality long lens for the M43 system. I will most likely get the 7-14mm to add to the other 2 Pro Zooms, as the price looks to be OK, but I really want the 300mm. I have no interest whatsoever in The FishEye. Already have the Samyang for the occasional bit of fun.
Yeah..I REALLY a want the 300mm…but I am on the fence about the 7-14mm. I have the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4, and it is really a very good and compact lens. I also maintain a complete FF kit and have a couple of pro WA for that that keep me covered if I need to get really serious.
I really love the “smallness” of MFT and am torn about lens choices in the system sometimes.
It’s great to have so many options though!
Use your Canon stuffs for 300mm assignments before it is no longer relevant
( end of fairy tale ) .
Let Oly do the F1.0 lenses before come back to 300mm lens .
Yun is a pathetic dreamer. Ha ha ha…
Yun…your lack of awareness is just over the top sometimes…
Let’s see…600mm f/4 Canon $11,500.00!
Olympus 300mm f/4 (600mm equiv.) maybe $1500-$1800.
Um…Canon 800mm f/5.6 $13,000.00!
Olympus 300mm + 1.4x = 840 mm equivalent
I have up to the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II + 1.4x for my Canon.
You want to talk about an irrelevant fairy tale, that would be the prices of the Canon big glass.
Olympus E-M1 and excellent Olympus long glass (like the 40-150mm) makes a lot more sense to me financially!!! It keeps it in the realm of a good documentary…no fairy tales.!!! 🙂
We already had high quality alternative for the other PRO lenses but at 300mm we have nothing. I don’t understand why we have waited so long for this lens. This is beginning to smell like the Panasonic 150mm f2.8.
With Canon/Nikon using diffractive optics/phase fresnel elements to make their long lenses smaller and lighter maybe Olympus felt the need to do something similar. Since m43 is known for being small and light having the largest, heaviest 300mm f4 on the market would be embarrassing.
That could be a good reason to delay it: a different and smaller version is now possible.
A redesign would delay it 2 years. Lens design changes take time.
I’m not holding my breath, but who knows how much birdwatchers will have to wait for it?
With the Nikon 300mm f4 recently released, I won’t be holding out past the end of this year.
1399.00 euro? Hahahahaha. No way Olympus- NO>>>>FREAKING>>>WAY.
What were you expecting, 499.00 Euro? If you don’t think it’s worth it, you probably don’t need it…I for one would buy it in a second if I could afford it!! And this price is 300-400 Euros LESS than expected!!
I was expecting about 200 less. Anyway, panasonic 7-14 it is then.
Maybe Panasonic can come up with a version II, with upgraded aesthetics and cheaper price.
Well, official price of Panasonic is 1250 EUR, so not substantially cheaper. Street prices are lower now, because it’s been on the market for quite some time. Same will happen to Olympus at some point.
I have a lot of flare issues with the Panasonic 7-14 mm.
You mean “creative affects”
You mean “creative effects”.
Nope, those purple flares and bubbles are a real pain and despite eforts they add more problems than “creative effects” to a photo.
It took me hours to erase them for an assignment: I’ll sell the Panasonic once the MZuiko will be available.
Yeah, dude, there’s nothing between 1399 and 499.
You don’t have to buy every lens.
If you look at the price of the exists Four-Thirds lens that has the f/4.0 maximum aperture–the micro Four-Thirds lens looks a bargain.
The Panasonic 7-14mm has a list price of $1199, so a few hundred more for 1+ stop and weather sealing isn’t bad at all.
Of course the street price for the P7-14mm is around $950. (I was lucky enough to get mine for $775 in 2011
Gives Panasonic time for a 100-300 f4.0 lens out to market.
That would be awesome. My current collection is the 12-35, 35-100.
A 100-300 f4 would be the ideal ‘holy trinity’. I had picked up the 100-300, but its variable aperture and slow focusing speed just does not gel with the other 2 gems.
Yes , Delay it .
Now let’s proceed for the 50mm F1.0 & 12mm F1.0 .
These are the right lenses to do first .
And the 9mm F1.0
Request granted .
Call Olympus for status of the lens .
25mm 0.85 with af that is sharper than the 75mm 1.8.
Hard to make it sharper than 75mm lens , maybe equal .
Wish granted , contact Oly for further details .
I like to have it as well .
“Olympus got little “interest” from dealers about the 8mm PRO fisheye lens.”
I don’t care how much “interest” DEALERS show in that lens. That’s the only Olympus PRO lens I’m interested in and for me, probably the most significant lens of the whole PRO lineup.
YAWN.
More lenses from Olympus, that will only end up on their refurbished page in a couple weeks after they come out.
Then they copy Panasonic, bit then slap a “Pro” moniker on their lenses and increase the price… how many fish eye M43 users are going to dump their Panasonic or Samyang lenses for a more expensive version?
Not many…. another Olympus lens to add to the mountain of unsold lenses. Guess they’re trying to conceal their stock of 43 lenses with M43 lenses…
Again, the usual nonsense teller. Currently, Olympus hat the best mirrorless lens portfolio. The two already released pro lenses are the best among the competition and easily outperform the Panasonic counterparts, which I have used quite a bit, but stopped using them, because the Olympus glas is simply a lot better.
Cool Story, Bro… Did you give yourself that up vote for such a telling story?
So you stopped using them, and use Olympus pro lenses now? Can I see a link to your Flickr that reflects this? Or is this another grand fish tale?
Don’t know, I think he’s not talking about the fish, but what he’s saying isn’t really totally incredible, is it?
Everybody, who follows the comments section of 43rumors, knows your baseless commentary.
I think you just hurt a Panny fanboy’s ego. 🙂
Oly fanboi vs. Panny fanboi.
Dumber and Dumber.
The only real problem with the Oly refurb lens page are the totally unappealing lenses available.
I’ve been hoping for a 12-40mm to appear, checking numerous times every day, but no luck at all. If you want a 17mm f2.8, one of the plethora of 14-42mm’s or dead-system giant 4/3 lenses, you’re in luck!
And prices are not that interesting.
Keep trying. They’re few and far between, but that’s where I got my 12-40.
Been doing it for weeks. I got real bored after frustration set in.
I’m about ready to drop by B&H or Adorama and pick one up. Or I’ll just say fock it and stick with my primes.
If a 90-250/2.8 shows up on the refurb page I’ll certainly have a look at my bank account…
Since when having the choice to buy different lenses is a bad thing?
As for your question about who is going to dump their Panasonic or Samyang fisheye lenses, I’d say those interested in a better optic for night photography or under water photography. Just saying.
Nobody said it was a bad thing, I personally think it’s a bad business move on olympus’s part.
And really, night/underwater photography? That’s even a smaller number! And let’s be honest, the lens isn’t even out yet, so how better are these optics, compared to the Panasonic?
That’s a very small number. Not worth making.
Well, this will be an f1.8: sure it’s better than the Pana and Sammy siblings for night photography, where the best choice at the moment is the 12mm f2.
Numbers might be small, but still it’s one more option you have if looking for a fisheye lens. Want a cheaper priced (and quality) Samyang/Rokinon? It’s already available. I know it’s cheaper in quality because I have tried them, and as the owner of the shop said:” you get what you pay for, you can’t complain”. To some it could be enough, to others not enough.
Who are we to decide if this is a bad businness plan or not, and if it will doom Olympus financial results?
Actually I prefer to be more positive and enjoy the medium, instead of complaining about everything.
u mad bro?
Son of a :'( I’ve been impatiently awaiting the 8mm fisheye here, no interest in the other new ones.
“Little interest”. You don’t say. That’s such a specific lens, they’d better fill the gap in their lineup before committing to such extra-niche product!
7-14 f2.8 is slightly cheaper than expected.
The 300. Announced in 2013. Released in 2017. Worse than Canon. Somehow.
If the 1399€ is the final price recommendation after taxes etc.I will get one on week or two after release. I might even pick up the 8mm fisheye to replace Samyang 7.5mm fisheye on year after release but that wide angle will complete the system from 7mm to 210mm. With three lenses I can just travel anywhere to any situation and not worry about image quality or not being able to capture things.
300mm f/4 delayed? I don’t care, the difference between 210mm f/4 and 300mm f/4 is non-existing really. Only a 90mm that on typical ranges is possible to be gained by getting closer. Instead the problem is most often with prime telephotos that you are way too close and you would need to get back, and there isn’t time for that.
When Olympus brings long telephoto zoom addition to 40-150mm f/2.8 like 150-400mm then I am interested. But a prime? No, not very usable.
I object to the claim that the difference between 210mm f/4 and 300mm f/4 was “non-existing”. One of my most-used lenses is the ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5, and, for me, the 1.4x increase of telephoto range the EC-14 teleconverter gives me (280mm f/4.9) is nothing less but fundamental. The even faster 300mm lens which can be extended to a 420mm f/5.6 with the MC-14 converter, too, would give me a similarly fundamental further increase in telephoto range I’d really welcome.
What I agree with is the assumption that a 300mm prime is significantly less versatile than a hypothetical 150-400mm zoom, which is something I’d clearly prefer, too. But as long as the 300mm f/4 (plus MC-14) will be the only foreseeable Micro Four Thirds option to offer usable, portable and passably fast ~400mm, I’ll probably bite the bullet and buy it, when it’s there and if my budget allows. (The 50-200 + EC-20 combination is neither fast enough nor sharp enough, unfortunately.)
By the way, what “210mm f/4” is it you mention?
40-150mm f/2.8 + 1.4TC, I would say.
Oh, right, I see!
Why some people wish oly would make a 150-400mm f/2.8 that works with the 1.4TC so it would become a 560mm f/4 and be superior to many. Even if it would cost and weight it would be superior!
The zoom teles clear benefit is to be able dynamically adjust own position for composition. While primes teles problem is that you are forced to adjust your position for your composition. And that is not possible most of the time when using teles. So you are either too far or too close and rarely you are in optimal range. It is easier to sneak closer animals that scary easily if being a good wildlife photographer. But once you can not move and the subject moves closer, you don’t have benefits of the zoom.
Primes work very well on wide angle side like 17mm, 25mm or even 45mm. As distances to angle of view are such that you can easily adjust camera angle for composition. But with teles you can’t do that as well if not shooting landscapes. Like to get a 2x magnification change, with 17mm to subject at 1.5m distance you only need to move 75cm forward. With 150mm to get 2x magnification change to subject at 13m (same magnification as with 17mm) you need to move 6.5m closer. You don’t have time or changes for that often. And if you are too far away, you are always too far away or too close until you hit to correct distance. With zoom you are too far away or on correct distance, having always 50% more changes to get the subject captured in good way, even if the difference is 210mm f/4 vs 300mm f/4. The changes that someone with 300mm f/4 is at correct distance is same as being there with 210mm f/4, unless the environment denies photographer from advancing closer, and that is less likely to happen in wildlife photography, than being always too far or too close with the prime.
Sure every millimeter helps, it is 1.4x magnification benefit to have 300mm instead 210mm. But just using alone 1.4TC with 150mm vs 210mm is very subtle differential maker, until hitting the situation where photographer can’t get closer because terrain.
Oly really needs a long tele zoom lens with very wide aperture. Primes doesn’t cut than those who are always too far away (very rare thing to happen really for sports and wildlife photography).
100-400mm f4 with OIS would be much better and more flexible.
An f2.8 lens like that would be insanely big and expensive.
A 100-400mm f/4 would also be extremely large and expensive, even bigger than the Canon/Nikkor 200-400 lenses.
While I personally would rather go for a f/5.6 variant because of portability, I agree that there are good reasons for a f/4 or even f/2.8 lens. Given price and size of other manufacturers’ existing 200-400mm f/4 lenses, I guess an f/4 aperture would indeed be more sensible than going to the extreme of f/2.8, which would require a front lens diameter of 143 mm…
Eagerly looking forward to the 8/1.8 fisheye – hope this supposed “little interest” from the dealers doesn’t delay or cancel its introduction. As an avid FX fisheye user m43 needs a really good fisheye (none of the current options are all that great).
The Samyang 7.5mm is pretty solid.
Indeed hard to beat, except for its aperture (that I’m not complaining about).
Yes it is easy to beat. Tried them all and the flare/ghosting and sunstars are not up to what the best full frame fisheye’s on FX can do. Sharpness of the Samyang and Pany FEs are pretty good though, but for a FE sharpness is about the last thing of interest on the list to be concerned about (though it’s still important).
300mm f/4 delayed? As the latest info from Olympus said “somewhere in 2015”, that would mean 2016, then? All right, let’s practice some more patience then… I probably wouldn’t have had the money in 2015 anyway 😉
My EM-1 will be out dated by the time this lens is avalible. I canceled my 2nd order at B&H on a EM-1 MMF-3 battery grip and the 300mm lens. Olympus is not paying attention to its PRO customers.
You will use it on your em1 mark 2
If you have demands which are not yet covered by the existing E-M1, that’s a completely valid position. Personally, I’m quite content with the camera and I expect it to be my primary body for at least four or five years to come, which is roughly how long I used the last one, the E-30. Instead of waiting for even better cameras, I’ll be rather spending my budget on lenses…
Yes, yes, yes, but when is the only REAL lens on the horizon being released?
Y’know, the Voigtländer Nokton 10.5mm f0.95!
yeah….I was wondering about that ….I do not have any of those yet…….I thought I might purchase the 25mm f/0.95 II from S. Korea to start…~$700. I have all good quality AF native lenses at this point…I thought it might be nice to get into a little “rendering-of-the-lens” imaging to round out my system whilst I am waiting for the Oly 300mm.
I think that would be a good start for me with the Voigts.
Yep, a Nifty Fifty.
A great building block!
Wow that 7-14mm is what I want! BUT… I want a Panasonic version with OIS. The current Panasonic equivalent doesn’t have the aperture I want and it’s still blazingly expensive despite being 5 years old. I guess it’s true what they say about lenses – glass is gold. If in good condition, the value stays strong ofr ages and ages.
Panasonic 100-300mm f4 pro grade please
Yes, that would be awesome.
Exactly!!!
I think Olympus should just stop showing prototypes unless they’re planning on releasing them within a calendar year.
So 1399 Euro for the 7-14mm doesn’t seem like a lot to anyone?
No, not when a Nikon 14-28/2.8 is $2000. http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-14-24mm-2-8G-Nikkor-Angle/dp/B000VDCTCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430559083&sr=8-1&keywords=nikon+14-28+f2.8
It’s far from cheap, but good lenses cost real money.
If you want good lenses, be prepared to fork over the green.
I own the Oly 12-40mm and the 40-150mm w/1.4x. Based on the incredible build quality and the image quality…I am sure that the build and image quality of this new wide-angle zoom will justify the price tag. Look around. For what you are getting, it’s a fair price. Like JH says….if you want well-built, quality glass you have to fork over the green!
That fisheye must have some interesting story behind it… Maybe a designer stumbled upon a really good fast design on they decided to make it… Or maybe management needed sth to cover up the long delays for the other pro line lenses. Such a strange lens to pop up! I’m sure it’ll be great, but it’s still strange.
It isn’t strange at all. Many professional use fisheye, especially landscape and wedding photographers. And they have been stuck to f/2.8 on other systems. Olympus making it 1.3EV faster is HUGE benefit for both because not just having a usable depth of field (FF level of f/3.6) they actually gets faster shutter speeds by over 3 stops!
Say that to wedding photographer!
Example: https://youtu.be/e-WxCoDewbY?t=601
There is so many things that can be done with a fisheye and you can always defish the photo to be very wide angle rectilinear.
Olympus, HORRY UP THE 7-14mm! And then make 150-3x something f/2.8 Pro zoom!
Hugely overpriced that 7-14 olympus.
Wait for a refurbished version in a couple of months to save 500 bucks.
Really wish they would add a couple specialty lenses now that most focal lengths and zooms are fleshed out. 8mm or 9mm tilt-shift would be awesome, but I’m not holding my breath.