Egami (Click here) spotted another Olympus zoom patent. It’s a 12-120mm f/4-5.6 lens. The patent contains many variations all with the similar aperture range but with different focal lengths. As usual with patents they are mostly not made to become real products. But I hope that one day I will find some patent showing f/2.0 zooms too! 🙂
You 43rumors reader already expressed your opinion in favour of fast zooms like the superb (and expensive) Olympus [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses. Let’s see if Olympus will do that!
47 Responses
Another weather sealed zoom?
If it’s weather sealed and tack sharp with little to no CA throughout the range while being light than I’m happy with such a lens because I’ll be carrying fast and light primes in my bag that’ll more than compensate.
Image quality isn’t all about large apertures.
10x zooms are never sharp.
The 14-140mm is.
most zooms have a sweet spot, especially wide to tele zooms, which are good at the wide or tele end but not at both (exceptions excluded ofcourse)
> 10x zooms are never sharp.
True if you’re using APS-C/FF with their often underdesigned/undersized lenses (truly high quality lens would be quite big) but not for 4/3, Leica D 14-150mm’s even high corner to corner resolution performance would be very good even for 5x zoom.
‘not for 4/3, Leica D 14-150mm’s even high corner to corner resolution performance would be very good even for 5x zoom.’
The secret why 4/3 lenses, even when it is a 10X zoom like 14-150, are sharp to the edge is they have strict telecentricity requirement. m43 relaxes telecentricity requirement so that lenses can be 2 inches shorter and smaller.
+1
compare with new lens and body , if olympus introduce the metallic black version of the 12mm prime or the other silvery version of lens, then it will be very great…
You are never going to see an f/2 zoom on a small camera body.
you mean you never goin to see a small f/2 zoom on a small body
Will buy if the price is OK. Thank you Oly for making 12mm even more effortable!
I definitly do not want a 12-120mm f/2.0 😀
I want slower primes with higher image quality!.. I would have thought that micro 43 would be ideally suited to a biogon type wide angle lens design.
F/2 zooms for m4/3 would essentially be the same bulk and heft as the 4/3 versions, so why bother? All that is needed is a way to focus the existing lenses in a seamless manner. However, personally I’m through with fast zooms. For my needs, primes are better in every sense.
Agreed, here. The aperture is mostly useful for controlling DoF, which is far better done with a prime.
+1000
Bring on the f2.0 zooms that everyone is asking for, then hear them cry and bleat about the size and the price of them. I don’t think these people have much of a knowledge of the physics required in making fast zooms. Now if they were to fill the range with a few more fast primes, f1.8 would be enough, though f2.0 would be much the same but certainly no slower. The zooms available fill the designation of size and price against perforance, at least I have no complaint against mine. When I want something a bit more exotic I use either a 4/3rd or OM lens, you’d be surprised at how good the 200 f4 with 2XA performs on an E-P2.
12-120 would be an extremely interesting lens for travel and walkaround if IQ is OK. I don’t expect miracles, but IQ at 14-140 level would be OK.
Being able to cover 24-600 equivalent with two lenses (and good overlap too) would be great for backpacking and general travel. Today you have 14-150 (140) and (100) 75-300 and end up with 28mm equivalent as the widest without bringing another lens. Another option is 12-50 + 75-300, but that leaves a gap in the middle.
Going from 28 to 24 as the widest might not seem like much, but it’s actually a quite noticable improvement.
> 12-120 would be an extremely interesting lens for travel and walkaround if IQ is OK. I don’t expect miracles, but IQ at 14-140 level would be OK.
Another 14-140mm level mediocricity would be rather pointless.
With such average apertures shorter zoom than 12-120mm would be just another slow kit zoom but with high optical quality and weather sealing 12-120mm would make good travel lens.
And it can be done with high quality. Panasonic Leica D 14-150mm has very high optical performance for long zoom:
http://www.photozone.de/olympus–four-thirds-lens-tests/455-leica_14150_3856?start=1
12-120mm would be few millimeters wider but shorter flange back distance of mirrorless would give more freedom in optical design. 4/3 wide angle lenses were made optically complex to design by need for heavy retrofocus design.
That Leica D 14-150 vario elmar ,. Is very expensive but the quality of the Glass is really high ,.. I think it has better contrast, color and sharpness than similar zoom from the big boys Canon /Nikon – on both DX and FF (18-200mm & 28-300mm FX)
@Esa Tuunanen: “Another 14-140mm level mediocricity would be rather pointless”
Not at all, the mFT system is created for tourists, backpackers and P&S upgraders (and me) who are perfectly happy creating mediocricity.
I’m sure there are quite a few serious amateurs and pros who’ll use mFT for more serious work too, but take a look at the available lenses and you’ll see for yourself who Olympus and Panasonc primarly design for.
I miss the 2,8-3,5 14/54 every time I have the PEN in my hand. The size, the price, the quality, it would be a good MFT lens with a good price.
+1000! I am using the 14-54/2.8-3.5 on my Olympus E-M5. If Olympus would offer this lens as a (maybe a little bit lighter and smaller) MFT version with fast focus, it would sell like hotcakes!
m4/3 is the world of fast primes and slow zooms, to keep the bulk as low as possible. That’s logical. I don’t see fast zooms pointing at the horizon.
+1
My opinion too about m4/3, exept for the upcoming panny 12-35 & 35-100 f2.8
But we might be surprised, when oly will release those 4/3 f2.0 zooms in m4/3 & in a drastic size decrease
I’d dig if it was a pancake uberzoom.
Sorry, no “flat space/dimension compressing” tech of Ultraviolet-movie visible in the near future.
If you want an f/2 Zoom on a micro 4/3 body, that’s what the MMF-3 adapter is for. Considering that the sensor size is the same as for the cameras having a mirror, I don’t think they can keep them that fast and also make them so much smaller that it’s worth doing them over.
Absolute agree.
Sure, but as long as AF speed with 43 lenses and MMF-3 is said to be slow I’m not that interested. As soon as they figure out how to get fast AF with those lenses I’ll try to find me a good deal on the 150/2.0 + TC.
its not that the af speed of those FT monsters becomes unusable. If I understand correctly, people who need the fast af, would be disabled with slow af lenses or even manual focus?
I’d be happy with a 2.8-3.5 zoom for M4/3’s, so long as it a nice & sharp lens. A replacement for the 14-54 II with at least as good as the optics of the 4/3’s version & M4/3’s fast AF would be desirable, but so would a 50-200 (but then it will get big & heavy).
It’s true that for longer focal length lenses size can’t be decreased except by decreasing optical quality but for wide angle lenses it’s retrofocus design which causes major part of their big size in every mirror system because retrofocus design causes lots of problems to correct.
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/09/lens-genealogy-part-2
And out of mirror systems 4/3 had very long backfocus/flange back distance compared to sensor size/focal length of wide angles so 14-35mm could definitely be made smaller for m4/3. (though surely not as much as 7-14mm)
Weather sealed normal angle prime, please.
17mm f/2.0 or 25mm f/2.0 – is all what we need. Pancake design with moderate quality or traditional design (not larger than 45mm f/1.8) with good quality.
Yes please!
Ditto on the 25mm f/2. I have a gap between Panny 14mm and Yashica 50mm I use regularly. The 20mm f/1.7 isn’t far enough from the 14mm for me and the Leica 25mm is too expensive. I’m thinking about getting the Sigma 30mm for it’s cheap price. Wish it were a f/2 at that price though. hehe, I can wish…
Key word for me is “weather sealed”. There are plenty of non-sealed lenses in that area (17, 20, two 25s, Sigmas)
I don’t see the point of this zoom, because we already have solid 14-140 and 14-150mm zooms. Unless it is much smaller…
Yes, this zoom has to have a better image quality than the existing 14-150mm and be at least as light as the 14-150! Than I will for sure buy it!
Olympus has the advantage to be able to make lighter zoom than Panasonic as the stabilizer is inside the camera!
But 14-150mm with F2.8-4 would be welcome and such an exception if they can bring to the table
That would be big & heavy.
a 12-120 offers 12mm which 14-xxx zoom don’t.
This reason alone would be enough for me.
give me a sharp 10-100 (or 10-75) f5.6 and I would seriously consider it. Perfect landscape lens, esp if weathersealed. For me it would mean landscaping in any weather without changing lenses. As long as it is wider than 12 mm.
I would prefer a 12(!)-120/4-5,6 lens in combination with one or two small and fast primes over a 12-35/2,0 and 35-100/2,0 lens.
The patent gives configurations from 12–60 out to 120. I’m hoping we’ll see a weather sealed lens at the shorter end of that range. f/4–5.6 is slower than I’d like, but if IQ is superb wide open it would still make a nice walk-around / travel lens (complemented by faster primes, of course!). I still wish Oly would just make a version of the ZD12-60 though!
Hopefully this would be a lens designed for video purpose, with zoom buttons. Coming from Oly it would not have a lens based IS, though.