[shoplink 48513 ebay]
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The first fo the three new Kowa lenses is now shipping. The Kowa 8,5mm f/2.8 is now in Stock on [shoplink 48513 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Some new image samples taken with that lens can be seen at Jintarow.
The lens is quite pricey 🙁
54 Responses
I love the google translation of the Kowa article:
“View from the thick strong Sharpener broth of meat cranked, while nice and glossy blackish disappeared and the skin.Even frivolous nowadays mediocrity 100 plastic and aluminum cans like lens and imposing presence which does not attach.” Outdone only by, “A vast perspectives in one swallow to any violent Dragon!”
How can I resist?
Beautius
This lens looks pretty cool, but how can you expect to sell an unknown brand for $1200 with photos of a calculator?
Kowa is not an unknown brand in optics. They make premium quality spotting scopes and binoculars for nature viewing and also make industrial optics. They are new to the camera lens market, but their stuff is top notch. I remember a while ago when nobody had heard of SLR Magic, but now a lot of people like their lenses. We need to wait and see what the test reports say, but it could be that these lenses really are worth $1200.
I know Swarovski makes really good binoculars but I wouldn’t buy their 800mm weird looking lens. I have trouble to trust a bird watching company when I’m investing in a wide angle “cine” lens… Sounds dodgy to me.
Yeah, but would you buy a lens from Oly/Pana “blindly”? I would always wait for some decent reviews no matter the company name.
True @mark_lavrijsen:disqus, I’m obviously hoping this is a great lens, but $1000 or even $800 is a lot of money for a big manual lens on M43. I don’t think this is priced well. It’s voigtlander price there, Kowa isn’t notorious in the M43 world, so I’m feeling a bit perplex.
People, we are talking m43 here, it’s hardly ever worth the money. Get a compact and travel (or get laid, or both) with the money you save.
They are not new to the lens market. They used to make medium format cameras and lenses as well as 35mm.
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Kowa_SETR_eng.html
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kowa-Six-Medium-Format-SLR-Film-Camera-with-85mm-f2-8-auto-kowa-lens-finder-/151188101015?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item2333835797
US $825 when converting the Japanese store-price as shown in the image on Jintarow. This is the first seller on eBay, prices will come down.
Unknown? They have been making CCTV lenses for a considerable length of time, as well as a variety of medical optics and sports optics.
$1200 might be the asking price but if everyone who is interested only offers $7=800 maybe they’ll have to reassess their asking price.
The ¥89,900 ($825) price from the photo would be good! 🙂
Of course, a trip to Japan would bump that up considerably. 🙁
Kowa at one time made many cameras
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kowa The last on I can remember seeing
in the US was the Kowa Six medium format film camera. Lots of Kowa Six
on Ebay.
Its not really unknown brand lens, you have to check wikipedia. I think you will be surprised.
Well, I’m afraid these samples don’t give me much of a valid reason to keep my money in my pocket. At all. Damn.
They’re not not unknown nor famous but they have low brand equity. If if was Zeiss, people would be more willing to pay.
I habe a mch cheaper solution: use my 14-42 lens with a Reynow wide angle adapter.
It costs 10% of the price & noone will spot the difference, I’m sure
Wow! 8.5mm prime!
Why can’t Panasonic and Olympus make some UWA lenses? 8, 9, 10mm, anything?
They want you to buy the zoom’s 🙂
They’re too busy trying to reinvent the 14-42mm lens.
Panasonic 8mm f3.5 (fisheye)
K all I would like to see is a 7mm f4. Reasonable in size well priced, not cheap mind you… But with solid optical properties.
Any takers? I know the 7-14s are good but they are also expensive…
+1
Samyang 7,5mm is optically very decent(MF fisheye, but correctable in for example lightroom), and very compact. But there are no native full autofocus 7mm primes on MFT, they want you to buy the zoom’s it seems 😉
Hey Mark,
I had the fisheye but found composition too difficult. Truth is, I would like the 7mm for architecture and interior photography… And don’t want to spend the $1500 on the new zoom 🙂
I’ve got the Oly 9-18mm(FT adapted). But 2mm on the wide end is a lot of course.
I have the micro version, it is a solid lens but I have learned that extra 2mm makes all the difference in a room 🙂
Canon makes the EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM and Nikon the 14mm f/2.8D ED AF prime lenses. Why can’t either Olympus or Panasonic sell a 7mm f/2.8 prime?? Not everyone wants/needs a 7-14mm ZOOM.
+10000000000000
Now we have:
– a huge 10mm samyang designed for APSC
– a big, expensive MF 8.5mm Kowa
– a huge, very expensive, MF, amazing f0.95 10.5mm Nokton
But nobody wants to make a simple 7, 8 or 9 mm f2.8 AF prime…Fuji X system, while being younger has already it ! m43 has a ton of redundant lenses in the 12-50 range…
can’t say that often enough… maybe some company will hear the calling at some point 🙂
First of all, it should be 7/1.4 to match the big guys. Second, that is very specialized and very expensive stuff, fully out of the m43 league.
First of all, it only needs to be f1.4 if you want to match depth of field, and there’s more to photography than depth of field. Second, because you’re not in a ‘league’ doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get into it.
And with 7mm or 14mm focal length the depth of field is so deep already that it is no use to get it it shallower as we should get something like f/0.3 to see results.
do they have an online shop or do they sell through ebay?
Buy an old 17mm (mine is a Minolta MD f4) then a lens turbo or the speedbooster and divide the price by 4….
Then you will end up with a 24mm field of view. Picture looks good though.
You get 12mm field of view. Not 24mm.
The 12mm gives you 84 degrees angle of view.
24mm gives appr. 46 degree angle of view.
17mm FoV lens. x0.7 = 12mm FOV(43 FoV). 12mm x2(to calculate back to 35mm FoV) = 24mm(same as the cheap 12-50, which is probably optically better). So BdV is right.
This 8,5mm lens has a 17mm(FoV on 35mm) FoV. Big difference.
Thanks 😉
You do same mistake. you do not make a format changes. Otherwise you are an idiot who doesn’t know anything about photography and optics.
As I said, it is 12mm field of view and not 24mm. You should as well carefully read what I wrote, as I didn’t even mention small format but I talked only about m43 system.
The example old 17mm will give angle of view 84 degrees, not 46 degrees. For 46 degree field of view you need to have a 24mm focal length and that would be twice as long as 12mm is.
So take your idiotic format ratios elsewhere if you can’t understand m43 system and degrees.
you are mistaking.
and your atitude not helping you to look smarter.
better check yourself again.
the crop factor of speedbooster is 0.71
17mm (on full frame) X 0.71= 12mm
now you put it on m4/3 camera so you must consider the crop factor
12 X2=24mm
the 8.5mm you put on the m4/3 camera so it is
8.5X 2 =17mm full frame
Calculating and communicating may not be two of your biggest strengths.
So:
The focal reducer turns the 17mm into 12mm (0.71 x 17mm = 12mm), which is 2 x 12 = 24mm FOV on M43.
On APSC the focal reducer would again turn the 17mm into a 12mm, this time giving a 1.5 x 12 = 18mm FOV.
And as we know 8.5mm on M43 is 2 x 8.5 = 17mm FOV on M43.
Forget to say that’s on my Fuji Xpro 1, then the apsc factor give me a 17/18mm equivalent, you’re right for the m43.
very convincing(photo), how much mm after the focal reducer, too lazy to calculate here
The focal reducer will make it roughly the same as the FF field of view, I think. SO in this case ~17mm.
On apsc, yes. On m43 it’s 24. See comments below as well.
How do you post picks here…..oh you must be one of the clique…..
Oicture works better than words!
Like this??
Option in the reply area!
Hmmm … Google translate gives “Skin while brawny thick meat Manman feeling shaving visibly, it was black people who disappeared in the gloss well enough.” How can that describe a camera lens ? lol
Very difficult to justify this Kowa 8.5mm f/2.8 at US$1,200 (or even at
$825) if it gives me an 18mm EFL (equivalent focal length in 35mm
terms).
When I wanted an excelent prime at that focal lenght with a rectilinear lens, I
bought a cheap but good Sony Nex F3 ($200) body only and a Samyang 12mm
f/2 ($400) which gives me: an equivalent focal lenght as the Kowa, a
beautiful, manual lens with great image quality, a small camera+lens combo and all for US$600 !!!
For the past months I’ve been using that combo and has provided me great pictures.
I still want an 18mm EFL for my micro four thirds system as I prefer my Olympus over my Sony camera, even if the latter has a bigger sensor. I hope the rumour about an Olympus 9mm f2.8 becomes a reality soon !!!!!!!
Wow, impressive price for an f/2.8 prime. I’d like to see full res samples when shooting wide open. If the chromatic aberration is controlled as well as it seems it is from the small samples, who knows, maybe it’ll find some buyers.
Buy me