I try to avoid to post low ranked rumors on 43rumors. But this one is pretty interesting if true. An anonymous new source told me this:
“We are making prototypes of an Olympus 9mm f2.8. Expect an aperture ring and metal construction. One of our three protos seems to have room for sealing.“
Sounds like this will be a high quality (PRO?) lens. The current PRO lens roadmap doesn’t contain any prime lens yet, but if the rumor is correct tell us:
[poll id=”218″]
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Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct
58 Responses
Sounds good to me – I think this will be big $ though!
Altho, I would not mind having the option, one has to wonder how much having a UWA prime is really needed, despite all the talk. There are zoom options after all. I know, small and fast…
I cannot seriously day dream of having this lens anywhere cheaper than the 2/12. More expensive actually, and we are getting dangerously in the price bracket of the already excellent 4/7-14 and then Olympus has a sexy 2.8/7-14 in the pipeline.. So how much a fast prime UWA for the sake of having a prime? I just don’t know…
Haven’t heard about the rumored Olympus 7-14 f/2.8 prime? it is not on the chart above.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/02/12/olympus-confirms-development-of-7-14mm-f2-8-and-300mm-f4-pro-lenses
THANKS!
They’ve already displayed the mockup and said that it will be available in 2015, along with the 300mm f4/.0, while the 40-150mm f/2.8 will be available in 2014.
I wish Sigma would make a 10mm art lens. f4 would be fine with me as long as it outperforms the available zoom lenses. Same price category of course 🙂
Yes, 10mm rectilinear is exactly what I’d like too. F/3.5 would be bright enough so it remains as compact and light as possible. That’d pair nicely with the 12-35 when it isn’t wide enough.
By far the most interesting lens news in a long while. About the current zooms:
– Pana 7-14 seems to be excellent, but very bulky and no filter thread
– Oly 9 – 18 (?) was visibly softer than the Pana in a comparison i saw (and you see it’s not in the upper sections of the graphic of this post)
UWA is underrepresented. Of course, metal construction and aperture ring sound scarily expensive and sometimes one wishes to go back to Canon DSLR and choose from heaps and heaps of glorious glass at much cheaper prices.
Well… I have a Zeiss 20mm f2.8 for my 5DIII….It beats all of the less-than-glorious Canon offerings and it certainly isn’t inexpensive.
Panasonic’s 8mm f/3.5 is $640 on Amazon. I think we could expect a price around $800 for the Oly. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-8mm-Fisheye-Digital-Cameras/dp/B003O868UG
not buying this 9mm .. I am happy with my four thirds WAs: 7-14mm, 11-22mm, 8mm FE… why buy more?
…Because some of us don’t want to lug heavy, adapted, non-weather-sealed 4/3 glass around.
except that all of the lenses listed above ARE wethaer-sealed… my POV is just of a person who already has invested in 4/3rds gear in the past… If I was buying now, well, who knows… asI said, that is my POV only 😉
There isn’t much need when you already have great glass, as long as you have time to focus. It seems as though it will be forever for great micro Four-Thirds lenses, although the 12-40mm f/2.8 is very good, between the 14-54mm and 14-35mm in quality.
Ya know…I have the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4. The lens quite good for this small format and although I would like to own this rumored prime, if I did I would still keep my WA zoom…so I just could not justify the purchase of an expensive 9mm prime financially, and also it would be adding too much redundancy in my MFT lens quiver.
I guess I can see the purist prime collector needing it…but in the end…if the same shot was taken I really don’t think that there would be enough meritable difference between my Panny zoom set @9mm f/4 and a prime like this.
Definitely needed – and would hopefully meets the standard of the Fuji 14mm for distortion and CA.
WOW…can u put the Fuji on your MFT camera?
If you are a photographer, I thought you would be a bit more imaginative in your use of extrapolation.
I just don’t see why that comparison is relevant…..
Whoa…wait…I get it…if the Fuji is a smidgen better…I will sell off my 2 MFT a bodies, sell 10 lenses and buy into the Fuji system…yeah…that must be your thinking……Wait…does Fuji have 10 lenses???
Depends on 9 mm 2.8 vs 7-14 2.8 price difference…
This would be three times the price of the new Samyang 10mm. With lenses this wide I can easily manage with manual focusing and the 2mm EFL difference is not that beneficial to me, so if I decide to buy an ultra-wide prime I will know what to do. Still, a lens like the rumored one would be good for the system.
The problem I have with the Samyang lenses is that they aren’t really designed for mFt (only) which results in a much bigger size and weight than it would have to be.
I think this would compliment the 12-40mm nicely, especially if it’s priced around 1/2 of what the upcoming 7-14mm clocks in at.
The only lens I’m waiting for ! byebye 9-18 !
For those (me) who didn’t want to buy the bulky WA zooms, this is what we’ve been waiting for. Unless it’s not significantly less bulky.
Is there anyone who could estimate the lens length? Dimensions are important.
Comparing ff 18mm with 24mm… mmm… well, hopefully not much bigger (built like a tank, weather sealed, filled with loads of rare earth elements?) than the 12mm 2.0. Could be more expensive though, if they call it pro. If it’s as pro as the Kowa 8.5, let’s see which one’s smaller/cheaper.
I have been waiting FOREVER for a high-quality wide-angle prime. A corner-to-corner sharp 9mm should have been available five years ago for us landscapers. *sigh* I’d take this or a higher quality 9-18mm. (I loved and hated the 9-18mm because it’s small and convenient, but its corners were quite weak.) (And yes, the Pany 7-14 is solid, but some of us want a WA that can still take filters.)
Fil-ters! Fil-ters! Fil-ters!
That roadmap doesn’t include the proposed lenses or am i missing something. There’s a 7-14mm f2.8 in the pipeline isn’t there?
Kinda negates the need for a 9mm 2.8 for me.
It is not a roadmap, it is a lineup (and a little outdated at that). Horizontal axis is focal length, not time.
Like so many the trade off comes with size vs the rumored Olympus 7-14 and the price… If they are close I would go for the 7-14 as it gets me to 7mm wide when I need it.
This sounds great. However, as a mere peasant, I would hope for a 9mm f4 to keep the cost down (with better IQ tan the 9-18mm…).
I’m with you on this one. Maybe Sigma can help.
How about an f/8.0 instead of f/4.0? You can get it soon.
I only just remembered that the first “Pro” prime has already been announced – the 300mm f4.0. (Why is that lens roadmap so incomplete? Missing the 300/4, 25/1.8, and 7-14/2.8) I can sort of see the logic of going for the extreme opposite end of the spectrum with their next lens.
But honestly, only because they took so long to add a 25mm to the system. If the 25/1.8 hadn’t just come out what seems obvious to me would be to make the first non-tele Pro prime as a 25/1.2 (or faster… 25/1.0?) with all-metal weather-sealed construction, dedicated aperture ring, clutch focus, and size/cost be truly damned.
Not only would I get the lens, but also an EM1 to go with
it!
It’s a good new and hope it will be FT5. I sold my 12/2 fews weeks ago because it was not too wide for me.
And please no black edition like 12/2 …
I would be all over this lens!!!! Bring It!
I dunno if I see this doing THAT well. We need a good wide prime, but not another pricey one. I’m a little torn on this.
The 45mm and 25mm are excellent system adds because they not only deliver great image quality, but they’re moderately priced.
I certainly wont be affording a “pro” priced lens soon. Maybe this will attract pros to the system, and maybe the IQ is stunning good to warrant the price, but I’m not sure it’s as good an addition as I’d hope.
I’m sticking to my 10mm F3.5, i.e. kit lens with wcon for now.
Curious how much some of you are willing to pay for this width.
Absolutely yes if it 9-18/2.8, weather-sealed. A 9mm prime, even weather-sealed… maybe for $200.
I’d prefer 10mm over 9mm, but still an appealing lens. The aperture ring mentioned in the rumor makes me quite skeptical though.
While it would be a nice prime to have available, I seriously doubt that an Olympus m43 prime will have an aperture ring. None of their other lenses have had, and the only m43 lens to have one is the soon to be released Panny 15/1.7. Why start now?
The Panny Leica 42.5 has an aperture ring as well. I agree — it’s doubtful Olympus would implement an aperture ring this late in the game. But a 9/2.8 is sweet and would make me buy back into Olympus in a heartbeat.
Hmm, a 7-14 2.8 is on the roadmap, so a 9mm 2.8 sounds extermely unlikely. I’d rather have a 9/10mm 3.5/4 that’s more compact.
I’m wondering if this is going to be a fisheye (somewhat like the 8mm f/3.5 for the 4/3 system). Assuming, of course, that this rumor has a scrap of truth to it.
the ultra wide 2.8 zoom will sell so few because the pana 7-14mm is killer lens. That new 9mm is even less likely to sell… Now if they would have made a ultra wide fish eye zoom, that would be more interesting!
Maybe this rumoured 9mm lens will be a 9mm fisheye full-frame, similar to the old 4/3 8mm fisheye, (an excellent lens, but big on micro 4/3), and not overlap the FOV of the announced 7-14mm? Olympus slowly copying the excellent 4/3 lens lineup in micro 4/3? We are already seeing this with the new 12/40 zoom effectively replacing the 12/60. Just a thought…..
This does actually make sense. The forthcoming 7-14 f2.8 Pro will almost definitely not have a thread to take filters, with this in mind a 9mm Pro grade weather sealed prime with an aperture or manual focusing ring would be the only Pro quality lens prime or otherwise that will accommodate for those in need of using filters for long exposures and the like and don’t find the 9-18 lens IQ good enough.
Remember in the classic four thirds days users had a choice among the Pro grade lenses to have the widest and best 7-14 f4 albeit without filters or simply opt for another pro optic with the Pro 11-22 f2.8 which wasn’t as wide but could take filters. Both were ultra wide zooms but essentially still different. Now Olympus may give us 7-14 f2.8 Pro and another UW Pro alternative which take filters albeit in the form of a prime and that negates the issue of two lenses overlapping the same focal length.
As posters have mentioned it could also be a fisheye lens and that’s a likely possibility and a welcome one if it’s a weather sealed Pro grade optic that isn’t heavy. I owned the 4/3 version and loved it but it was almost half a kilo!
One thing for sure is this system still lacks Pro weather sealed primes and Pro ultra tele zooms for wildlife. My needs are covered for now with the 50-200swd but seriously where are those weather sealed primes? Kudos to Panasonic for daring to make the nocticron but a prime lens costing over $2000 in Australia that’s not weather sealed ?
Lol……..pro lens. An 18mm F5.6. Thats some super pro lens……lol. M43 is not pro.
@Viezevure
Ha ha ha…very funny indeed….just don’t forget to laugh when the medium format brigade mock you for using that point and shoot 35mm f1.2 L lens that’s only ‘equivalent’ to an f3.xx
and you realise it never realy was a Pro lens despite what canon told you.
A truly intelligent creature you are in indeed.
@viezevure inform ur self, 18mm equiv. Fov but still f2.8 for shutter speed. And don’t come to talk about bokeh… Bokeh at 18mm? LoL
Go back under ur bridge, silly troll
@viezevure inform ur self, 18mm equiv. Fov but still f2.8 for shutter speed. And don’t come to talk about bokeh… Bokeh at 18mm? LoL
Go back under ur bridge, silly troll
If it’s a fish, I’m in. Otherwise it’s the 7-14PRO that’ll have my money.
Now I can only hope we’ll see the development of PRO tilt-shift and PRO macro once all currently-announced lenses have been released…
Surprised to hear people want a fisheye when there’s already the samyang. Just for the AF?
In addition to having AF, the PRO designation would suggest weather sealing and a brighter lens (2.8 vs 3.5).
I hope it’s nota fisheye.
I’ve been waiting for this one dor my BMPCC