I made a timeline that shows you the rumored next cameras and lenses. Please keep in mind that this are rumors and may the timeline will change!
As far as I know we should expect following cameras until the end of this year:
– Olympus E-successor in September
– Olympus MicroFourThirds camera in November/December
– Panasonic MicroFourThirds camera in November/December or Q1 2010
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Following lenses should been released between August and Q1 2010
Four Thirds lenses
– Olympus 100mm (f/2.8?) macro
– Olympus 14mm (f/2.0?)
– Olympus 25mm(f/1.4?)
– Olympus 35mm(f/1.4??)
Micro Four Thirds lenses
– three Panasonic lenses (30mm f/1.4, 16-50 f/2.5-4.8 and 20mm f/1.7)
– UPDATE: We havn’t got any information about the Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 macro lens (see the lens here). We don’t know when the lens will be released.
– two Olympus zoom lenses (???)
Hope it helps you to get an idea what’s (may!) coming next 😉
12 Responses
Let’s hope that the rumors about the single focal lengths are wrong
for years now , 12mm (24mm in 35mm) has been the new standard for landscapes and street photography. This is easily illustrated by the fact that most pro zooms nowadays are starting at 24mm and not at 28mm like they used to 15 years ago
this 12mm is one of the 2 most needed lenses for 4/3 …..and m4/3 too
the other one is a bright 1.4 or 1.7 40 to 43mm mm . EVERYONE ELSE has it
this much more important than bringing another 25mm or 35mm which are already existing in the 4/3 catalogs ( even if not with similar aperture)
I am not saying that a bright 17mm and 25mm would not be interesting options but are not priority at this stage of the game
I can’t believe that anyone at Olympus who would do their homework could not reach the same conclusion
let’s hope someone is listening
Harold
That should read “4 Panasonic mFT Lenses” – you forgot the Lumix G Macro 1:2.8/45mm OIS.
See image in the middle of the page:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/other/2009/03/04/10348.html
Cheers, Bjorn
Like Harold, I would like to see a 12mm prime too, NOT a stupid 14mm. I love my 24mm F/2 zuiko on OM, I simply love it.
I’m glad to hear that Oly might be finally announcing some fast primes. The 25mm F1.4 sounds great and a 35mm doesn’t sound bad either.
How about the long waited standard grade ultra wide zoom? It’s been in the lens roadmaps for a while now. (http://www.olympus-esystem.com/dea/products/lens/pdf/zuiko_lens_eng)
Anyway I’m going to save my money untill next summer. Maybe m4/3 would then have a good set of objectives and more appealing bodies too. I’d love a Oly with good viewfinder. I’m already dreaming of m4/3 body with couple of fast primes. 7-14mm would be nice but it’s a bit pricy :/
Another information about the Panasonic 45 mm f/2,8 macro: it has OIS and was already presented at the Photo Imaging Expo PIE in Tokyo on 26.3.09 (according to http://www.photoscala.de ).
Hi, Roumours 🙂
I have a chart mock in MS Excel, much (as for me) better looking, than yours one.. if you like, I can send you the source .xls file and you can provide timelines in that style.. please, email me, if it’s interesting for you
Alexey.
John, standard ultra wide zoom has been already announced and in stock world wide – search for zuiko digital 9-18 😉
The available 25mm Oly mount primes force you to choose between compromises in optical quality and speed for compactness, vs excessive cost and limited availability. Or you go with the Sigma 3rd party lenses (24mm which was never designed for digital cams, or the 30mm) which have sketchy AF and quality assurance, and no contrast based AF for future bodies, both normal and micro 4/3. I’d love to have the 25 and 35 mm in a faster, non macro format which has good optical quality- I don’t need f1.4 as f2.0 would be fine (I’d probably have to stop down the sigma lenses to achieve useable DOF and sharpness in any event, limiting the utility of the f1.4 speed…).
Thanks for this great roadmap. It’s a great help! You can update it periodically.
I vote for a m4/3 12-50mm zoom, f2.8 or 3.5, to take advantage of the closer distance to the “film” plane in mft which should enable smaller wide angles. The 12-60mm 4/3 Olympus is a great lens but too big for an mft.
I will update it continuely. 🙂
I agree with the weird focal lengths comment. Where are these rumors coming from? Neither a 30mm prime or a 16-50mm make any sense for micro four thirds. They both make sense in an APS-C world where you multiply by 1.5. So I’m guessing whatever troll made up that rumor didn’t take into account the 2x crop factor before spouting of nonsense from his “source”.
I repeat it…. 16mm (32mm if you multiply x2) is a common starting focal lenght for video… 😉
So the theory is they’re making lenses videographers want before lenses photographers want? Sheesh, I hope that’s not the case. Maybe I’m in the minority here but part of me still wants to believe that these things are cameras first and video cameras second. And as of right now there is only one serious lens for m4/3 (the 7-14mm), and it is unfortunately priced through the roof. They should be focusing on lenses that appeal to both photographers and videographers for the time being. For me that means primes, primes, and more primes. 7mm f/4, 12mm f/2.8, 20mm f/1.7, 25mm f/1.4, 45mm f/1.4, etc. They’ve already got enough slow consumer zooms to keep soccer parents happy.