The (Micro-) Four Thirds group listed at www.four-thirds.org.
I am three weeks in the Alps and plan to climb many mountains. But I really have to keep an eye on my iPhone because one of my trusted sources just told me that there will be a new Micro Four Thirds lens announcement from an associated Micro Four Thirds group company. It’s not Panasonic and not Olympus. As you see from the list on top there are so many candidates (and Samyang is not listed) that I leave it up to you to guess what’s coming 🙂
Just a guess (no rumor!): I hope it’s a Samyang prime lens. A Micro Four Thirds version of the superb [shoplink 31320 ebay]35mm f/1.4 Four Thirds lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink] would be a nice addition! For my needs this would be a better portrait lens than the just announced Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens!
P.S.: The Olympus 75mm lens can be preordered at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). In Europe at Amazon UK (Click here), and in Asia at Amazon JP (Click here). And Adorama has also the accessories: Olympus LH-61F, Metal Lens Hood (Click here) and the Olympus LC-61, Metal Front Lens Cap (Click here).
71 Responses
Let’s hope it’s an AF/AE lens. I’m not getting any more all-manual lenses.
Same here.
What I need for the OM-D is fast weather sealed primes, at least a 25mm 1.7 or something with MSC fast autofocus.
Disagree. A couple of shots made by my 20mm F1.7 the other night were ruined because of AF focusing behind or in front of the subject. I’d rather have focus peaking and manual lens than that kind of AF. Especially since there are many nice fast manual lenses for m4/3.
How the hell would a bright lens misfocus in a such way?! Really hard to believe. Do you have the last firmware installed?
@Miroslav
more likely user error….
@ kesztio
@ YouDidntDidYou
User error 100% – I gave my camera to some friends who had shot with P&S only before that.
But it’s really easy not to notice that a camera has not focused on a ( relatively ) distant person, but on the background, especially when you get focus confirmation. If “peaking” was used for focusing, that kind of error could not have been made… Sometimes it takes me two to three tries to make the camera focus on specific leaves on a tree – with 14-150 mm lens.
But focus peaking, at least in the NEX cameras, is available in M mode only and only when you’re focusing manually.
I suppose peaking could be adapted for AF, but it’s really a matter of carefully placing the focus point… a thing P&S users have no clue about. It’s a good selling point for touch focus.
On my NEX-5N focus peaking is also available in DMF mode. In DMF mode the camera will AF when you half press the shutter and then you can manually tweak the focus as long as the shutter is half pressed.
Giving the camera to someone that only uses a P&S or cell phone is guaranteed to get some sort of “what the ???” reaction if peaking is turned on. Peaking is for enthusiasts. When I give the camera to someone else so I can be in a shot I always turn peaking off, set the camera to use face detection and hope for the best. This usually works pretty well and if my face is in the picture it is definitely not going to be a work of art anyways.
Haven’t thought of face detection for such situations – it’s always off on my camera. Thanks for the tip.
Even if it is the AF-fault, you can always switch to MF. But MF can never be AF.
Well said Jesper. Turn off AF.
I believe I had this issue pop up several times both the the 20mm and 14mm on my GF1.
fast 12-60 for me please – an equivalent for the Oly 12-60 SWD one.
then I can stop buying lenses.
That’s why there will never be one, they want to sell lenses 🙂
For me, a 35/1.4 is too close to the 45/1.8. So to me, the 75/1.8 offers something new. But preferences may differ :-).
Hope Tamron can come up with sth cheap like those Sigmas but at better focal length and AF PLEASE. If I want to use manual lenses, I would use NEX, please come up with some AF lenses….
I agree Robbie. 12, 17 and 25mm are what I’d like to see.
I’d hope to see something different, rather than duplicate focal lengths that we already have, or at least provide some decent alternatives. A wider selection of focal lengths will draw more people to M4/3. FIVE 14-42mm kit zooms does not.
10mm f2.8
17mm f2-ish – An alternative to the woeful Oly and the expensive Voigtländer 17.5mm
25mm f1.8 – Just like a cheap kit lens from the 70s.
105mm f3.5 macro – f2.8 would be much more desireable and more expensive.
400mm f4 – Yeah, a prime telephoto. I rarely use my 100-300mm below 300m and a longer lens would separate it from the 2 native xx-300mm zooms.
A GOOD 2x Teleconverter.
for a 100mm macro, f3.5 will have to be stopped down a lot for deep enough DoF.
The only reason I’d consider f2.8 or even a notch faster is because of that limiter switch. Might as well be an all purpose tele lens.
Nevertheless, yes please, a 100mm macro! Having more nervous and insecure baby pythons sometimes in the future, I’d even drool at a 180mm macro!
Nice list.
+1 for the 10, 17 and 105.
I think it’s going to be a Tamron lens. They already have a space in the 4/3 lens catalog, but there’s only company logo in it.
Tamron super zoom, or Tamron 90mm macro?
I expect a m4/3 version of that NEX superzoom.
Tamron sounds very likely. They joined mFT in January and haven’t presented anything so far. I’d guess they’ll hit the market with some lens more or less similar to the 18-200 for sony NEX they’re really heavily promoting. It’s something currently missing for mFT and which would target the average consumer. And it doesn’t compete with Oly’s and Pana’s newer lenses.
My expectation is that Tamron will just take their APS lens(es) for the NEX and put a m4/3 mount on it like Sigma has done. No thanks Tamron.
@Admin:
„A Micro Four Thirds version of the superb 35mm f/1.4 Four Thirds lens (here on eBay) would be a nice addition! For my needs this would be a better portrait lens than the just announced Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens!”
But it’s MF only. If I was satisfied with MF I would buy a still cheaper but brighter Auto Revuenon 55/F1.2 or Olympus OM 50(55)/F1.2 (used legacy lenses).
So my best choice is the 45/1.8 (I already have it).
I am hoping for cheap tele lens. mabe a fixed 300mm with fast AF. The rumored 75-300 Sigma for a better price than the Oly would be great. And I agree with Agen00Soul no more manual focus please!
Probably Leica or Zeiss 12-35mm f1.4 which costs $1.5k? :p
C’mon, you’ll never see such a zoom at that price!
How about a REAL Leica MF in native m43 mount for some serious lens porn. I don’t care what focal length it is. Must be fast. Price it at a $3000. I wouldn’t buy it anyway, but camerageek, MK and a quite a few cashed up gear nuts would. And it would make NEX users pretty jealous.
Tamron and Sigma do some great macro (105mm)lenses… One thing with Sigma and Samyang: They are often big and heavy not really in the spirit of m43.
7.5mm fisheye is Samyang’s only lens designed natively for 4/3 sensor and mirrorless mount.
Not completely on topic but Panasonic UK have a deal on the first ten 12-35mm lenses, £699 @ 30% off list price.
….update….
Just checked and the code no longer works, I bought one on Sunday morning but I guess the other nine are spoken for.
They also did a special promo price on the 45 – 175mm zoom at £269 (from memory) before it came out. This is still a pretty good price for it so I would imagine the 12-35 will actually come down to around £750 / $1,000 once the initial sales phase is over based on the 45-175mm deal and current pricing.
Couldn’t this be the Voigtländer Nokton 17.5mm F0.95?
Has it launched already?
No the voigtlander already launch, my local store already offering that last week…
let’s hope is not another mirror lens, and whoever make it please sell it complete with hood and case …
hopefully a fast leica, i would fork out the cash for such a quality piece of glass.
I bet it will be one of 2 lenses:
schneider kreuznach 12mm f3.5 tilt shift or Tamron 14-50 f4 that would be equivalent to 28-100 or 24-90 in canon sensor size of g1x (rumoredto be the size of canon mirrorless….I bet tamron knows that info so they can launch lenses for both systems)
Anyone else want to see an affordable 9mm prime? The Oly 9-18mm is tiny but image quality is just OK and it’s too expensive… APSC dslr cameras have great ultra-wide third party options like the tokina 12-24mm, Tamron 10-24mm, Samyang 14mm, and sigma 10-20mm. A relatively small Samyang 9 or 10mm prime would be great for landscape work and m43 users should not have to pay $899 for it…
The SLR magic 12mm looks nice and the price is good. However, I think we could do better than 12mm.
+1
A small 9 or 10mm prime is what I need. Any brand will do.
+1
A small 9 or 10mm prime is what I need. Any brand will do.
I guess it’s me, but I have the 12mm Oly, and I got it for doing landscape, however I find it often to wide and in fact, I like doing almost tele landscapes, close to about 45mm (so 90mm). I don’t see how you could do 9mm landscape and make it interesting, everything is so far away and not prominent, unless you’re talking about urban landscape which might make sense in small streets, but I don’t really get the extreme wide thing… then again i’m no pro.
Do yourself a favour, get the 7.5mm Samyang.
I got mine last Friday and it hardly left the camera since then. 😉
I would love to be talked into it because it is a great looking lens, and for fair price. The image quality looks impressive, but I just don’t think I would use a fish-eye that much.
+1 Yep, I also want that 🙂
Yes please.
A small affordable 9 or 10mm. f3,5 or f4 is fast enough.
Panasonic announced a UWA to fit on the 14mm or 14-42 that convert it to a 11mm wide-angle – might be worth considering?
Probably a tamron superzoom.
Samyang native 35mm would be cool but too big compared to fast legacy 35mm primes.
Maybe Zeiss will reengineer it’s existing Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* E 24/1,8 ZA för the Micro Four Thirds mount? Like Sigma recently did with the 19mm & 30mm primes, both with Autofocus capabilities.
Tamron & Tokina would be potential candidates with their own current Macro lenses. I guess Macro lenses will focus very slowly on MFT, if they are of film or 135 sensor heritages.
One is sure to be the Tokina Reflex 300mm f6.3 mirror lens from CP+ in Jan. at 300g and $300 US it will be a nice little specialty lens. Hood looks to be separate, I really hate this practice of not including a lens shade!
AF, please….
I would really hope ,Tokina or other company would comes up with wide angle zoom similar to 11-16 mm F2.8 on APS-C with aperture ,zone focusi
+1
That’s my dream lens. Amazing price for what you get. I would get a 7-14mm but unfortunately I need to eat and pay rent 🙁
+2
use it with Nikon & hope to use it with E-M5 too 🙂
I hope Leica will introduce some of their designs into m43.
They are a member and they could rebrand a Pana body to sve themselves the trouble.
It will bappen I guess sometimes. Lenses probably first…
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Message ends.
my guess: TAMRON
zoom or macro
Fuji is still on list…
I hope it’s a pancake lens.
We already have a pile of pancakes.
Now it’s time for some more meat; How about some bright lenses and zooms?
I wouldn’t exactly call 3 short focal length pancakes a pile, and you just got yourself a bright lens and a zoom lens. :p
I would love tokina to release 11-16 2.8 for m4/3 or an 10 mm prime by Tokina or sigma.
Slight O/T
http://robinwong.blogspot.de/2012/05/show-me-photographs-not-gear-how-to.html?m=1
Good read.
Is the list trustworthy?
Schneider is partner of Samsung in NX
Zeiss is partner of SONY in NEX
Kodak is no more
Leica is coming with with its own EVIL/mirrorless
Tamron is SONY’s OEM
Fujifilm have its own EVIL/mirrorless line
Samyang is not on the list but actually released a m4/3 lens
Schneider and Zeiss bring high quality cinema lenses to a lot of system, Tamron and sigma do the same for cheap primes and zooms. all have in common that they do not develop for m43 natively, but adapt their lenses. I guess this will be the case her.
You are right about Kodak, Leica and Fuji.
It will be a fixed focus (constantly hyperfocal) 7mm f2.8 ultra-sharp ultra-small pancake prime. $200. Unlimited DOF starting at just beyond ~1 meter. An ultimate point and shoot wide lens for m43 🙂
Just dreaming 🙂
in the meantime: get the samyang fisheye.
If only it could de-fish itself right there in the viewfinder 🙂
I predict a Sigma 105mm macro. They had one for Olympus 4/3 mount. I use it with an adapter on my E-M5. It auotfocuses well, too. And they have one available for nearly every mount…no reason not to just add a new mount and take the money from more people.
My money’s on a Tamron superzoom. 14-200mm maybe and f3.5-6.7.
They’ve been remarkably quiet when it comes to m4/3 lenses and considering its the biggest mirrorless market, they’ll want to get involved quite soon. Their lens for the NEX is doing quiet well as it undercuts Sony prices. I’ve used it and the focusing was slow though, so I would have forked out for the Sony 18-200 over the Tamron, hopefully they can get over that for m4/3 though and offer something compelling.
Im guessing Tamron as well. I dont for see anything special coming. A 14-50 F4 would be pretty interesting though. Weather seal it up, make sure its nice and sharp. 700 msrp and 450 street. That would work.