Over a month ago sources told us that new zoom lenses with power zooms would be announced soon. Now our soruces confirmed that both new zoom lenses will have Powerzoom and Inner focusing. And again the size is extremely compact! Also Andrew from EosHD got info about those lenses and said: “The zoom buttons are apparently on the lens itself so it will work with any current Lumix Micro Four Thirds camera.”
Andrew also mentions a new 45-300mm HD OIS. But according to our sources that lens will NOT be announced in late August.
All sources again confirmed that there will be no GF PRO (or GF7) camera yet. Panasonic wants to take some time before to announce the camera!
64 Responses
And remain smaller than the oly kit ??? Wow… I guess IS will have to be forfit or are they pulling out all the stops!
the “button” will need to be a responsive zoom rocker type, see here on a Fuji lens http://www.dvuser.co.uk/images/img/reviews/camcorders/jvc-gyhd101e/rocker.jpg
Great to see there is a new lineup of kit lenses with size and video oriented concerns.
Even if the IQ isn’t any better than the current kit, these are very welcome for being smaller and cheaper. BTW I don’t believe IQ will be worse! For the tele zoom it simply can’t!
Hope the powerzoom is just an option and not an exclusive feature (I mean manual zoom ring will be still available)
Can’t see these being cheap + good quality + small + powerzoom. At least one thing has to give, maybe two.
I agree. Those lenses seem to be tailored to video shooters. If so, they would be ‘good enough’ and ‘cheap enough’ for video, not necessarily for stills.
Maybe they’ll remove the manual zoom ring to make the lens smaller?
Will they work on Oly bodies?
Why is power zoom a video thing? I was under the impression that videomakers hardly zoom at all and if really have to will zoom manually.
No manual zoom ring? No, thanks! The original kit zoom is just fine.
Do you think the manual zoom ring will be gone???
If so, it’s too big of a casualty for me to consider these lenses!
Because even though videomakers avoid to zoom, when they really need to with a power zoom it’s done at a constant rate (something you can’t achieve manually on the focus ring no matter how hard you try).
Zoom is used quite often in film making and TV (maybe 4-5% of shots) but usually it is zooming out as a reveal or zooming in or out while dollying the camera…
Zooming in itself is quite rare, unless you want to go from a wide to a body shot for instance quickly and plan to split the shot in two in post.
People who shoot videos of their kids love that kind of thing.
“Why is power zoom a video thing? I was under the impression that videomakers hardly zoom at all and if really have to will zoom manually”
Because these lenses are not targeted at video makers. They are targeted at consumers who zoom in and out with their camcorders or point and shoots all the time. Manual zooming during handheld operation is not a great option as it is abrupt and causes too much wobble / camera shake.
What does ‘inner focusing’ stand for?
Lenses like 20/1.7 move the front elements in whole to focus.
Internal focus moves a small and light lens inside. Allows fast and silent operation.
means the lens does not change its shape while focusing, i.e. pana 14mm
It’s good that these lenses are small, but I really don’t like the idea of power zooming at all. Part of the joy of photography is the mechanical aspect of it. I like turning mechanical dials. I bought the Oly 12mm in part simply for it’s manual focus ring. We’ve already lost aperture rings, are zoom and focus rings next? If so I will finally have to break down and buy a Leica M since they seem to be the only company left that understands that cameras are more than simple electronic gadgets.
As far as lenses go, I agree.
AF lenses feel disconnected somehow. AF is awfully convenient, though.
Try some of the Voigtländer Leica M mount primes. I have the Nokton 35mm f1.4 and find their 75mm f1.8 pretty compelling. The M to M4/3 adaptors are quite small, too. Or look for some good manual prime lenses that can be adapted to ANY camera.
That’s what I’m doing. Manual lenses feel REAL.
As far as these supposed power zooms go, if they manage to sell more M4/3 cameras, then that should be a good thing for all of us!
I had the Nokton 40mm f/1.4 for a while. Loved the build and the size, but the IQ was not so great with it. I currently use my old K-Mount manual focus Pentax glass; which feels ok, but nothing like M-Mount lenses for sure. I’m now trying to decide between the Nokton 35mm 1.4, Ultron 28mm f/2, or the Zeiss 50mm f/2. Obviously each offers something different. Honestly though, I’m waiting to see test on the NEX-7; I just prefer the 1.5x crop factor if I’m going to build up a set of M-Mount glass. Sony’s focus peak function is also playing a big role in my decision.
I tried a CV 35/1.4 on my GF1 and was unimpressed by the poor contrast, bokeh and sharpness. The bokeh in particular was fugtastic, with an ugly pinpoint speck in OOF highlights. Also, the flare characteristics of the lens were terrible, with veiling flare rendering many sunlit shots unusable.
I do however *love* using the CV 50/1.1 on my GF1, but it has a tendency for polygonal highlights when stopped down smaller than f/1.4 (a common failing on CV lenses, I’ve found). In the end, I couldn’t justify spending $1,100 on the lens when my legacy SMC Takumar was just as adequate and 1/10th the price.
@Eric: focus peaking would definitely be a big help when using fast legacy glass. I really wish m43 cameras had it.
If it is small and behaving like a compact camera zoom (including automatic opening an iris and moving out) I will be glad to buy it for the GF2. No more cap removing/loosing :-). But for a G or GH I would be ashamed to put it on…
Get all three lenses!
Really. I have the Nokton 25mm, 35mm and a Pentax 50mm f 1.4 SMC Takumar as my basic kit (w/ 7-14mm). It’s light, compact and really flexible.
Sure, they’re no kit zoom, but I think I can make the sacrifice. 😉
“I really don’t like the idea of power zooming at all. Part of the joy of photography is the mechanical aspect of it.”
This is primarily about video not about photography. I use a camcorder and have tried to replace it with a GH1. However one of the limitations that I faced was the lack of power zoom – there are two issues which happen when you try to manually zoom during video. First the camera and consequently the video shakes all around as you rotate the zoom ring. Also the zooming happens in steps unlike the very smooth zooming in and zooming out possible with a camcorder. Personally I have switched to using primes for video so it is less of a concern for me. However in general if one needs to replace a camcorder by a video-capable DSLR or mirror-less camera then features like power zoom are needed.
With these video type lens, wouldn’t they need to also announce a more consumer priced dedicated (under 2,000 dollars) video camera also?
I’m sure that is in Panny’s cards.
http://www.43rumors.com/ft4-panasonic-is-working-on-a-lens-with-powerzoom/
Power zoom is useless if it will not maintain focus during zooming. For this to be successful it has to be Parfocal.
If AF works while filming, it will probably keep the lens in focus when you zoom too.
The 14-140mm is actually parfocal. However, if you use AF while filming and zooming you will see it constantly trying to correct the focus that doesn’t actually need to change.
They need to update the firmware to prevent AF when the zoom ring is turned. My understanding is that the original firmware for the lens did this and they actually broke it with what they thought was a firmware fix.
Am I dreaming? Look at this: http://www.eoshd.com/content/3676/panasonic-to-offer-high-end-x-lenses-for-micro-four-thirds
🙂 🙂 🙂
Going to post something about this soon (with some extras of course)
I pushing “Refresh” every second!
my F5 key broke off 🙁
ROFL
Admin — are these DIFFERENT lenses, or the same ones?
internal focusing is often related to weather sealing and non-rotating elements (side note — internal focusing is NEGATIVELY correlated with lens length, so I’m thinking we’ve got a couple of different rumors that are a bit jumbled up at the moment)
I wonder what they mean by high end.
The two Leica branded lens as well as the 7-14 are anything but consumer grade.
Where does Leica enter into this?
I agree, Leica would be the better Quality Label than “X”. But I know in companies “X” is often used for something not yet decided or released. So the Leica Branding could still come…
You never know. Leica also has rumors of mirrorless system. Perhaps they’re pulling back from licensing.
That’s fine with me so long as they make us something that fills the role the Leica CL used to fill. My dream: updated Leica CL design, full frame sensor, EVF instead of rangefinder, M-Mount, and sell it with a new AF 35mm f/2 lens an all for around $4,000 or so and I’d be all over it.
Power zooms? Everyone who tried that before failed. It can be done easier today, but kinda doubt that, usefull probably only for movies. Though, power zoom lens usually have manual zoom ring (though its not “true” manual, it will be probably linked as focus ring, so focus-by-wire). Cant help myself, but I would prefer hard linked focus/zoom ring and on top of that manual aperture ring. AF is possible even with this.
AF should be something like bonus, not only way to focus.
most chances it will have a spring loaded ring for focus action, not buttons. it will definitely come on the expense of a manual zoom ring.
Any info of the speed of these lenses?
If there’s no focus ring or zoom ring and it’s internal focus, I see no reason why it can’t be a sealed unit. I know there’s know weather seal but for longevity in a plastic lens, keeping it dust/mold free, it may be nice.
If it’s true about PZ, Panasonic just shot itself in the foot.
Powerzoom was introduced by Minolta, right before their marketshare tanked and didn’t start to recover for 10 years.
Powerzoom was introduced by Pentax, right before their marketshare tanked and didn’t start to recover for 15 years.
Powerzoom was a key feature of Olympus’s ZLR’s. Which tanked.
This misfeature has come up before. The market hated it. Hopefully Panny will kill it quick.
Hopefully it’s not exclusive power zoom.
P&S have a 80-90% market share and almost all have powerzooms. Not much video use when Minolta and Pentax tried it. It’s important for zooming in video mode and I don’t see it as a problem if it’s added and don’t replace the zoom ring. If the powerzoom replace the zoom ring then it might be a bigger problem.
Powerzoom on a rocker switch near the power button (and, btw, one of the reasons I moved from my G9 to a DSLR — zooming is just too slow). The rumors here is the switch is on the lens? Ugh.
You don’t want fast zoom in movie mode, you want a steady rate and it’s much easier to hold the camera steady if you don’t have to turn a zoomring.
The rocker have to be on the lens or it wouldn’t work with existing bodies. Convenient place too as it can be operated with the left hand.
Power zoom for video? Will it be a parfocal lens then, as well?
If so, is this really a cheap lens kit, or some, new video-oriented lens?
The rumor says extremely small, and I assume pretty cheap kit lenses. I’ve no idea if they are parfocal. It would be an advantage, but the AF is fast and you can’t expect everything in this segment.
With Powerzoom the Camera would know how fast the focal lenght changes, so it could calculate the new focus point. Cheap + Small
The size of these new lenses basically shouts software correction to the maximum. Not that I dislike it, but for me it is an indicator that the lenses may have worse IQ than the existing ones. At least regarding corner sharpness.
But it is a logical step, and we all should know that we cannot expect superior image quality from a much smaller lens. Not now.
One day, 7-300mm 1.2, pancake OIS, one day …
My one two combo: OLY 14-150mm and PAN 20mm. <– very pocketable lens. infact lens+body is still very pocketable.
The only 2 lenses required for almost any situation. (now I have 12mm, might replace 20mm) But if the 14-150 was pocketable, Ep3 would the ultimate travel camera, no questions. Pocketable pro pictures.
If the new 45-140 + body is pocketable, then M3/4 will have finally reached its unltimate goal. Pocketable pro quality. Just a Leica quality sensor is needed from Kodak who already pionner 4/3 sensors. KODAK GET BACK INTO THE 4/3 game you fools.
also an automatic folding lens cover on the 45-140 would be required to be perfect pocketlens.
My 14-42mm kit zoom languishes in the box, unused. For that range of focal lengths, I use the 14mm F2.5, 20mm F1.7 and 45mm F2.8 primes. I would only use a standard zoom is if it wasn’t hampered by such slow maximum apertures. So this super compact, motorized zoom probably isn’t for me. Still it’s exactly what Panasonic needs to sell camera kits in the consumer arena. The majority will look at the overall size of the camera and lens, so a super compact zoom will make the kit seem more attractive.
Apart from the power-zoom, who needs a telephoto zoomlens that is probably even worse than the 45-200mm? I for one do not. Panasonic is focussing on video, I hope other brands will focus on still photography.
it would be nice to have a GF7 with small 14-42 zoom, because it makes much more sense, a small camera with a small lens, which you can’t say for Sony NEX, small body with a mothafucka huge lens, it just look weird, I guess the balance feels weird as well.
Will the GF7 be able to compete with the NEX-7? As long as Panasonic don’t go for the megapixel race and instead improve noise, high-iso performance, overall IQ, they may have a shot. But NEX-7 will probably have better overall IQ, it will also have AVCHD 2.0 and plenty of video controls. It seems to be a very solid camera. But I see the GF7 priced more like E-P3, since it looks like the NEX-7 will be 1000US$ body only. Will Panasonic put all that together for a lower price?
No mentioning about image quality anywhere? Nor aperture? Guess theese are p&s lenses like the already existing bunch. In the Panasonic camp they are worried seeing their lenses much bigger than Olympus…
Here is an FT4,5 rumor: I ordered a 25/1,4 from Pixmania.se at a very decent prize and it seems to have been shipped today!
Hmm.. I checked Pixmania.se but they don’t even list the Olympus 12 or the 45. I ordered the 45/1.8 at Cyberphoto for just under 3000 SEK. They say it will be delivered in early september.
They only had a few of them, now they are out of stock. I was lucky!
Received mine yesterday from Pixmania France. Priced at €549
Yay, just what we need, ANOTHER 14-42 slow zoom!
At least Panasonic is consistent…
I think Panasonic further reacts on competition. Make a small GF3 to compete with Sony NEX, now make smaller lenses to compete with the upcoming Nikon mirrorless system.
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