We just received that image with the new Panasonic 100-300mm and 3D lens specifications. The only thing we miss here is the price. But let’s hope the lens is cheaper than the new Olympus 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 ($899!!!). .
UPDATE: Kenmorecamera says the lens costs $599!
Interesting the Panasonic 3D lens has a fixed f/12 aperture!
Keep following us! Panasonic will announce the GH2, the 14mm, the 100-300mm and the 3D lens on Tuesday 21!
Quick deals:
– Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 Lens in Stock at Amazon for $336 only
– Olympus 9-18mm in Stock at Amazon for $591
28 Responses
The Panasonic 100-300 has better aperture and built in stabilisation – what’s the chance that it will be cheaper than the Olympus?
if you think panasonic will release a cheaper lens then olympos, you are day-dreaming
agree. when did pany release a cheaper lens than oly?
One shop thinks it’ll sell it for $599, see here:
http://www.kenmorecamera.com/p-10910-panasonic-100-300mm-micro-43.aspx
Maybe they just missed to put a “1” in front of the 599? 🙂
How confusing! Why would they put out a highly specialized lens like this catering to an extremely small niche of photographers, but not come out with the obvious lens every photographer needs, a zoom lens starting at 24 mm equivalent (i.e. 12 mm in mu-4/3 format)?? That’s a main reason why people are buying the LX-5 like crazy. 28mm is simply not enough for everyday photography. It’s almost like panasonic isn’t sing humans with brains to decide what lenses they produce, but a random number generator instead…
Agree very much with you! We need & want 24mm-e – ?? zoom, plus a prime.
Not a huge surprise that the 3D lens is fixed aperture – one of the basic rules of 3D photography for over 150 years has been maximum possible depth of field or suffer reduced 3D effect.
Thus nontrivial technical trick of fitting selectable aperture into this lens would result in large cost increases to no particular advantages – or even disadvantages as uninformed newbies opened the lens up instead of holding depth of field and adjusting exposure with shutter speed and ISO sensitivity.
Note that high-ISO noise is less obtrusive in a 3D image since it will differ between the twos sides of the captured image pair, and noise reduction software will eventually use that difference to reduce noise in both sides, if it isn’t being done already.
Is that it for Photokina? A bit of a letdown. Where’s the GF2? Where’s the Panasonic-made (and rumored Leica-branded) m43 fixed-lens rangefinder?
WOW! It would be really great if it did come in at $599. Like the other two replies, I was expecting that with larger aperture than Olympus and built in image stabilization, it would surely be over $1,000. Let’s hope the optical quality is at least as good as the 45-200.
The glass build into the Pana lens is cheaper only one ED, I also think it wont be as complex as the Olympus, so chances arent that bad its cheaper.
If it only has one ED lens what does that mean for IQ. I am hoping that it does well in the reviews as i could do with a long zoom.
Hope that it better than the 45-200 at the long end.
No doubt that it wont be cheap.
Never mind roll on the 14mm and GH2
I’d imagine $700 being reasonable for the lens especially if it’s a good deal sharper than the 45-200
I wonder why the 14mm lens isn’t on this chart… I hope it has not been delayed.
I also wonder who needs such an extreme tele, as opposed to a more general use zoom starting at 12 mm?
I think we need a faster zoom too! at least as the Olympus 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 but with Mega OIS and AFC, a f4-5.6 is a kind slow.
I wonder how the 3D lens is using the sensor. Is it also using one half for the left picture and the other half for the right picture, resulting in a 14*8.65 mm2 useable area in portrait orientation as 3rd party solutions do? In this case the table is wrongly indicating that 25mm focal length is equivalent to 50mm on 35mm film, it would be 70mm because the crop factor would became 2.8. Or do I overlook another way to use the sensor?
Tillp
I really don’t understand the appeal of this lens (or the Oly m4/3 70-300). According to the specs it’s almost the same size as the Oly 4/3 70-300, 100g lighter, and WAY more expensive. One could probably grab a used E-620+70-300 for the price of this lens alone…
For anyone comited to Pansonic m43 bodies, it all boils down to how much OIS is worth.
it actually makes more sense for Pany, as they have the G-X and GHX line which could use some long zooms.
FINALLY! I’m loving my EPL-1, and have been waiting for this lens. Just the ticket for wildlife options, equiv. to 600mm. One of the reasons I bought into this system was this lens, and it will be great if it does sell for $599. I can easily manage with the kit lens + this 100-300, the space between almost never featured in my zoom range when I had a P&S superzoom.
Provided that the price and image quality are reasonable, this lens could make a really nice travel zoom. Good play on m4/3 strengths (imagine the size of a 600 mm-e zoom in APS-C format), and it should appeal to the P&S masses considering a switch.
I am not so sure about the suitability for wildlife photography though… at f5.6 it’s quite difficult to get decent shots even in the ZOO.
But I really hope that for some time this will be the last lens aimed at point-and-shooters. Panasonic, now it’s time to cater to serious photographers!
@The Okram: fortunately, I split my time between the Middle East and New Zealand, both places with lots of light…have been happy enough with the kit zoom on the EPL-1 at F5.6 at 42mm, so the same at 300m? No problem! IS helps a lot.
Yes it is clear that all the consumer lenses are fulfilled. Time to see more primes, a fast zoom and some more video lenses as well.
The current top set ups for sports photography allows you to take pictures that would have been impossible some few years ago. Just look at some of the shots during the winter Olympics in Vancouver: no day light, skiers running down at warp speed. No problems. ISO speed of top cameras are crazier than ever.
For anything less extreme, sports photographers are now commonly trading their f2.8 monsters for the convenience of slower zooms, albeit just as big. F4 constant. Move back a few years and that was not an option.
So here you are with a f5.6 and maybe a GH2 which reportedly “only” cranks up to a publishable ISO 3200. Since you like to travel light, no mono pod (the average m43 user at least). Thats ok. It all boils down to a couple of questions :
1) what are your expectations?
2) how good is good enough?
On a sunny day, your zoo shots will be publishable. It would be a frustrating set up to shoot running animals, but thats a whole different ball game.
I will definitely buy the 100-300, and I hope that it is as good as the 45-200 IQ-wise.
Mirrorless promise compact size and light weight lens. The new Panasonic 100-300mm weighs 520g and is 126mm long. It is not much small than the EF100-300mm lens originally designed for FF 35mm film camera. And Olympus has to keep the aperture of its new 75mm-300mm mFT lens small to achieve compact size. And the size of the Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS lens is not smaller than its mirrored counter part.
Looks like going mirrorless is not the answer to reduce lens size, at least not for telezoom.
Interesting comparison of weight and size, somewhat surprising.
126 mm = 5 inches
520 grams = 1.14 lbs
Only .1 lbs difference
and virtually the same length, but I do not think it extends another 2 inches in use. This is not clear in the release so far. This should avoid the sliding in and out the lens zoom when looking up or down if this is the case.
The extra .5 f stop less does add weight which I guess would account for about 150 grams, Compare to canon lens with similar f stop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EF_75-300mm_lens
I wonder if the image quality is better at 300. It will be interesting to compare the quality since canons ef lens is around $500.
Also the canon lens uses fewer glass elements, which reduces weight. . The Panasonic lens with a few more lens groups / elements has the potential to improve the image quality, but it will add weight. Canons 10/15 verses Panasonic 13/17