Tech freak may be happy to read the patent describing exactly every single characteristic of the soon to be released new Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO zoom lens. Download the pdf here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20140218808.pdf.
Like I told you before the lens will be announced before Photokina (Likely on August 30) and cost around $1300-$1400. Shipment in early 2015.
62 Responses
mmmmmmm…. Tasty!
🙂
What is that body on page 25?
I thought you meant those curves om pages 9-22, but that one on p. 25 looks like a super zoom bridge sp100EE kind of camera.
WOW! 15 elements!!! It should be f’ing sharp with all that glass in there!!!!! LOL!
Admin…MORE E-PL7 info..puuuullllease!!!!
Well, the Olympus SHG 35-100 f/2 had 21 elements in 18 groups and is one of the sharpest telephoto zooms ever made…
Doesn’t that first one look to be 7-14mm?
Never mind, didn’t see it was just one….
Not a bad proposition, but how much will it cost? A year ago I got the discontinued Sigma 150mm 2.8 for €200 and I am very happy with it. Haven’t used it on a Sony mFT sensor though – and it is worth trying. On FT it works well. This thing here is a zoom, meaning distortion and other problems, and will cost the earth. It is high time Olympus find a way out of the vicious circle of having a small sensor and extremely expensive lenses at the same time. They lost me as a future customer – I recently bought a Pentax K-30 and will start investing in the new system, not in Oly – and they will surely continue to lose other customers too. IMHO.
Vicious circle? They have some of the cheapest and fastest primes on the market- period. For 2300.00 you can have almost everything covered in primes and a top notch camera to boot. We’re talking barely the price of a high end camera and most of those lenses will retain 80 percent of their value EASILY. You get what you pay for.
Sorry, I can’t see your point and I don’t see what you mean by “they”. If you mean Olympus, the only cheap and good Olympus prime is 45mm. The 25mm is expensive, the 12mm is very expensive, and the 75 mm extremely expensive. Pana 14mm is good and cheap, 20mm is very good and cheap, 25mm is reasonably riced and outstanding, Sigma 60mm is extremely good and cheap. But all these are not Olympus.
The lens will cost $1300-1400. It’s right at the top of the page…read then write. 🙂
$1300-1400 is A LOT of money – in Europe it will be even much much more. As I said, I have the Sigma 150mm 2.8 prime (not a distorting zoom) bought for €200 – will surely blow the one discussed here right out of the water.
You can’t use your Sigma 150mm 2.8 as a reference point, given that even used ones typically cost in the $500-900 range these days. You got an absolute steal of a deal.
I did! Actually I got it for a little more than €200, it was something like €230. Very good deal anyway – and it performs. But look, the Sigma 150mm 2.8 was about $1000 at launch, and the one discussed here is to cost $1300-1400 … or more …. A distorting zoom … If I want 40mm or 60mm in addition, I simply use the miniature E-PM2 with the Oly 45 or Sigma 60mm. And I get two primes instead of one zoom, at similar weights and dimensions and prices …. My question is: why don’t Oly make a 150 2.8 prime for $1000 like Sigma did some time ago? Answer: they can do it and they will ask $3000 for it ….
Well, Panasonic is already making one of those…
For how much?
No one knows yet.
Panasonic always seems to price lenses wrong out of the gate (except for the 20mm/1.7) but I don’t think the 150/2.8 is going to be Leica branded, so hopefully it will come in at a realistic price point. I think asking more than $1000 is going to be a really hard sell with the 35-100/2.8 and the 40-150/2.8 coming in so close to the same price.
It won’t be much better and it doesn’t beat it at zooming!!!
If you think the 25mm is expensive than you shouldn’t be using any ILC. That’s just a rediculous statement. You can grab it for 350.00 dollars. It has excellent silent and quick focus, 1.8 speed and a modest build that will last until you get bored of it and move on. The 75mm is anything but extreme- give me a break. The build is top notch and if you can’t afford it buy it used for under 650.00. Heck, they often sell refurbished ones for around 550.00 right from Olympus. If the 45mm or 25mm were any cheaper they’d be free.
You are obviously talking about the US market. In Europe such prices are unimaginable. The 75mm is €1000 and you can’t buy it second-hand or refurbished because it is a good lens and nobody will ever get rid of it. I wouldn’t. OK, the Oly 25mm 1.8 is a good lens and not very expensive, but I got my PanaLeica 25mm 1.4 for very little money from the US and I find it a fantastic lens. I don’t believe the Oly could match it in any way …. “If the 45mm or 25mm were any cheaper they’d be free”. Well, the Pentax 50mm 1.8, similar focal distance to the Oly 45mm, is then almost free – €120. That’s why I want to buy it. And with the larger sensor it will be a much better investment than the reasonably priced Oly 45mm with the very expensive or relatively expensive mFT bodies with a much weaker sensor.
I hear ya. Yeah, I’m not saying some of them aren’t overpriced. I wouldn’t touch the pro zoom’s…that’s just me. For the kind of money they’re charging I consider that Full Frame territory. Although, the build quality is spectacular. I’m just saying I think they have plenty of really high quality well priced options. I paid 675.00 USD for the 75mm and am more than satisfied. I paid 400 for a refurb 9-18 and I’m ok with that one as well. The 45mm I got for 275.00 and paid 350.00 for the 25mm. I’d like to have the nocticron but I can’t get myself to do it. I have full frame glass that I didn’t pay that much for- zeiss glass as well.
9-18, 25, 45, 75 … Very good selection for very good money.
Well, to my experience, the O 1.8/25mm is considerably better than the P 1.4/25mm. Much better sharpness in the corners, better CA correction, less prone to flare and no rattlesnaking.
The PanaLeica has beautiful colour rendition – of course, this is something subjective.
Don’t know where you get your gear from but the prices you are quoting seem to be a lot higher than my experience here in UK. &5 brand new UK stock £650 last year, 45 is as budget priced as you can get,and the 25 is every bit as good as the PL for a lot less money, I have used it though don’t own one (purely because I already have the PL). The Sigma 60 I understand as you say is very good but I already owned the Oly 60 which is superb, for portraiture I like an old Zuiko 50 1.4 which renders beautifully. And as a point of interest I still occasionally use an elderly E-1 with a few top notch lenses.
UK prices are notoriously lower. I wanted to buy a Pentax 50 1.8 through idealo de and the best quote was for one from the UK – it being cheaper with the postage costs to Germany than those sold in Germany and sent for free. How do you do it? 🙂
Not true. In Sweden, when lenses generally are expensive, you can buy the 75mm NEW for around 800€, and its quite easy to find used for around 600-650€ Not really the prices you are quoting (and in germany/france/uk you can get the lens for even less). Just an example. Oly premium glass is really not that crazy expensive that you try to make it out, and the quality is really up there as well. Of course, if you think that 150€ is a good price for a lens, then I of course understand you think 600-800€ is to much. But when it comes to lenses you gereally get what you pay for in build and optical quality. The same goes for other brands. I mean, seriously, have you checked the prices for canon and nikon FF glass? That is expensive. Really expensive. But if you need it for work, its still really not that expensive. One job and you will have paid for the lens 🙂
As per today, for Oly 75 idealo-de quotes only one for €929, all the rest is between €949 and €999. Lucky people, you Swedes. Of course, there are price variations across countries but it is hardly disputable that Oly glass is over-expensive. And while FF is, indeed, generally expensive, there is very good FF glass for Nikon for little money. idealo-de nikon objektive fx search returns 15 lenses between €130 and €450 – which is NOT expensive for FF.
You have a strange way of defining expensive. If you define a sub 1000 € high quality lens as “expensive” (DSLR FF lenses tend to be much more pricier), then in all likelihood, you either have a hobby, which is too expensive for you, or you have too high ambitions, which do not match your financial background.
It is an urban legend, that m4/3 lenses are generally more expensive than their DSLR counterparts.
I wouldnt call buying into Pentax invest neither … Only leica increses prices constanly
Don’t take the term invest literally. I’m sure he doesn’t expect prices will ever increase, or do anything except plunge in the future. But if he likes the results from his camera and lenses, you can call that an investment.
Yes, by “invest” I simply mean buy. I have a great collection of both FT and mFT lenses, but company Olympus let me down by not making a DSLR with the new sensor and stabilization. As mentioned above, I mainly use Pana and Sigma lenses, not Oly lenses. Oly continue making unreasonably expensive bodies and lenses and, given this circumstance, if they still do have some commercial success, it is mainly due to Oly fan vanity rather than real achievement.
You lost all credibility when you used Pentax as an example as a “lens system” to invest in, particularly telephoto. They’re lenses IQ generally don’t match their prices, which keep going up. Their camera bodies are fantastic, but their aging lens lineup leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t think I’d shoot any Pentax lenses if I still owned a Pentax.
Do the big 3rd manufacturers make their good lenses available with PK mount as well?
My main reason for getting a Pentax DSLR would be cheaper lenses that are water-resistant, and IBIS. But honestly, the E-M1/M5 are almost all the way there in that respect, unless I felt the need to build up a larger catalog of reasonably priced but kind-of-mediocre AF lenses.
(To clarify, though, I’d still get a Pentax DSLR before anyone else)
I think I already have a reply to you in my reply to BVP.
I have just bought the Pentax and I will certainly “invest” in Pentax 50mm 1.8, which is both incredibly cheap and outstanding. And then I may invest in Sigma 18-35 1.8 for Pentax, which is expensive and outstanding. Meanwhile I will continue to use the 3 E-PM2s that I have with the PanaLeica 25mm 1.4, Pana 20mm 1.7, Pana 14mm 2.4, Sigma 60mm 2.8, and Sigma 150mm 2.8 (the latter with adapter, mainly MF). All these are terrific lenses plus the Olympus FT 70-300 which I like and use a lot. The Pentax 50mm 1.8 will simply complement the mFT system. Note that my mFT system is composed mainly of Pana, PanaLeica and Sigma lenses, not Oly lenses, although I have the Oly 45mm, and the only really good and not expensive body, E-PM2, of which, as a consequence, I have 3 pcs. I am happy with the system so described, but of the Oly mFT components in it I only value highly the E-PM2 and the 45mm. All the rest is non-Olympus.
Got my Sigma for a little less than 300EUR too, mint condition with hood, collar, bag, everything. Heavy glass, but for macro it probably doesn’t get any better than this.
Is that Sigma FT version with autofocus?
Yes, this is a Sigma FT version with autofocus.
Patents are nice, products are better…
Do you prefer patiently-engineered and quality-tested products or rushed and mediocre-quality products? The lens is real – I’ve seen it. They’re taking their time to make it better before releasing it, which is great for YOU.
Patience is an admirable trait.
I find it somehow strange (in a positive way) – Olympus is in financial trouble yet they keep churning out great glass. I wonder what will be the “attachment rate” of this lens, i.e. how many people will actually buy it and whether it offsets manufacturing and R&D costs. We must not forget that R&D becomes a significant factor if you’re not selling mass amounts – this is in my opinion the reason why M43 lenses tend to be on the expensive side. A lens is not just a piece of glass/metal/plastic/silicon.
While they are not cheap, they are not “expensive” either. Comparing this to the price of other “70-200mm” (even shorter than this one), the price is lower and yet with a longer reach -even thought without OIS, as you already “paid” for that in the body cost.
Definitely “pro” oriented glass comes with a price premium and newly release glass also comes with R&D costs and all the initial costs to manufacture it (one time costs such as equipment). In a year the get cheaper, same way the 12-40mm did, as R&D costs will be “paid back”.
Now about the sales.. I guess mainly 12-40mm users. Portrait and event photographers are in love with the 45mm and 75mm, but may still pick it up for that “x” occasion they need a zoom.
Does the lens get longer when at 150mm like the cheaper version does?
PDF Text says, “the first lens unit G1 is stationary at the time of zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end” – so no, it doesn’t get longer. Nice!
Thanks.
I’d like to see a size comparison between this new one and the cheaper one fully extended.
Why? The new 40-150mm f/2.8 will probably be at least 3 times as heavy and 10 times the price. Who cares if they’re the same length?
The 40-150mm f/4-5.6 is a plastic kit lens you can get for $150. It’s optically okay, but it’s a completely different class of lens.
“I just can’t decide between the Panasonic GF3 or an Olympus E-M1. Both shoot pictures, so show me which one is bigger.”
Who are you quoting? They are obviously in different classes, but are same focal length, but made by olympus, and both m43 lenses, so they have something in common. Why does it make you mad that I want a frame of reference to compare the size? And the comparison you make is valid, because the image quality between those two cameras isn’t all that much different, so you can’t justify the cost difference based on image quality, rather on manual controls and build quality.
There has been photos showing the existing 40-150/4.0-5.6 and the mock pro 40-150/2.8. There is a significant (imho) difference in size. I am sure there will be a difference is cost.
The difference in cost well be about 10 fold. I’ll look for the photos. Thanks.
Since I currently own the Olympus 75-300, I’d be interested in knowing how it compares in size and weight to that one.
Ironically you just agreed with him unknowingly by answering your own dumb question.
Please explain the irony. I’m not agreeing with him. All lenses and cameras have pros and cons. Why can’t I be deciding between buying an expensive or a cheap lens based on their characteristics instead of some rules you adhere to?Instead of my dumb questions, I think we should be focusing on the pair of dumb contributors who use 3 letter acronyms for names. Let me guess…
Big vag puss…
And
Justa virgin chick?
I’m saying that someone can validly choose between a gf3 and an em1. This decision isn’t off limits because their cost is dramatic different, that is just one of the characteristics (along with build quality, image quality ) involved in the decision process.
This is a little off topic…
I have a question: What has Panasonic/Olympus done to fill the holes in their lens line when they went to micro four-thirds from four-thirds?
Man I would die for a m43 14-50mm F2.8-3.5 with O.I.S., but no one is jumping in on this great all arounder style lens!
It’s not fast, but it ain’t slow,
It’s kinda wide but it has a little reach.
It’s got O.I.S.
When I left Canon, the lens that stayed on my body most of the time was the Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4 OS (Optical Stabilized). I would pay good money to have that lens in a m43 mount!!!
Did they make a design error shrinking the mount so much that it is difficult to get these great four thirds lens onto micro four thirds?
There is always the FT zuiko 12-60 f/2.8-4 wich has even wider focal
range and is optically superb. Put the MMF3 adaptor on your EM1 and you
are ready to go 😉
Is there anything I lose going this route? I’d love the Panasonic because of the O.I.S., but that 12-60 is a very attractive focal length!
Nothing at all. On the contrary Olympus IBIS (In body image stabilisation) is better than O.I.S. In fact it is considered by many the best image stabilisation there is in any brand.
there was an original leak way back that spoke of a 1.4 or 1.7x teleconverter also. in conjunction with this lens that would be awesome! Anyone seen word about that TC?
No leak or official word on the TC. When Olympus applied for a patent for the 40-150/2.8 lens a patent for an 1.4xTC was applied for. So there is hope for an TC.
I wonder how big or expensive a 70-300mm F4 would be for MFT.
The lens elements appear to be 151.88mm long, irrespective of zoom setting (see page 11 of the pdf)