Digicaminfo found two images of the new 12mm and 15mm black lenses. Actually that 15mm body-cap is intriguing me a lot and I like the idea that it will be packaged along the new PEN cameras!
What worries me a bit is that I have been told the Black 12mm lens is optically the same as the current [shoplink 23576]Olympus 12mm f/2.0[/shoplink] lens. So why put a “Limited Black” mark on it? To make it more expensive? Hope I am wrong and that the price will remain the same.
95 Responses
VERY nice….
but….it won’t be so sexy with the (non-limited) SILVER lens hood for an additional $50 over the (un) limited price!!!!!! LOL!
I love my all silver one. Expensive …but a great performer.
There better be a new sexy hood (and cap) as well !
@Admin: “I like the idea that it will be packaged along the new PEN cameras!”
Does that mean you are sure about that ? Because i strongly doubt they would give any accessories away for ‘free’.
Of course the black 12 mm is the same as the current version! Why would they redesign it? It’s just a different colour version.
Question is why they write “limtied” on it!!!!
probably, because it will be made in small quantities? wouldn’t expect anything more… :/
It’s probably “limited” to the number they get orders for. As usual, when things get called “limited”.
Not to mention a bump in price..
No, maybe it means ‘limited price’… yeah right!
To justify the even higher price tag, I think.
lets hope its not black for a limited time.
🙂
My guess is that if it sells well then the “limited” time would become rather long 🙂 They make a production run and if it doesn’t sell out quickly then they could tell people down the road – “Well, we said it was a limited” product from the start 🙂
because that’s what you have to be to care about the color of your lens? And pay more for it…
The only limitation I can imagine is how many they can produce? Definitely they will sell all the black ones that the factory can turn out 🙂
I would agree with Ross
(I’m the Sydney Ross)
because that’s what you have to be to care about the color of your lens? And pay more for it…
I want to buy this one… any news on when they will start to sell it, in the USA?
Hope limited does not mean ‘hard to get’… i.e. few copies…
I think it’s limited because they don’t plan on making if past an initial run.
Will it cost more than the regular silver one? …probably.
If quantities are truly limited, no matter what is the initial cost, ebay sellers will take care of jacking up price. Its black…
now thats more like it. sure wish olympus would get off this silver lens fetish.
if that 15mm is less than a hundred i’m in
me too! I’ll get it in a heartbeat.
Thinking of getting the E-PM2 to replace my E-PL1, especially if it comes cheaply with the 15/8 as a kit lens. Should be less than I paid for my 45/1.8 all up!
+1
The silver lenses look lovely, but I prefer black cameras with black lenses (just my preference).
🙂
I reckon the Black lens would still look great on my silver OM-D!
(I’m the Sydney Ross)
These two little lenses combined could make a nice little street photographer package. Both are designed to easily set to hyperfocus. The 12m for wide and can be shot in low light. The pocketable 15mm gets you a little closer in during daytime.
hope the 15mm is less than50 Euro.
I see you’re trolling M43blog and not crediting them for the news.
Uh…your “news” is just a link back to some other site, same as here. It’s not like you had anything insightful to add.
reminds me a lot the old OM lenses! wonderful!
now i only need a PEN camera with integrated EVF….the OM-D is too expensive….bah
Admin, any news on a the 45mm appearing in black?
I’ve been waiting for the black 45mm as well. If Olympus stated that they won’t release it within 6 months, I’d buy the silver one – but without any information I’m reluctant to buy.
Ahhhh, black at last! The way it should have always been! I wonder how much they will ask for this “limited edition” – what a way to milk the existing user base!
It is only a matter of time until they release “limited silver” 15mm lens (cap) 😉
I would not buy a black version as the chrome EM-5 and the 12mm together are my point and shoot and every single person has asked me if it’s an old film camera for the past 3 months. Makes me seem a hobbyist. Great fun!
And no one realizes when (or even if) I’m using it on real jobs and frequently leaving my 5Dmkllls and 1Dsmkllls in their Pelican cases.
Plus black will wear off and show dings a heck of a lot faster! Just look at any older non plastic Nikkor or Canon L lens…
I wonder if the 15mm has an optional $100 lens hood as well? Such a deal!
And a limited silver edition……….
Good points!
That’s a nice couple.
Now if only they released some goddamn info on when they they will begin releasing the 60mm macro and how much is it going to cost, it would be awesome.
I REALLY hope they sell an EPM2 with that little lens. I don’t want to have to resell another 14-42, and I’d LOVE to play with that little lens!
Yes, that would be a great little daytime combo. Although I do have the 20mm mostly set on f/2 and hardly encounter DOF problems with street shooting. I think f/4 or f/5.6 would have been better for the mini lens (i.e. make it more useful for darker environments).
awesome, this 15mm lenscap.
indeed! atlast my pen will be pocketable 🙂
have they said if they are going to make it in different colours? I’m thinking white would actually look nice to my pen.
Hummm, normal black lenses from Olympus. I’m so excited I could sheet my pants. Too late now, they already pissed me off, but I do have an idea, about what they can do with their pretty black lenses.
IF the difference is ONLY in colour and IF the price is higher, then kudos for Olympus management. Because they will manage to sell lots of them. And this would be another example that virtually anything and at any price can be sold the general public. Now really, deliberately not making a black version right from the beginning, because it’s simple logic that people with black OM-D would require a black lens. Then selling the more expensive black Limited Edition of already expensive lens and marketing this limitation as FEATURE, well that would suggest that people behind Olympus marketing are genius.
Or maybe they aren’t, because I just received an hour ago a factory refurbished E-PL1 from Amazon-CametaCamera for just $119. Yes, it’s Olympus marketing that actually couldn’t sell those many lots of cameras and now giving almost for free. Oh, now I get it! thanks to some customers paying premium to Olympus purely for colors, the others customers are getting nice cameras for funny prices.
” selling the more expensive black Limited Edition of already expensive lens and marketing this limitation as FEATURE, well that would suggest that people behind Olympus marketing are genius.”
It’s genius only if Oly has correctly pegged their customers as gullible morons who don’t mind getting ripped off.
Next, default color will be hot pink with mint green accents. Black and silver will be special order only. 😀
OMG, it looks took black. I’m not getting it. Perhaps they will learn a lesson and stop only making silver is some lenses because some designer things it’s cool.
I hope it comes with a lens hood
“Limited Black” what a surprise, Lol mmmmmilk me
Love the Olympus stuff, and now that we have the wonderful E-M5 sensor, all that’s really holding me back is the SILVER lenses. Come ON Olympus, make them all Black AND Silver. Another thing: weather proofing. A company that is know for this but not putting it on it’s best lenses. Why!!!
I hate olympus marketing guys…
I like the silver lenses but that 12 in black does look good.
Limited black, limited market share, limited persons, limited marketing and limited performance? – in contrast to the 12-35mm and 35-100mm Panasonic weather sealed black pro lenses with no limit?
The Pana lenses are NOT black, they are some shade of dark violet. Not that I would mind – I do not care too much for lens colour – but to be honest… 😉
+1 pana 12-35 is not black…but it is close enough in my opinion, better than all those silver lenses
The 15mm looks like fun! I wonder how much Oly will soak people for the privilege of buying a black 12mm?
As for the 12mm… it’s a very nice lens, but the SLR Magic Hyperprime 12mm T1.6 (f1.4) is more appealing to me. Images have more character than the Oly 12mm. Plus it’s $300 less and fully manual.
Do you use the Hyperprime? Flares wide open? Is it sharp? What do you mean with “more character”?
I have the Oly 12mm, nice lens.
There’s no denying that the Oly 12mm is a very good lens, but I find the images I’ve seen from it a bit cold and clinical for my taste. The Hyperprime images I’ve seen look more analogue and film-like. I also much prefer the process and feel of fully manual lenses to auto-focus lenses.
You have to admit though, that these new lenses from Olympus are about the butt ugliest lenses ever made, with the big wide flange with the skinny lens tube in the middle. I mean you can only look at ugly so long, before you just have to say something. It’s like someone walking around with food on their face, you don’t say anything, for the longest time, hoping they will notice it themselves, then finally, you just have to say something. YO OLYMPUS, WAKE THE F^@& UP! YOUR GAWD DAM LENSES LOOK LIKE A PLAYING PIECE FROM MY 1970’S MONOPOLY GAME AND I WANT TO PUKE EVERYTIME I LOOK AT THEM! 😉
lol, it’s true that it is not the prettiest lense design…I don’t want to puke but…it’s not so far !
Very well said. And the em-5 is butt ugly too.
I care more about what the pictures look like than what the lens looks like.
You do realize that is a matter of taste? I find the 12mm quite a handsome lens, as it the 45mm… But that is *my* taste
I don’t really understand why anyone would BUY the 15mm??? I think it’s really cool and I want one, but I don’t think I want to pay for it…
If it’s a freebie with each body, then that’s OK. But why pay (mayby $100) if you can get the 17mm or even better the 20mm for a couple hundred more and it’s WAY more versitile. The alternatives are slightly thicker. Do you honestly believe the 15mm will make you more discrete?
I honestly think it would make me *faster*. Power up to first shot the 15/8 should beat any mft AF lens.
A little off-topic, I was shooting at a industry party last night with my GF2 and my freind had a Canon MkIII… I felt sooooo under powered… It was funny…
Well, you know, big Canon body is a compensation for short.. ..oh, never mind. 😉
I honestly think it would make me *faster*. Power up to first shot the 15/8 should beat any mft AF lens.
Power-up and AF lag: zero.
Stop making lenses in all colors and get me some new lenses
I still think it’s hilarious that there are enough camera fashionistas that Olympus will make money by increasing the price on a black lens because people are too style conscious to have a lens and body that aren’t the same color.
Seriously, if you forgo buying a lens you need to get a shot simply because the body of the lens doesn’t ‘look good’ to you, you have no business calling yourself a photographer.
If limited = weathersealed, that would be awesome.
Black has come to be associated with plastic, so expensive (!) metal construction has to be advertised to look the part – this I believe is the marketing rationale, the reason why metal-looking lenses come first.
OTH I coudn’t care less. To me the 15mm looks ravishing in its thinness. Let’s hope Oly doesn’t make this idea of genius inexpensive. or sell it only with a camera.
In your world the prole consumers must be even more stupid than they are in mine. 😛
Then again, I do hear those who scream in many tongues they can’t wait to pay a premium for the black plastic-looking black lenses. 😉
Mispelling. Read: ‘Let’s hope Oly doesn’t make this idea of genius too expensive’.
Limited Black?. Those marketeers at Olympus suck.
That lens is sex. I won’t pay more for it since it should have been black from the beginning but a beautiful piece regardless.
Definitely will cost more $$$$. Olympus has to make up the billions they lost and or stole here recently with that big scandal.
If that 15mm is going to be packages as the body cap, then yes, it’s clever. Although it’s just going to get put in a draw. Do many people travel around the place with the body cap on and their lenses in bags?
Only those that actually have a lens in them. 😉
(I’m the Sydney Ross)
wow we get black lens! hooray! Sony users only get a the Nex 6, Nex 5r, A99, some other video camera, some new lens, etc. But m43 gets some limited edition black lenses, ooooh aaaah.
yes sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.
And a GH3. And EPM3. And an EPL5. And a 35-100mm f/2.8. And a 17mm f/1.8. And a 60mm Macro. And probably a few more things like roadmap lenses.
But hey, why bother with facts when you’re trolling?
They should have made all their lenses black from the get go.
some stupid asked why do we care so much about the color. well, just look at this lens, it looks much better on a black body
And that makes you take much better pictures, no?
It looks sweet! Even the 15 f8 looks cuter now
more toys for the nerdy boys…
I am surprised at all the cogent commenters who have loudly complained that Olympus is “milking” us with the black option, yet no one seem to realize that it takes more than a click in photoshop to make that lens black. The silver one is the color of the aluminum alloy used to make the barrel of the lens. As such, it receives only a light anti corrosion treatment. In order to make that metal black, there are a few options, and those that will create a durable, shiny, and resistant black are not cheap. In short (oversimplified) they will have to apply some form of powder coating, a very hard lacker, or a black anodization. In addition, the surfaces to be treated must be selected and the others carefully protected to make sure that the appearance is consistent, friction areas are protected, and the internal tolerances are respected, even when the coating is at its maximum thickness.
None of that is free, but, of course, we are such nice people that Olympus owes it to us. Why should I care if they lose money, I am just a customer, not a shareholder, and I will always demand more for less. I could go buy another brand of camera, but it’s much more fun to come here and complain about this one.
Just like a high quality black anodized finish doesn’t come at no cost, a “silver” anodized (or other) finish isn’t any less costly. The finish is not the same metal as the base metal. People have complained about the silver finish on the 12 f/2.0 lens being easily marred with the underlying metal showing. Whether a black or metal finish, the difference in manufacturing cost should be trivial.
As for the coatings affecting clearances (tolerances are something else), coating can be applied selectively (Look up “sputtering”), for examle only on the outside of a barrel, and they can also be machined off as part of the manufacturing process.
It says “limited” like my Pentax lenses! Chuckle
Wow, it looks so nice and much better than the silver version.
The 15mm is nice, but it looks like, it have no Autofocus …
http://photorumors.com/2012/09/05/this-is-the-new-olympus-15mm-f8-0-lens/comment-page-1/
Yes, that we alreayd wrote here. No AF, fixed f/8.0 aperture.
I loved the 15mm lens. It makes m43 cameras really pocketable.
Digicameinfo updated:
ED12mm F2 Limited Black 100,000 yen
60mm F2.8 Macro ED 50,000 yen
body cap lens BCL-1580 5,500 yen
Yes, it is more expensive, but with some accessories.
😉