We closed the latest MicroFourThirds zoom lens poll and it is time to make a serious summary.
Prime lenses poll (click here to see the final results):
The three most voted prime lenses have been the 25mm f/1.4 or faster (42%, 772 Votes) the 12mm f/2.8 or above (tiny lens) (27%, 498 Votes) and the 17mm f/1.4 (26%, 475 Votes).
If you group the lenses by focal lenght we have the 25mm (982 votes) the 12mm (823 votes) and the 17mm (475 votes) as most voted focal lenghts.
Some considerations,
it seems people needs fast lenses. An exception is the 12mm 2.8 lens which should be a perfect portable landscape photography lens. In summary wide to normal lenses are the most requested lenses.
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Zoom lens poll (click here to see the final results):
The three most voted zoom lenses have been the 12-30mm f/2.0-2.8 (like the LX3 lens) (18%, 205 Votes) the 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 (18%, 198 Votes) and the 7-14mm f/4.5 (tiny) (15%, 168 Votes)
I grouped the lenses (I excluded the lenses with less than 50 votes):
UWA Zoom (ultrawideangle zoom)
7-14mm f/4.5 (tiny) (15%, 168 Votes)
6-12mm f/2.8 (12%, 138 Votes)
5-15mm f/5.6 (tiny) (5%, 58 Votes)
WA Zoom
8-18mm f/2.8 (9%, 102 Votes)
10-20mm f/4.0 (tiny) (8%, 95 Votes)
8-18mm f/4-5.6 (tiny) (8%, 86 Votes)
Standard Zoom
12-30mm f/2.0-2.8 (like the LX3 lens) (18%, 205 Votes)
12-40mm f/2.8 (12%, 137 Votes)
12-35mm f/2.8 (8%, 93 Votes)
14-45mm f/2.8 (8%, 91 Votes)
12-60mm f/4-5.6 (tiny) (7%, 77 Votes)
12-35mm f/4 (tiny) (5%, 60 Votes)
Extended Zoom
12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 (18%, 198 Votes)
14-70mm f/2.5-3.5 (7%, 77 Votes)
Superzoom
12-100mm f/4-5.6 (tiny) (5%, 60 Votes)
Portrait Zoom
35-70mm f/2.0 (9%, 104 Votes)
Tele Zoom
40-100mm f/2.8 (8%, 89 Votes)
# 50-200mm f/3.5-4.5 (tiny) (8%, 85 Votes)
# 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 (tiny) (7%, 79 Votes)
70-300mm f/2.8-4.0 (7%, 77 Votes)
40-150mm f/4-5.6 (tiny) (6%, 65 Votes)
Macro Zoom
50-150mm f/2.8-f/4 macro (8%, 91 Votes)
Super Tele Zoom
80-400mm f/4-5.6 (5%, 54 Votes)
Feel free to draw your own conclusions. Tomorrow I will send the results to Panasonic and Olympus. Please take note that the proposed focal lenghts and apertures are indications only!
Many thanks for your partecipation!
7 Responses
Personally, I don´t quite understand why so much people want a 7-14 f/4.5. Panasonic already offers a 7-14 f/4 and it is not extremely big. I believe that half a stop slower (f/4-f/4.5) would not make a the lens to much much smaller and would not decrease the price significantly. Probably a 9-18 f/4-5,6 for micro four thirds could be tiny and quite cheap. Could someone who selected that lens explain t me the reasons…
Thanks
Simon
Hi Simon!
I am sure Olympus and Panasonic will understand that the proposed lens wants to be tiny and with a proposed focal lenght between 7-9 mm and 14-18mm. The aperture doesn’t matter. What matters in this case is the size.
cheers
Olympus and Panasonic/Leica could note, that there are much more voters (1845) for prime lenses than for zoom lenses (1131).
I think a 10-18 or thereabouts zoom might be small if it’s slow. And being slow doesn’t matter too much for those focal lengths. For other focal lengths, I think primes make more sense, when used with the GF1 or E-P1.
For the G1, zoom lenses with more range could be useful. Extremely fast zooms (faster than f/2.8) seems like poor economy; then it would be better to go with a bigger sensor.
Yes we need a 25mm f1.4 in native micro4/3 format with AF in video mode.
yes, interesting
The reason fast wide to standard lengths are required is because every amateur cool/hipster type either wants to do covert street photography or low light urban.
Everybody want to be a bloody photographer these days!!