Robert Pothorcki? shared that picture of the new Panasonic-Leica 100-400mm f/4.0-6.3 MicroFourThirds prototype lens image he saw at the IFA in Berlin. 43rumors reports the lens will be announced in Spring.
The lens is a real beauty and I can imagine it could become a real hotseller if the price isn’t crazy high! My guess is that you will have to spend close to $2,000 for this toy.
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With f/6.3, it ought to stay significantly below what existing 400mm f/5.6 zooms cost. I don’t expect it to, though, either.
If it was f/5.6, I’d already have started saving money. With f/6.3, I’m still very interested, but, owning an E-M1, I’ll probably continue to gather experience with what I have, which is the ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 plus 1.4x and 2x converters, for another while.
What? The 1.4kg Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at £1200, it can be made to work on m4/3 (at some cost) but I doubt will work nicely nor wide open like a Leica can – those Canon prosumer lenses have to be stopped down to f/8-f/11 to keep them sharp (DxO).
Plus, which might be important to you with an E-M1, the Leica has OIS which is needed with long lenses and why Olympus are putting Lens-IS into their long lenses.
I have a few favourite extra-long zoom lenses at the moment, the Panny 45-150, PZ45-175, 100-300 and 4/3 Bigma 50-500 (which is a bit clunky). The old Panny 45-200 is not a favourite and I don’t count the X35-100 because it’s not extra-long. Converted 4/3 lenses like the Bigma never operate as well as native ones.
Those “Leica” branded lenses are nothing special, just Panasonic lenses with a slightly higher quality standard. In the German “DSLR-Forum” there’s a recent thread I’m following with much interest; with Metabones’ fully-electronic EF-MFT adapter’s firmware finally having matured, several people have been reporting excellent results with Canon telephoto lenses even wide open, and autofocus extremely quick and precise with an E-M1. One of the lenses I’ve seen results from is the relatively cheap EF 400mm f/5.6L prime, and the E-M1’s IS is said to work very well with it, too (the lens itself has no IS). And the new EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II is known to produce even better image quality than the older 400mm prime lens. So, if the Panasonic 100-400 won’t be significantly below $2000, I’ll probably rather invest in the Metabones adapter whch will open up a whole new world of lenses… I might even add another adapter with focal reducer optics (Speed Booster) so that quite a number of shorter-focal-length lenses of the EF lineup will become attractive, too…
By the way, one of the “converted 4/3 lenses” I’m already using happily on the E-M1 is the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 with Four Thirds mount; a lens designed for full-frame. Absolutely lovely and already astonishingly sharp wide-open. One of my favourite pieces of glass.
My complaint with the 4/3 Bigma is its sheer weight, it is very good glass. The Metabones Smart Adaptors are £325 so they only make sense if you already own a clutch of Canon lenses, as many convertees do with so many wedding photographers having switched to the GH4. Manually adapted lenses lose out on so many functions.
I could use this lens, but at $2000 on these little crop sensors is a no no.
Full frame 100-400mm is around a $2000 so my guess would be around $1200 or so.
Wrong math, sorry. This lens is not 100-400 equivalent, so it will not compete with the prices of 100-400 lenses. Besides, being a Leica branded lens, it does not have to be much cheaper than its direct angle-of-view competitors. However it can’t go much beyond 2000 dollars / euros without having everybody screaming, althout currently no system has a native 200-800 equivalent lens (AFAIK), with all the bonuses of a smaller sensor (i.e. it will not be as big as your car).
It’s not even constant aperture, with current FF performance the lens could go 2 stops slower and be even smaller and lighter than this Panasonic.
Sure, just tell me pls what lens maker is currently making a FF 200-800, even if f 8-13. As many APSC DSLR camera owners know, lens-shopping is not a matter of “doable”, but a matter of “done and available”, as for some reason in Japan these two ideas are radically different.
Yeah, in that sense you’re right, lens design is catching up with sensor development at the moment. The trend is still to go high performance, instead of slow and small.
True, maybe it’ll be more priced like the current 100-300mm
No, it is not 100-400 FF equivalent, it is 100-400mm
That means with the 2X crop factor it is 200-800 FF equivalent for field of view. Simple optical physics, learn the maths.
On m4/3 it is f/4-6.3 which is pretty quick for any 100-400mm
On top of which it is pretty small, with OIS too, which makes holding the thing easy – rather the point of micro four thirds.
Where you actually replying to me? Do you realize you have said exactly what I have said earlier, right? If yes, please learn how to read. If not, apologizes accepted.
No, to posts above but the system dumped me below you. We may have cross posted saying the same thing. Oops.
For a f4.0-6.3 lens? I would be surprised if it was over $1000.
Holy crap, they’re using the Leica R look…kind of a waste on Panasonic since most of its models are so ugly…
A rather weird comment since all Panasonic lenses are designed by Leica.
If you’ve ever used one of the Leica badged ones you’ll know they are seriously sharp from side to side even wide open.
As for looks it’s more about functionality than fashion statement, get it in your hand and everything is in the right place. It just works.
You might want to check again where the patents of Panasonic-Leica lenses come from.
You might wish to check the firmware/exif of those lenses then.
Lmao like that really matters. Most of the lens I use don’t even write exif.
Below page mentions $1200 :
http://fr.chhimg.com/article/57894