Our very fast friends from Fotoactualidad found the first image samples + MTF charts that have been posted on the Olympus Japan website.

Click here to see images samples of the Olympus 75-300mm lens and here to see the Olympus 40-150mm product page.

The two 75-300mm lens image samples (Click to enlarge):

The two 40-150mm lens image samples (Click to enlarge):

Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

I confess, I am not really happy with todays Olympus announcement. I understand that there is a “marketing reason” why those lenses have to exist. Maybe zoom lenses is what “normal” people buys when they go in store. But we are still missing a Zuiko MFT lens we can be really proud of. We have some good lenses like the 9-18mm, but no fast prime lens, no high-quality and reasonable fast zoom, and only one pancake lens! And most of the current lenses are copies of already existing Panasonic lenses (or is Panasonic copying the Olympus lenses?). Take a look for yourself:

Panasonic 7-14mm – Olympus 9-18mm
Panasonic 14-140mm – Olympus 14-150mm
Panasonic 45-200mm – Olympus 45-150mm
Panasonic 100-300mm (to be announced soon) – Olympus 75-300mm
Panasonic 8mm fisheye – Olympus 8mm fisheye (on roadmap)
Panasonic 14mm (to be announced soon) – Olympus 12mm (on roadmap)

Thousand of 43rumors readers voted for High-Quality prime, pancake and zoom lenses in many of our polls. We need more “WOW” lenses like the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7.  But we also need lenses that are essential for a complete lens repertoire (where is the normal 25mm f/1.4 lens?).
There will be no need to switch to a NEX or NX system or any other system if the lenses are good enough! So please stop playing cat and mouse, stop to fear the market. Try to have some vision like when you imaginated the MicroFourThirds system. Surprise us!

That’s just my personal opinion, feel free to comment this post…
Me, 43rumors.

Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

Click on the image to enlarge!

Macro, Fisheye and Wide prime lenses are expected to be unveiled by Spring 2011. Why so late?

[Thanks Aguilar]

Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

Olympus announced the new E-P2 all black kit and the 40-150mm and the 75-300mm MicroFourThirds lenses. We will continually update this post with all news, reviews, preorder links and image samples.
Reminder: The E-5 will be announced on September 14. Panasonic has a scheduled press release on September 21.

The E-P2 Special Black EVF Edition contents (€1,079, available October 2010.)
* E-P2 camera in black
* M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 17mm 1:2.8 Pancake lens exclusively in black
* VF-2 electronic viewfinder in black
* Historic lens cap with F logo

The E-P2 Special Black Flash Edition contents (€1,049, available October 2010.)
* E-P2 camera in black
* M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 17mm 1:2.8 Pancake lens exclusively in black
* FL-14 external flash exclusively in black
* Historic lens cap with F logo

Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 (€899, available December 2010.)

Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm 1:4.0-5.6 (€329, available October 2010.)

PRESS RELEASE:
Olympus announces special edition kits for the E-P2 camera in black (Dpreview / Imaging Resource / Photoscala / DCresource / DigitalCameraReview / ThePhoBlographer)
Olympus introduces M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm lens (Dpreview / Imaging Resource / Photoscala / Quesabesde / DigitalCameraReview)
Olympus releases M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm lens (Dpreview / Imaging Resource / Photoscala / Quesabesde / DigitalCameraReview)

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Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

In an article on CNET Asia “Panasonic aims to up camera market share in Asia” Panasonic confirmed that they have “no immediate plans to release a new dSLR“.

CNET and Panasonic discussed about the goals from Panasonic:

“At present, its share of the digital still camera pie in Asia is 10 percent and the share target for 2010 is 15%. The US share is quite low for Panasonic, while Germany is a potential country. We would like to expand our businesses in those countries“

Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

Now it is official. Olympus announced that Cosina will join the Micro Four Thirds group! And Cosina posted the lens news on their website

UPDATE: I was told that the lens has a better optical quality than the old and expensive C-mount Schneider 25mm f/0.95 (which costs used over $900 at eBay…used!)

P.S.: Hood is included.

Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)

Click on picture to enlarge!

Today Voitgländer will announce the production of new lenses for the MicroFourThirds system!
The first lens to be unveiled is the new Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lens. This lens has been designed for MFT and you don’t need to use any adapter! The Lens is manual only (no autofocus). Expected price $1000 and availabilty by October/November.

The image quality is reported to be on a very high level. The only comparable lenses to date are the old C-mount lenses like the Schneider 25mm f/0.95 (which costs over $900 at eBay). There are also two more 25mm f/0.95 lenses like the Navitar and Angenieux (again C-mount lenses). But those are not designed for MFT and you need an MFT adapter. They are also a little bit more expensive than the Nokton (and the Nokton is new!).

We hope to learn more about the Voigtländer-MicroFourThirds future strategy as soon as possible!

Source: Photoscala

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Latest HOT deals:

Panasonic LX5 in Stock at (click on store names) Amazon US, Amazon Deutschland , Amazon France , Amazon UK , Amazon Japan
Panasonic 20mm lens in Stock for $499 only at Amazon and BHphoto
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 for $999 (Click here)