New Panasonic 12-60mm reviewed by ePhotozine

12-60mm

ePhotozine tested the new Panasonic 12-60mm lens:

The Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Asph Power OIS lens is not perfect, but it has some remarkable properties and is incredibly versatile. The low levels of distortion and CA are truly impressive and overall central sharpness is of a high standard.
Lenses have different applications and this Lumix seems an ideal light, compact travel lens that will deliver the goods over a wide range of subject matter.

12-60mm store search links: [shopcountry 59679]. The lens is set to start sipping next week!

Panasonic 35-100mm Mega O.I.S. Lumix G X Vario review

Panas45-200

Imaging Resource posted the full review of the compact 35-100mm Panasonic zoom:

Optically, the Panasonic 35-100mm Mega O.I.S. Lumix G X Vario is very good for the price – there are some very slight issues with corner softness and de-centering with our review copy, but nothing to write home about. For what it does, the lens does it very well: the only performance item I might have a problem with is that the variable aperture reduces quite quickly. For example wide open at 35mm the maximum aperture is ƒ/3.5; zooming in to 50mm, your maximum aperture is ƒ/4.9. This will restrict your shooting style a bit; you’ll either be shooting outside, with a flash, or you’ll need to boost your ISO settings.
Panasonic has had a 35-100mm ƒ/2.8 zoom available for some time now, but the casual Micro Four-Thirds shooter could have been put off by its $1,500+ price tag. Panasonic has wisely provided a less expensive option that will match extremely well with the Panasonic 12-32mm ƒ/3.5-5.6.

Get the lens at [shopcountry 59578].

Richard Wong reviews the Leica 100-400mm lens: “insanely long effective focal length but with reasonably compact size”

Leica100-400mm

Richard Wong (Click here) published the full Leica 100-400mm lens review:

The Panasonic 100-400 really highlights one of the strength of the micro four thirds system. A lens with insanely long effective focal length but with reasonably compact size. The build quality and image quality of the lens are decent and I really like the dual lens hood and lockable focal length design. Not to mention that the really fast autofocus speed and good O.I.S. /dual I.S. performance. I do wish the integrated lens hood is a little bit longer so I don’t need to touch the detachable lens hood most of the time. But the only thing I don’t really like is the tripod collar can only be rotated by 90 degree so you do have to remove it when shooting handheld. The smallish f/4-6.3 aperture size also limits the low light performance (both autofocus speed and image quality).

Leica 100-400mm store links: [shopcountry 59084].

PEN-F review by Echenique and Admiringlight

[shoplink 59394 ebay]PEN_PEN-F_ET_M7518_2015-12_black_still__mood_12a-1024x768[/shoplink]

We got two new PEN-F reviews:

Admiringlight writes:

It’s by far the best PEN camera Olympus has made, and it will satisfy almost any MIcro 4/3 shooter with its full feature set, very good image quality and compact size. The biggest issue with the Pen-F is price. It’s priced at $1199 body only, a full $200 more than the E-M5 Mark II, but with almost no advantages over that camera.  The only clear advantage is the slightly newer sensor. 

Echenique listed the pros/cons:

Pros
Drop dead sexy camera – Conversation starter and ice-breaker all in one.
Super fast single shot AF – despite it only having CDAF, the Pen-F locks on quickly and accurately. Not perfect (see Cons), but very, very good.
Small & easy to carry – great for those long street photo journeys.
Vastly improved High-ISO performance – while not the High-ISO king, the Pen-F has the best High-ISO performace I have ever seen in an MFT camera.
Cons
Not weather sealed – but then, neither is the Leica M (the de-facto king of street photography).
Continuous AF needs work – Hopefully Olympus will address this with a firmware update since they drank the Kaizen Kool-Aid a couple of years ago.
Weak video features – lacks an external mike and headphone jacks. Suited for B-roll work.

Olympus PEN-F store links to [shopcountry 59394].

Panasonic ZS100/TZ100 tested at DPreview: “top-notch travel zoom”

Bildschirmfoto 2016-04-08 um 20.42.39

Dpreview posted the Full ZS100/TZ100 review:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100/TZ100 is an enthusiast travel zoom with a 1″-type BSI CMOS sensor and a 25-250mm equivalent lens. The camera has very good photo and 4K video quality, a great autofocus system, and a plethora of genuinely useful ‘extras’, such as Post Focus. The main weakness of the camera is its mediocre electronic viewfinder, but it’s still better than not having one at all. Overall, though, the ZS100 is a top-notch travel zoom that’s not to be missed.

Store links: [shopcountry 59188]