UPDATED: COSINA CO., Ltd. Joins the Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group!

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!)


YouDidntDidYou
2 years ago |it says they are releasing lenses…more to be announced???
marilyn
2 years ago |is that the hot rumors so crappie rumor wheres the next e3 lol
Voldenuit
2 years ago |Yay <3 Voigtlaenders!
J.D. Hodges
2 years ago |Cool! Now lets hope we see some new cameras
.
napalm
2 years ago |this is good news for m4/3. but i hope they have 4/3 mounts as well.
John
2 years ago |Ditto 4/3
iMikl
2 years ago |Now, support for the standard is expanding with the decision of COSINA CO., Ltd to join the Micro Four Thirds System standard.
Sorry for you guys!
mark
2 years ago |The website says food is included with the lens. You’d sure want food at that price!
Long Live Classical Four Thirds too!
2 years ago |From the latest prerss release by Olympus:
“As the company responsible for initiating both the Four Thirds System and Micro Four Thirds System standards, Olympus Imaging Corporation will continue to develop and enhance the product lineup for both standards to meet the diverse needs of our customers.”
Classical Four Thirds is still alive ‘n’ kickin !
Marcel
2 years ago |I once read an interview with an highly ranked Olympus employee. While discussing the corporate Olympus culture, its past and the road ahead, he made a very remarkable statement. Their biggest mistake was to end the OM line. Not because of the OM line, but because they left their loyal customer base standing in the cold. As I recall the interview he explicitly said that they never ever would do such thing again. For what it is worth. (I do not remember where I found that interview)
I do not think Olympus will abandon the regular fourthirds system. At the moment the buzz is coming from the m43 side. Olympus and Panasonic are defending their lead positions and that is a good thing!
sporty883
2 years ago |Love the translation: “Food included”
With a manual lens its important to have a EVF/RF, as holding the camera to your face adds more stability. Holding the camera in one hand and operating the lens with the other isn’t really a stable thing. So if Cosina can bring a EVIL or RaFIL body, I’d really love to buy one (reasonable price assumed).
A.
2 years ago |Finally, some good news! I would say that THIS is the exceptional announcement, not the lens… The mFT alliance getting stronger.
Agent00soul
2 years ago |Well, let’s hope now that manual focus lenses are officially “part of the system”, Olympus and Panasonic will improve the support for manual focusing in the new cameras.
Oswald
2 years ago |I will not buy it because it has manual focus only and because I’m still a FT-Guy not a mFT-guy. But it is definitely good news.
Who knows? Cosina the first to implement a range finder for mFt? A small Leica?
Kosta
2 years ago |Great news! Some fast high quality primes specially for mft! No more heavy old bits with adaptors. Yay!
Stephen B
2 years ago |Am I the only one that thinks that this is not really news at all? Agree the widening support is good but in the particular, a 25mm 0.95 manual focus lens? Errr, so what? People have been using old CCTV lenses as fast as this for ages. Ok, so a little less fall off (yet to see) but this is hardly a massive advancement. This is no more of an advancement than an adaptor that makes the CCTV lenses have less fall off.
If this was autofocus then we are talking!
iMikl
2 years ago |If you want to fiddle with cheap adaptors from China and pay more for a “good” C-Mount Lens… dot it!
I know there are plenty of cheap CCTV-Lenses… but IMO they have a more Lomo-like-appeal.
Miroslav
2 years ago |We haven’t seen the samples from this one yet, but it should be completely different to CCTV lenses you mention.
Those old lenses were not made to work with 4000×3000 pixel 4/3 sensors, they were for 640×480 video. The edges of their glass were not made to give any kind of meaningful data to their 1″ sensor, that’s why the images from them taken by m4/3 cameras are so blurred in corners.
This one should give edge to edge sharpness worthy of a 21st century digital camera. Also, the prices of those old c-mount lenses will fall when this Voigtlander becomes available, so those who like “dreamy” look will be able to get such lenses for much less.
davide
2 years ago |I completely agree with you. Note that also diaphragm (diaphragm!!!) is manual, so usage experience is pretty close to CCTV: it works only in completely manual or at most A-mode!
Image quality hopefully is better than 25mm CCTV (although longer focal CCTVs sometimes are great, see my review here http://blog.javacorner.net/2009/08/cheap-50mm-f14-portrait-lent-for-micro.html ). And let’s hope it pushes the right EXIF data automatically, including diaphragm (but I doubt it).
But then what, for $1000?
If it was AF and the diaphragm I might have wanted it, but still not bought it for $1000 and its focal and weight: the Panny 20mm f/1.7 is enough!
We do need AF, because MF is a pain in the neck. Note: I used to do MF on my film cameras and that worked great, so it’s not me. It’s the display, MF doesn’t work anymore: too slow, too many button to press to have the magnification and too inaccurate. You can do it if it’s an adapted and cheap lens, but not acceptable for a expensive, native one.
And the most needed focal length that’s missing is the 40mm f/1.4, for candid portraits (fully AF, IS, auto diaphragm, and possibly under 350g), not the 25mm which is pretty close to the 20mm we already have!
So if somebody give me this 25mm f/0.95 as a gift, I’ll sell it right away. Maybe for video it makes sense, but I don’t do much video, so I don’t care.
TempTag
2 years ago |Great news for the format! +1 on hoping we see better focus assist. MF my GH1 (with my old eyes) is much harder than on my Canon T2i.
TempTag
2 years ago |I am hoping this announcement will see the end of the cynical use of CCTV lenses billed as proper photographic lenses on m43 cameras at ridiculously inflated prices. People will pay for quality!
Seb
2 years ago |For sale: a 20mm 1.7 pana pancake.
davide
2 years ago |How much do you want?
infared
2 years ago |Too funny. I took a look at the (Google-translated) Cosina, LTD web page regarding this lens. Look in the lower right-had side of the page, at the bottom of the specs. It indicates: Food Included. Cool. I have been waiting for this my whole life. I should get a meal when I drop $1100 on a lens. LOL!
Frank
2 years ago |Not surprisingly, the Cosina announcement was buried in a slew of Canon releases on DPReview….
Thevoiceoverman
2 years ago |After the madness of yesterday, suddenly it feels so quiet you could hear a fly fart. More lunacy please Admin. And soon.
Frank
2 years ago |@thevoiceoverman, maybe ur hearing a million flys fart cuz things sure sound like they’re “buzzing” to me!!
Tommy Blue
2 years ago |Since Voightlander created the standard for Digital Rangefinders (R-D1) perhaps they’ll bring it back with an R-D2 as a micro 4/3rd camera.
hd72
2 years ago |I’m hoping this will encourage Panasonic to incorporate in-body stabilization into their m4/3 cameras soon. I use a lot of manual glass (Canon FD and Voigtlander) on my GF1 and find Panasonic’s reliance on in-lens stabilization frustrating. Especially since two of my Panasonic autofocus m4/3 lenses don’t provide I.S. either! The 20mm f/1.7 and the 7-14mm f/4 are apparently deemed wide enough not to need it.
I love my GF1 but every time I’m in low light I think about the fact that i’d have less camera shake concerns if I only had an Olympus Pen.
Miroslav
2 years ago |+1
Jonathan
2 years ago |+1
Karli
2 years ago |+1
Tobias W.
2 years ago |That’s one of the main reasons I am not even considering a Panasonic body. That, plus the fact that they stranglehold buyers to use Panasonic branded batteries.
Greg
2 years ago |With the hack you can use third party batterie
CRB
2 years ago |+1…and…will not gonna happen..
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |quoting “The 20mm f/1.7 and the 7-14mm f/4 are apparently deemed wide enough not to need it.”
And you expect a 25mm F0.95 lens to incentivate them to do it? :O
Unfortunately it’s not going to happen!…
Thevoiceoverman
2 years ago |@HD72 The E-PL1 is supposed to have worse IS than the other Pens. I don’t believe it. You can handhold 1/15s on the 20mm easily and 1/10 comes out well a lot of the time.
I think they used exactly the same system and just SAID it was worse to protect the E-P2.
Of course, I still believe in Santa so don’t take my word for it.
hd72
2 years ago |Thanks for the info. Good to know you feel all of the Pens do a decent job with I.S. I was recently taking some low light interior shots (Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater with my Panny 7-14mm) and although I found a comfortable shutter speed, I kept thinking if I only had image stabilization I’d be able to turn down my ISO and come away with cleaner photos.
Gabi
2 years ago |In a German photography forum, an extensive test of sensor shift versus lens stabilisation was posted. From that test it is obvious that in-lens stabilization is by far more effective than sensor shift. Nonetheless, a bad stabilizer is better than none!
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |Cheers Gabi!
Link, pretty please…
hd72
2 years ago |I agree — this one lens certainly won’t make them change. But it appears this lens is to be the first of many. Panasonic can argue that a wide or normal lens doesn’t need stabilization, but a telephoto lens will absolutely need it. I’m hoping that between these manual lenses, technology becoming cheaper, and a need to stay competitive, Panasonic will add in-body stabilization. *Hoping* — but I’m not holding my breath.
Miroslav
2 years ago |If we write enough +1s here there’s a slim chance
. They could do it and argue afterwards that stabilized lenses they made are because of IS in video. You never know …
With hindsight, Sony made a not so logical decision to release NEX line when their new aXX cameras are much more capable and compatible. Olympus and Fuji ditched XD cards for SD after being stubborn for half a decade. And Sony is slowly phasing out MS cards. Manufacturers do make U turns, if it brings them money
.
compositor20
2 years ago |in my opinion since i have both e-p1 and e-pl1 i think e-p1 IS is better with the pancaka 20mm lens
1/15 or 1/20 is a safe bet (1(13 the minimum safe with e-p1
1//25 or 1/30 is the safe shutter for e-p1 with 1/20 minimum for almost all shots being sharp
iMikl
2 years ago |749€… now we’re talking!!!
Rob Rackstraw
2 years ago |I must have steady hands.
Biro
2 years ago |The formal announcement really only discusses lenses. That’s great but I think most of us have been waiting for a Voigtlander digital rangefinder. I hope it won’t be long before we get one.
Seb
2 years ago |People winning about IS when talking about a f0,95 lens … You’ll mostly need a iso 25/50 setting to take picture during the day (yes, the day, with light, when most people take pictures) at full aperture than IS.
Welcome to internet…
mat
2 years ago |Very true. Maybe they should include an ND9 filter with it.
PTriata
2 years ago |It’s shame, oly follower.
YouDidntDidYou
2 years ago |Panasonic tend to put image stabilisation only in to a lens when it’s appropriate. It’s not really needed in the 7-14mm, the 8mm and fast primes (when I place these lenses on my Olympus e620 the images aren’t any sharper than when I place them on my GH1). I would expect to see it in their forthcoming Panasonic 100-300mm
YouDidntDidYou
2 years ago |“As the company responsible for initiating both the Four Thirds System and Micro Four Thirds System standards, Olympus Imaging Corporation will continue to develop and enhance the product lineup for both standards to meet the diverse needs of our customers.”
>both standards<
Jaydee
2 years ago |@Davide the Panny 20mm f1.7 IS the 40mm equivalent you’re looking for. The 50mm focal length is still more commonly used in most systems than the 40mm.
If you’re expecting to pay ONLY 1000 for an AF F/0.95 native lens, dream on.
Camerageek
2 years ago |What would interest me is if they setup the rear mount to be able to actuate RF Cam system. I could see Cosina releasing say a Bessa RM43A, where it’s lenses actuate a coincident rangefinder. Imagine LV and a Optical Coincident RF with RF lenses specific to M43rds, costing far less than an M9 and if they use the 1:1 finder of the R3, would provide sufficient base to accurately focus the 25/0.95 they announced.
That I would buy in a heartbeat.
Bruce
2 years ago |The Nokton 25mm is a great start. The lens I would really like to see is a 7.5mm Heliar – that is a small low distortion ultra-wide- equivalent to their full frame 15mm.
(Updated) HOT! NEW CV 25MM f0.95 NOKTON! - Page 4 - Micro Four Thirds User Forum
2 years ago |[...] a m4/3rds mount, 43rumors reports that the image quality is better than those CCTV lenses (source: 43 Rumors | Home), fingers crossed they're right.
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gekopaca
2 years ago |Next buzz now (tomorow) :
A very compact MFT camera (Pany, Oly, Cosy, or whatever) with I.S. built-in, and RF (or EVF) built-in…
If the price is around 1500$, I’ll sell my mother instantanly – Please marketing directors, read this forum!
Camerageek
2 years ago |I don’t care if it has IBIS – I’ve used cameras without it since the 70′s! I just want a coincident RF
gekopaca
2 years ago |I forget : silent shutter…