Precision Camera and the first 60mm macro hands-on. And a Panasonic patent
There is a first short hands-on of the upcoming new Olympus 60mm macro lens at Precision Camera (Click here): “This lens is awesome. It has a great build quality with responsive AF and very quick macro focus.” There is not a lot of info but I guess we will see a real review very soon!
One mroe little news: Egami found a new Panasonic patent showing a heating warning system. Whenever the sensor is getting hot it says you how much time is left before the camera shuts down.
Chaitanya
9 months ago |cant wait for the 60mm macro, hope it comes weather sealed. I am going to buy my 1st micro 4/3 camera just for that lens.
Anonymoose
9 months ago |“very quick macro focus”
AF for macro? Huh? Why would anyone want to do that?
“The 1:1 macro function is achieved by holding the magnification selection dial to the setting during the focusing, and then is held there until you refocus and it resets itself to the normal macro mode.”
What the…?
ozymandias
9 months ago |This is also how you’d focus on the GH2 if you tend to use soft old manual lenses. It is not about AF I believe.
1:1 samples the full resolution of the sensor, helping you focus precisely on what you want. It’s very useful partnered with a shallow DOF and a tripod; if you take photos of insects or anything that moves, though, you will definitely find times when AF is extremely convenient.
anonymous
9 months ago |using AF with the PL 45/2.8 Macro here – it works more often than not. I see no reason not to include it.
BB
9 months ago |Because insects move.
Anonymous
9 months ago |The macro is a weatherseal lense confirmed by oly Japan
kesztio
9 months ago |Really hating just stupid patents. The next movement will be patenting the usage of a so-called shutter button for shooting.
YouDidntDidYou
9 months ago |@kesztio
blame Apple…
kesztio
9 months ago |+1024
Dummy00001
9 months ago |Misplaced. Blame USPTO and IBM. Namely IBM has started the patent race in the 70s-80s. And USPTO decided to play along and set a record of how much patents per year can be granted. More is better, after all.
bli
9 months ago |Don’t confuse real patents/new ideas (IBM etc) and idiotic ones (square screen or what not?)
occam
9 months ago |1st of all: Not so fast. IBM invented trivial patents: XOR.
2nd of all: There’s no such thing as a “real” patent. Patents were a mistake early on, and now they’re a vehicle for legal industry to embezzle and extort clients and industries. The USPTO is a joke, and patents are like ticking time bombs. There’s no way the system can work, yet the legal industry + USPTO (run by lawyers) have institutionalized them with excuses and fraud.
All too abstract? Well, the same guy (Bruce Lehman while at USPTO) who institutionalized software patents, also exported them globally (treaties), and then created some horrible copyright laws and exported those laws globally (WTO et al.). So the corrupt laws aren’t just a coincidence (for those who bother to connect dots). Total baldfaced, joke.
Bottom line: patents are just a symptom of the times in MAD USA: total overt and institutionalized corruption. (MAD ≡ Modern American “Democracy”).
-=-
In other news, I am really looking forward to the Oly 60mm. It’s good to hear the autofocus may actually work for a macro lens. That could be a first for macro photography. Fingers crossed for incredible sharpness (akin to reputed sharpness of 75mm).
bart
9 months ago |Laws aren’t created by a single person. That simple fact alone already shows that what you posted is an extreme simplification, so much so that it misses relevant informationand the conclusion is aldo based on incomplete information.
There are many things wrong with patents, especially software and business method patents, but doing something about that isn’t going to be served well by ignoring things.
occam
9 months ago |Nice try. You didn’t even try to connect the dots.
First of all, individuals often do create laws — and even take credit for them with their names on the laws. But that’s pointless. The point is who champions the laws — whether they created them or not.
So, yeah, there’s always lots of window dressing, but, NO, laws are often created by single people. Yeah, “create” is a simplification because most people don’t care about details — so you’re playing semantics in a specious way. At USPTO, he was front man for the laws (but not in Congress, so he didn’t literally “create” the laws). And with the copyright laws, he was front man again, and it doesn’t matter who really created the laws. So, yeah, I used the word “create” loosely in the copyright sentence. Corruption is always misleading and complicated, so the surface details are often (deliberately) confusing. Most people understand “created”, so that’s what I used to connect the dots through the serial point man.
To close your mini-loop, you can probably tell that I really don’t like people who speak from ignorance, make specious arguments, and ignore the facts; and I’m not especially tolerant of public speakers dissing actual knowledge — especially when it’s been spelled out in black and white.
Do some research, and feel free to send me personal nastygrams, but please keep your ignorance out of the public thread. Thx.
Fish
9 months ago |I wish you would take your own advice.
occam
9 months ago |“Fish”, be specific. Which advice?
(I would PM, but there’s no account behind the name “Bart”, nor “Fish”.)
ozymandias
9 months ago |specious = very good word to learn
occam
9 months ago |Non-sequitur, but feel free to connect your dots.
(Oh, and another anonymous, non-account “reply”.)
Bart
9 months ago |You won’t have law in the USA without congress approving it and a president signing for it. Hence, a single person can come up with the idea for a law, even take credit for it, but they can’t make it into law themselves.
occam
9 months ago |Bart, there are plenty of ways to game the system.
For instance, judges interpret the law all the time — creating essentially new law with their decisions.
The USPTO (which is not even a court) applies law all the time — using whatever interpretation it desires. That’s how law violations (e.g., process and game patents) became acceptable.
Lobbyists get congresspeople to make law all the time. Around the water cooler, everyone acknowledges this behavior as fact.
Singletons can manipulate systems all the time.
This topic is not photography, and I feel like I’m beating a dead horse.
bart
9 months ago |Gaming the system still requires involvement of more then one person.
Many of the things you mention are available to all parties, especially lobbying.
You could stop voting corrupt people into congress.
You aren’t a helpless puppet unless you act like one.
There is a reason why ACTA doesn’t fly in enough EU member states in its current form to make EU wide implementation not feasable, people acted instead of just complaining from behind their computer.
occam
9 months ago |Amazing
Ceri Vale
9 months ago |Wonder what the cost will be
I am so close to selling my E5 and High Grade glass…
Dave
9 months ago |I’m looking forward to this lens so it’s good to see that initial comments are so positive but when do we get to see some serious long telephoto primes and zooms?
Esa Tuunanen
9 months ago |Wouldn’t expect them until there’s working continuous AF which can do more than track stationary target and focuses well to fast moving targets.
YouDidntDidYou
9 months ago |@Esa Tuunanen
just in case you still belive pepople don’t want bigger LCD screens http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/03/android-smartphone-sales-led-by-big-screens-are-growing-everywhere-except-in-the-u-s-kantar/
bart
9 months ago |But wanting a bigger screen on a phone says totally nothing about wanting a bigger screen on a camera.
Regardless, for those exclusively using live-view a bigger screen is usually better.
Bruce
9 months ago |I will buy this lens but will use the middle setting on the lens barrel selector, then add either wet or dry diopters for underwater work. . .
I fail to see any benefit in trying to hold a button in position when you are trying to use a precision instrument to focus on a miniscule plane?
Again these boffins are over-thinking and over-engineering something that can be used quite simply.
emde
9 months ago |I do not understand the 1:1 function either.
In my understanding 1:1 is achieved at the minimum focussing distance, hence it is a fixed focus position and there is no need to focus at all (apart from moving the camera)…
Martin
9 months ago |It may not be much more than a quick way of asking the lens to focus to minimum distance. As framing in the macro regime with a lens focussed to long distance is pointless -you won’t see anything- and as the AF alone often fails to drive the lens to close focus when activated -it tends to find a nice background pattern to focus on instead-, you are often stuck with manually winding the focus wheel turn after turn until you are at the low-distance end. A direct “send me to 1:1″ button may prove handy in such situations.
YouDidntDidYou
9 months ago |Olympus still need to bring out their own micro our thirds versions of the 8mm and 7-14mm (maybe they are waiting until they have introduced multi spot white metering for using these wide lenses in mixed white balance conditions…)
The 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens looks like all kinds of awesome am surely tempted :-]
st3v4nt
9 months ago |The Image sample and price would be great…so I can decide wether I’m going for 60mm or just buying 2nd hand PL 45mm for the time being I’m stuck with ZD 35mm macro. And why wouldn’t Sigma releasing it’s 105 and 150 macro for m4/3? They do that with 4/3.
Sensia
9 months ago |What about 17mm f1.8 ?
Jim Felt
9 months ago |I used the 60mm lens briefly today and my first impression was at, maybe, 5 feet it looks exactlyly like the goofy looking 12-50 Kit Zoom. I have that very lens because it came with the early EM-5s and I still have one wrapped in the factory bubble envelope. It, to me, “looks” cheezy as all get out and feels to small to properly grip.
I absolutely love the touch and look of the 12mm and the 75mm but the 60mm macro actually has a wheel control on its barrel and reminds me that Olympus’ main business is in the medical field! Plus 60mm is to me a 120 focal length; not my favorite at all.
I’m sure it’s swell and all but the Pana/Leitz 45 focal length will remain my “portarit” lens of choice. Though to be fair I will happily replace all my Pana lenses in favor of new and updated and metal Oly lenses as they appear on the market.
10-4