Shirota (Olympus): “development of unique lenses with ever greater focus on high image quality”
Eiji Shirota responsible for product planning of M.ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses wrote a short text on facebook (Click here). He also hints that: “We are currently involved in planning and development of unique lenses with ever greater focus on high image quality and usability.” I hope he was not thinking on the 15mm f/8.0 lens when writing this 
P.S.: The Olympus 75mm lens is in Stock in UK at Wexphotographic and in France at PhotoVideo.
Stevey
9 months ago |I don’t want unique. I’d like a 12-60 f/2.8-4 for m43.
Pekka Potka
9 months ago |FT 12-60mm is quite a unique lens. And so would a similar (same optical performance) mFT lens be.
-p-
Esa Tuunanen
9 months ago |In 4/3 lenses high optical performance wasn’t really unique…
Walter
9 months ago |No, it wasn’t. 4/3 lenses were pretty boring: they took nice sharp pictures of whatever you pointed them at, with neutral color, generally neutral bokeh, and no serious aberrations.
YJYJY
9 months ago |Could they get the same performance while substantially reducing size? Otherwise you might as well use the original lens and wait on the promised fast AF of FT lenses
twoomy
9 months ago |As said above, the 12-60 is VERY unique (when compared to Canikon/Sony offerings). Agreed that an m43 version would be super-awesome cool! I still use the 43 version on my GH2 and if it was just a wee bit smaller and AF worked well, this lens would hardly ever come off my camera.
KID
9 months ago |How about NOT forgetting about your 43rds customers Olympus. Can we say E-7 PLEASE!!!
Matthias
9 months ago |They forgot 43-users a long time ago when they decided not to continue E-XXX and E-XX. Not everybody want’s to buy an expensive cam like the E-M5 (or E-M7).
O
9 months ago |He was definitely not thinking on the 15mm f/8.0 lens when writing this.
Anonymoose
9 months ago |There’s not much wrong with the 15mm, except maybe the focal length. It’s a sunny 16 lens, and there are millions of older people who know the sunny 16 rule and nothing else. This lens also doesn’t need to focus (really, it doesn’t), so it’s going to be a smash hit that will open up digital photography to a lot of people.
Anonymous
9 months ago |The 15mm is a “throw-away” lens..kind of like the Canon 40mm.
Achiinto2
9 months ago |If you throw it away, let me know. I will pick it up.
TomR
9 months ago |Yes, I’m hoping many will be ‘thrown away’ on ebay.
YJYJY
9 months ago |The canon 40mm seems to get very good reviews and there is a world of difference between a pancake lens with variable apertures against a joke F8 lens.
don
9 months ago |Finally someone behind the wheel that understands what we want
Of course timing is everything – I just gave up waiting for a long-ish tele prime and bought a 180/3.4 Apo Teylt-R MF lens to use on my E-M5.
p.s. how about some BLN-1s
Ulli
9 months ago |interesting choice, this 180 Telyt….I might be interested too
don
9 months ago |The lens works really well on the E-M5. Seeing the IS working in the viewfinder is magical.
Corner to corner sharp; no sign of CA and atmospheric limited resolution.
The only issue is nailing focus : the infinity stop is not a problem – dead on infinity; but something 100m is certainly not infinity and difficult to see the difference without magnification at x7 or mitigated by stoping down.
TheEye
9 months ago |What do “we” want? I want a wider than 12 mm prime.
This guy is not behind the wheel. He’s a cog, a cog that will move on and be replaced.
Marcelo Guarini
9 months ago |I have been using the 135mm f3.4 Apo Telyt Leica M lens in my E-P3 and is superb. The 90mm f2.8 Tele Elmarit is great to.
LEPIDI
9 months ago |No zoom please…
TheEye
9 months ago |A 10(11) – 40(50) 2.0 – 3.5 would be nice. Please with internal zoom and focus.
nobody
9 months ago |2 zooms, please: 12-50 and 40-150. Both high grade, both f2.8-4.
Breen
9 months ago |How about 14-54 2.8-3.5? I think that Olympus knows what users want to get, and they get it. So, m14-54, better 17mm, m55-200 f.2.8, and maybe 25mm 1.2?
Gabi
9 months ago |Agree! I would buy this lens (14-54) in a breeze, especially if it is somewhat lighter than the FT lens.
Kevin
9 months ago |How about an affordable normal prime, or maybe just remake that 17mm with a “greater focus on high image quality.”
dg
9 months ago |Wow Kevin, great minds think alike!
Cpt
9 months ago |Yes, a better 17mm, to rival the mind blowing 75mm.
And a m43 14-54 would be great as well.
Dummy00001
9 months ago |And while they are at it, they can also release 20mm with faster AF. Panny will not be amused.
Yun
9 months ago |I would like to urge shirota to come out a 150mm F1.8 for it’s next project .
Or even a 300mm lens if possible .
M4/3 short of fast long focal length lenses for wildlife .
Anonymous
9 months ago |Seeing as we have a couple of zooms which already reach 300mm, designing and producing a 300mm prime would be little more than an exersize, the question is what are their immediate requirements? To produce long telephoto’s before anything else whould (or ultra wides come to that), would be a death knell situation as they are primarily for those who require such focal lengths, leaving the masses with a camera that to them would be a waste of space, you have to concentrate on the mid-range and get that spot on before realy getting the extremes covered, let us not forget that even u43 is still in its infancy in the great scheme of things It took many many years for some of those great legacy lenses to come along, so be patient they will come but not all together.
P
9 months ago |A small Tilt-Shift lens would be nice
dg
9 months ago |I want an affordable 17mm 1.8 and 25mm 1.8. Number one should be a new 17mm. If it has to be expensive then make it 1.2. That 2.8 is just not good enough.
Bob B.
9 months ago |I like Admin’s joke…but I also like the Olympus mindset…especially if it is going to produce more stunning lenses like the 75mm and the 12mm!!!!
Mar
9 months ago |There are already great lenses out. Just make m43 focus them well and that’s it.
No point in making new versions which are optically inferior and slower just to save few grams. Besides, lenses over 38mm can’t get any smaller anyway.
kerri
9 months ago |That would be true if it were a few grams but this is not the case as an example the Panasonic 7-14 lens gives you 95% of the performance of the Olympus 7-14. While being 40% of the weight, 65% the length and £576 cheaper.
The only demand for fast AF of these lenses is by those who already own them the huge majority of mFT users hold smaller and lighter as the major system advantage.If I want to carry FF size lenses I would just by FF , I don’t I want a compact high performance system .
I just looked at the price of the 7-14 Olympus and it costs £200 more than the Nikon lens and it is a bloody F2.8 FF lens.You are having a laugh if you think there will be any serious demand for these lenses
Esa Tuunanen
9 months ago |7-14mm is extremely retrofocal in 4/3 so that’s the lens whose optical design gets most freedom from halved flange back distance of mirrorless mount.
With focal length of lens increasing toward 4cm flange back distance of 4/3 DSLRs extra design freedom becomes smaller.
Also average optical quality of m4/3 lenses is well lower than that of 4/3 lenses.
That Nikon 14-24 has higher geometric distortion, more vignetting and usual for APS-C/35mm lenses sharpness dropping toward edges especially when zoomed. If done for 4/3 level corner to corner sharpness it would be bigger and higher priced.
While getting new 7-14mm DSLR lens for mirrorless surely doesn’t make sense that’s far from all lenses automatically benefiting from mirrorless mount.
Boooo!
9 months ago |Kerri, do keep in mind that the 7-14 is an f/2.8-4 lens that is, for some reason, firmware-crippled to be a constant f/4.
Anonymous
9 months ago |next glass it will be F1.8/100mm
Anonymous
9 months ago |Good news, it’s 17mm F1.8 !!! Yeah !
O
9 months ago |Yay! But when?
DingieM
9 months ago |Something like quality zoom lens with specs 40-200mm and good quality optics and little faster than 40-150mm, please.
Oh, and under 1000 euro.
Should be doable, Olympus.
I will take wide-angle street photo’s with my future telephones, should be good enough.
Dave
9 months ago |Perhaps if they are focussing on quality, which presumably means high price, Oly could also focus on selling the lenses as a package including the hood and a case – like they always used to rather than rip off their customers by selling them as over priced extras. Seriously I was more than a little annoyed to have to fork out extra cash for a hood after buying the 12mm and I don’t think I am alone in this.
st3v4nt
9 months ago |+1000
What makes me worry is not how many or which lens olympus will make, but the tendency to keep releasing expensive lens with expensive accessories and burdening the user. I think we never doubt that Olympus have the ability to make really good lens, but outside lens kit they must also try to keep the balance between expensive and affordable lens. How come they can justify that m4/3 user should pay more for lenses than 4/3 user pay? Just look at the 75-300 vs 70-300 price or why 40-150 in m4/3 only have plastic mount while 40-150 in 4/3 have metal mount. Here I see that Panasonic have more fair policy in pricing their lens than olympus.
ArKersaint
9 months ago |+1 I would say that Panasonic has readable policy where Olympus has erratic launch :
- plastic / aluminium
- silver only
- and so on
Lez
9 months ago |12-60 and 50-200 for mFT, please!
Matthias
9 months ago |Yep, and 2.8-4.0. Something like Fuji has presented and will bring out next year. It’s stupid that Olympus did not alredy made such lenses.
TheEye
9 months ago |It seems there’s a new guy responsible for product planning every other month. That way, you can’t blame the next guy in line. Or maybe I’m wrong. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Dummy00001
9 months ago |14-54 or 12-60, starting at f/2.8 for me please.(12-35 is bit too short.)
If they are taking about primes, then 2.0/17mm pancake, please.
I know I’m repeating what was said above, but in the case I think it is justified.
Because every time I hear mention of the 8.0/15mm, I get this lingering “WTF?!” feeling.
Needless to mention:
- PEN with EVF is still missing.
- PDAF on m43 is still missing.
Because … 8.0/15mm … WTF is wrong with you Olympus?!
Anonymous
9 months ago |PEN with EVF has existed for a long time. I bought a clip-on EVF even before I bought the first (and only) PEN. In fact, the PEN E-P3 with the EVF clip-on is more bulky than the OM-D E-M5. Thus, if you plan to use the PEN with an EVF almost all the time, the E-M5 is a better choice.
OK — you may have meant a “range finder” style PEN
.
Jorginho
9 months ago |Exactly! EVF in EP-x and PDAF is needed.
What was a highly succesfull lens in the 43 range? 12-60 mm f2.8 to f4. Make it, make it weathersealed. How difficult can it be to think of that?
Primes: there are really enough of them I think.
Idealy I would like to see:
12-60 mm f2.5 to f3.5/f4 zoom WS (Weathersealed)
60-125 mm f2.5 to f3.5/f4 zoom WS
125-200 mm f2.5 to f3.5/f4 zoom WS
200-300 mm f2.5 to f3.5/f4 zoom WS
Or something that comes close if these aperatures mean really a too big lens inspite of small zoomranges…
twoomy
9 months ago |I’d take an updated 9-18mm (let it be a bit bigger so it can be a tad brighter and image quality in the corners can be better) or a wide-angle prime as well. I think an 8mm or 9mm or 10mm prime (f/2.8 or better) would excite many of us landscapers!
jocky scot
9 months ago |Perhaps they should focus on shutter shock.
Jalo
9 months ago |Please make a m.zuiko 17mm f2 just like the 12/2, similar design, depth of field scale and manual focus and of course image quality.
And also m.zuiko 400mm f5.6, with physical length of 20cm, like the Pentax-FA 400 F5.6 had.