Video of the Panasonic CP+ booth (with new 14-42mm II lens).
PhotoNewsReviews posted this Panasonic 14-42mm II hands-on video at the CP+ booth in Japan. As you can see this lens is really the only “news” you find from Panasonic. It’s the biggest show of the year right in heart of the camera industry and I am still surprised to see the most Japanese companies didn’t unveil any major new camera or lens. Photokina was five months ago and no other big shows are coming this year (no Photokina, CES was in early January). You have an idea what’s going on?
By the way, if you find more videos of the show feel free to share! Thanks!
UPDATE -> More CP+ pics and reports:
Olympus 75-300mm hands-on at DSLRmagazine (translation here).
XZ-10 hands-on by DSLRmagazine (translation here).
PeterJ
5 months ago |There’s Focus on Imaging in the UK in early March. Last year Olympus used that to show the EM-5.
admin
5 months ago |DWould be suprised to see Oly unveileing the E-P5 by than…just one month after the CP+ show.
PeterJ
5 months ago |No, I wouldn’t think any major announcement at Focus. They would probably have started a teaser campaign for it by now if there was to be.
AMVR
5 months ago |Admin, by this you mean that the E-p5 is coming even LATER than march ? damn…that’s disappointing.
OMega
5 months ago |As yet Olympus will not be showing at Focus’ 2013 but then I believe they were late entries last year and don’t forget all they had on show was the E-M5 with a couple of lenses and they were mainly to use with the available bodies hough some were allowed to use them on thier own bodies, as I was with the 75-300.
Erik Aaseth
5 months ago |Well, one shouldn’t despair because of this, I suppose.
After all it’s not a bad thing to allow some products to have a shelf life of more than half a year! There is a limit as to what is a reasonable life span for such products. Replacing products w/ minor tweaked iterations every few month is not necessary. That will just put lots of stress onto both vendors and customers. Who would feel happy that their new cam seemingly gets redundant and is replaced after just half a year?
kai
5 months ago |I kinda like the new 14-42mm II
AMVR
5 months ago |Well i think that camera companies no longer use this shows as an opportunity to showcase their upcoming products mainly because of competition, meaning that they’ve been caught into their own chess game of not revealing any move in advance until the very last moment, admin should know this, rumors used to appear well before even prototypes showed at shows, nowadays confirmation barely gets here a week or two on advance, not long enough for companies to triumph over another by introducing a killer feature at the last minute.
All this has contributed to a rather boring environment, with false rumors and false expectations (Oly I’m looking at you) and no capacity to plan the growth of your own personal camera system in the long term. Not so long ago Oly and Pany used to announce 2 or so cameras at these shows, nowadays we get yet another re-re-re-release of the 14-42 kit lens.
m43fan
5 months ago |Photokina was only 4 months ago, not 6.
admin
5 months ago |from mid september til early february. Yep, four and half. You are right.
Pavlo
5 months ago |Seems like corporations do not count for such shows any more. Company I’m working for doesn’t take part in them for years and it didn’t affect the sales since. Now it’s “facebook era” — remember Oly’s teaser?
Andy
5 months ago |Looks a lot better, hardly much bigger than a pancake, and IQ looks way beyond.
Harold glit
5 months ago |SERIOUSLY ? You are going to compare IQ based on what seems to be a handheld image taken at one unknown fical length and one unknown aperture
i usually like that Nikon guy stuff but the comment about the IQ is downright ridiculous ..
Harold
Andy
5 months ago |Obviously I don’t have much info, but even in the video shown it was clearly better. They saw the original photos and felt the same way. I’m going to give them credit for knowing what they’re talking about.
henry
5 months ago |@Harold
here is a noticeable difference in IQ seen in the video. You may want to view it in HD to see for yourself. Then again, you may have a poor quality monitor.
squeegee
5 months ago |First we complain they’re releasing too many products too often. Now we complain it’s been almost 30 days since cp+ and there’s been nothing new…
*sigh*
admin
5 months ago |Nope, I complain about misisng new lenses. and a new PEN with integrated viewfinder. My complain only comes if they keep launching the same cameras again and again!
Es
5 months ago |I have an idea. Loss making divisions, a.k.a. camera ones, are not getting R&D money, so they focus on stuff that matters to the 80%.
Bob B.
5 months ago |This is surprising!
Metal mount, increase in IQ, much smaller size.
I was expecting something of lower quality, ( a lens that maximized profits), because every kit lens Panasonic has produced since the original 14-45mm has been a downgrade in construction or IQ…or both.
This is refreshing news and good for MFT in general as a system.
DonTom
5 months ago |@Bob. B. The mount is chrome plated plastic, not metal apparently. Was mentioned on a hands on.
It looks like a better lens than the previous, but probanly not better than the original 14-45mm.
Still, going forward is better than going backward. I like that it doesn’t extend much when zooming, and uses a 46mm filter, like so many other m43 lenses now.
jack
5 months ago |This video is a hands-on and I think I heard him say it has a metal mount. So who’s right? Does anyone have a definitive answer?
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |+10 Yeah.
The new 14-42mm looks much better than the old one. Now lets see a comparison to the 14-45mm!
Maybe getting a kit zoom won’t feel like a total waste the next time I buy a new camera… GX2? GH3? Hmmmmmm…
safaridon
5 months ago |If this video of the new kit lens is any indication of its smaller size, better construction, and better IQ than Pany is onto a good thing. Pany obviously thinks so by immediately making it available as kit lens on both GF5 and G5 without waiting for the new models. Smart move as the GF7 and G7 whenever announced likely to take some time before available in volume. Has a price for the lens been announced or when coupled with the G5?
I think this new kit std lens coupled with the 45-150 will be a very popular combo hard to beat on any m4/3 model.
NPrincen
5 months ago |Big companies are beginning to shy away from product introductions at major shows. If you do that, you risk the press releases being buried with all the others. They now begin to follow the Apple model, which is to hold your own press conference at a time when nothing else is going on. That way it will be the only news of the day and gets much wider coverage. It is all about maximizing the splash in the press.