Leica 8-18mm lens at Adorama, BHphoto, Panasonic and Amazon. In Europe at Amazon.de.

Opticallimits (former Photozone) tested the Panasonic-Leica 8-18mm lens:

As you might expect, the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH is a very decent performer in its category. The image center is very sharp and the borders and corners are pretty good as well – technically at least. Field curvature is a bit of an issue at 12mm albeit that’s not unheard of in this class (albeit usually at the wide end). Image distortions as well as vignetting are low when taking advantage of image auto-correction (obviously). The quality of the native design isn’t quite as hot in these respects though. Lateral CAs are very low and contribute to the high-quality perception. If pushed you will be able to spot some ghostings are a bit of glare with strong light sources in the scene. However, it isn’t worse than the competition in this respect.

A highlight of the lens (as well as its Leica cousins) is the build quality. We really wished this would be standard across all lenses. The Leica lens feels both sturdy and extremely well assembled with smooth controls and weather sealing on top of all that. Some may regret that Panasonic skipped an image stabilizer but honestly we agree with this approach because it’s already difficult enough to produce ultra-wide lenses without much sample variations.

Overall the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH follows a balanced approach in this category. It skips a constant aperture in favour of having front filters combined with a compact size. We wouldn’t state that it excels compared to its Olympus and Panasonic mates but it is in the very same league and as such an appealing option.

Leica 8-18mm lens at Adorama, BHphoto, Panasonic and Amazon. In Europe at Amazon.de.

Leica 50-200mm lens at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, Panasonic.

Here are two new reviews of the latest new Panasonic-Leica lens:

Exploring Austin with the Panasonic Lumix 50 – 200mm f2.8 – 4

A Look At The Panasonic 50-200mm Panasonic Leica Zoom Lens For Micro Four Thirds Cameras

Photons To Photos measured the Panasonic GX9 sensor performance. As you can see it’s nearly identical to the previous GX8.

Just to be clear, the GX9 is a fine camera. But I hope Panasonic next MFT camera will finally feature a new kind of sensor. We know Panasonic is working with Fuji on organic sensor tech. Let’s hope it doesn’t take too long!

GX9 at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. FocusCamera

Leica 50-200mm lens at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, Panasonic.

The new Panasonic Leica 50-200mm is finally shipping out and here is a review from Darryl Carey:

And Lenstip also tested this lens:

The list of pros of the Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50–200 mm f/2.8–4 ASPH. is really long; in order to be honest I have to admit these two cons I added a bit by force because they aren’t serious flaws at all. The weight and physical dimensions are additional assets of the tested lens, especially if you compare them to respective dimensions of its full frame 100-400 mm rivals. This device is really small and handy and I was able to appreciate it running up and down the hills of Faroe Islands. What’s more, its good aperture fastness allows you to attach it to a teleconverter without lowering the results and I mean here every system body available. You cannot say the same thing about slower 100-400 mm lenses.

I recently did a photoshoot without my usual full frame DSLR setup and instead I used 2 Panasonic Lumix G9. Why did I do that? And do I like the results? Check out my video to find out :) Photos on my blog: http://www.photobyrichard.com/photoby… Camera gears used in this photoshoot:
2 x Panasonic Lumix G9 Micro Four Thirds Cameras
Leica DG 42.5 f/1.2 Nocticron
Leica DG 55-200 f/2.8-4
Olympus 25mm f/1.2

Craig writes:

My new camera for street photography is the Olympus Pen F and here I head out onto the busy streets of Leeds to give it a first test run. Oh, and I’ve given up shooting Raw images by the way. I’m only shooting Jpegs from now on!

via Reddit

E-PL9 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and GetOlympus.

We haven’t heard much about the new Olympus E-PL9. Here is the full video review from Maarten Heilbron: