Some of our readers said that it is not possible that slow zooms can be defined as “PRO” lenses. I just learned from my sources the exact words Panasonic will use tomorrow when announcing the new “X” lenses. According to Pana this is a “premium lens brand“! And those are the lens specs:

Lumix G X 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical lens with Power O.I.S.

I have been told that it has:
– superb image rendering for lifelike textures
– crisp edge-to-edge contrast
– Nano Surface Coating (for minimal ghosts and flaring)
– 26.8mm length!
– 95g
– It has 9 lenses (including four aspherical lenses and two ED lenses)
– It has two buttons, a electric-powered zoom button and an autofocus button (there is no zoom nor focur ring!)
– 0.1 second Light Speed AF with the [shoplink 23109]Panasonic GF3[/shoplink].
. Minimum focusing distance wide open is 20cm. On the tele end it is 30cm.

Lumix G X 45-175mm f/4.0-5.6 Aspherical lens with Power O.I.S.

– superb image rendering for lifelike textures
– crisp edge-to-edge contrast
– Nano Surface Coating (for minimal ghosts and flaring)
– Inner focusing
– 90mm length
– 210g
– 0.15 second Light Speed AF with the [shoplink 23109]Panasonic GF3[/shoplink].
– The lens has almost the same size of the [shoplink 15864 ebay]Olympus 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6[/shoplink]. It is not compact!

P.S.: Two of my sources said the price of the 14-42mm X lens is probably too high :(

A collage made by “Aless” (Thanks!) shows the real 14-42mm X lens on the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink].

Tomorrow (Friday) at 6am London time Panasonic will unveil the new X lens series and two new zoom lenses. We were never that excited about upcoming zooms! I have been told the image quality of the new and very first 14-42mm X lens is impressive (much better than the actual [shoplink 23962 ebay]14-42mm kit lens[/shoplink]). It has Nano Surface Coating, aspherical lens, inner focusing, powerzoom (with button on lens), in lens image stabilization. All this is packaged in a tiny pancake with 1.5x the length of the [shoplink 14796 ebay]20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink]! The aperture of the lens is f/3.5-5.6.

A new anonymous source sent me this (take it as FT2!): “The new kit lens will be available with the [shoplink 23109]GF3[/shoplink] in a special kit package, and Panasonic is also going to offer it with the [shoplink 14834]G2[/shoplink] at some point. Had a try with the lens last week at the press event, the way it pops out by itself is actually pretty impressive, and I can see being really useful for slipping into your bag or just dumping the camera somewhere quickly. But it’s $250/200 Euro more than the standard kit lens – will consumers want to cough up that kind of money?” P.S.: The current Panasonic kit lens price can be checked here [shopcountry 23962] (around 200 dollars/pounds/euro).

I have no reliable info yet about the second lens, the 45-175mm zoom. I have been told it is also small but I don’t know yet if it is an X lens or not.

More: It will be interesting to see how Panasonic will introduce the new “X” pro lineup. Will there be more “X” lenses coming this year? Will there be fast zoom “X” lenses too? Will there also be “X” cameras?

Be online tomorrow at 6am London time. As usual I will make  a useful summary of all news/reviews/interviews and so on!

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Wow guys! I am astonished. I honestly never thought that we would ever see a such small Micro Four Thirds zoom lens!!! It’s actually just a bit bigger than the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 pancake[/shoplink]!!! And you can easily see the powerzoom button on the lens! The lens name is Lumix X 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6. It is an aspherical lens and voilà…it has O.I.S. (Optical Image stabilization!).

I am not a zoom fan but THAT lens could be one of the best news for Micro Four Thirds ever! Compare that tiny zoom with all other kit lenses from Samsung, Sony and whatsoever is coming from Nikon. The Panasonic lens is smaller and has many new features (see powerzoom, OIS, inner focusing and so on!). That is really a revolution more than an evolution. Dear Panasonic, you impressed me! A hug to all Panasonic engineer’s! As you knwo that lens will be announced on Friday along the new 45-175mm lens!

Thanks Ignazio for sending me that. I do not post the link to the source yet as I am sure Panasonic would force them to shut down the site and I want to search for more info first :)

Our friends over at Digitalcamerainfo (Click here) confirmed that the new Panasonic lenses will be announced on Friday afternoon (Tokyo time). I am still waiting to get more details from sources. All I know is that the lenses are quite a revolution in the sense that the lenses will be extremely compact. I think Panasonic’s goal is to kick in the butt of the upcoming new Nikon mirrorless camera. As you know those cameras are rumored to have a smaller than Micro Four Thirds sensor in order to allow a more ocmpact lens design. But it looks like Panasonic has been able to make the 14-42mm and 45-175mm zoom lenses smaller than the Nikon expected. Imagine if the rumors are true. Micro Four Thirds could have a larger sensor (which theoretically should allow a higher image quality) and smaller lenses! If that turns out to be true than Nikon may made a mistake?

Tomorrow Sony and Nikon will announce their new mirrorless cameras and lenses. You can follow the news on Mirrorlessrumors!

Image courtesy and source: blog.livedoor.jp

Sorry If I fooled you for a moment by showing the picture on top :)  We heard that Fuji will make an announcement in two weeks but according to rumor coming in from our sources (and from Quesabesde and Photorumors) will not be a Micro Four Thirds cameras! It will be a fixed lens camera with a smaller than Four Thirds sensor. Now, Fuji said there will be an interchangeable camera coming this year. So there might be a second announcement by very end of 2011? So hope is still alive althaugh very weak…

P.S.: The new X10 will look very close to the actual [shoplink 19929 ebay]Fuji X100 (Click here to see that cam)[/shoplink]. It has a4x manual zoom lens with fast f/2.0 aperture ad it will be priced at $599.00.

We just got a new rumor about a possible Panasonic announcement on Friday! We ask our other sources if they can confirm the rumor so that we can raise the rumor ranking from FT3 to FT5! As you know there will be also a Sony and Nikon announcement on Wednesday and a Samsung announcement next week. Sounds like we are going to see a lot of new mirrorless stuff in these days!

UPDATE: A new source said the lenses will be announced on Thursday Morning.

According to our trusted sources Panasonic will announce a completely new kind of lenses with ultra-compact design, high resolution, powerzoom (with zoom button on the lens) and inner focusing. The lenses will be part of a new PRO lens line and probably marker with an “X”.

The two lenses that will be announced are the 14-42mm and 45-175mm zooms.

Drop us an anonymous text using the contact form on the right sidebar to confirm and share more details about the announcement! Thanks!

Reminder -> Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

I was working on that rumor since a couple of weeks (and I told you here that there would be a surprise). Now our friend Andrew from EosHD beat me on time and published a part of the surprise ;)

Yes it’s true, Panasonic will announce a new Micro Four Thirds pro lens series. It will be called “X“. What EosHD didn’t mention is that the 14-42mm and 45-175mm lenses will be the very first lenses having that “X” mark! Unlike Andrews speculation there will be no 12-50mm or 45-300mm zooms yet. I have been told the new lenses are an “optical revolution” because they are incredibly compact, do have a high optical quality, powerzoom and inner focusing. The lenses are made with both worlds in mind, still photography and video recording. I am currently collecting info about those lenses but it’s clear that Panasonic is putting very high expectations in this new project. One of the source was actually very impressed by the new kit lens performance. When he saw the lens he thought this would be a new “cheap” zoom lens. But he image quality and the new size and features will have a “WOW” reaction even on more serious photographers. The source strongly believes this will become a very popular line for amateurs and pro photographers!

As I said that is only the first part of the surprise, the second part will be published as soon as I get more out of my sources! Thanks for your patience!

P:S.: I repeat. There iwll be no GF7 yet!