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Finally: In Europe and Asia you can separately buy the excellent new Panasonic 12-32mm. The lens is available only with the GM1 in North America.
Some stores selling the lens only are: Technikdirekt (Germany), Cameranu (Holland), [shoplink 42857 ebay]eBay (Japanese sellers)[/shoplink].
The first Olympus PRO lens, the 12-40mm zoom got tested at DxOmark (Click here). As you see it’s on par with the Panasonic. DxO writes:
The Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO is a good lens, very good in fact, easily challenging the optical performance of the rival, and slightly dearer Panasonic model as well as high-grade APS-C lenses. But, at a whisker under $1000, quality like this doesn’t come cheap.
Also Tashley1 (Click here) posted a lens review:
At every focal length F2.8 thru F5.6 will give sharp images edge on a 20″ print. No need to finesse this, just shoot.
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E-M1 and 12-40mm lens store Links:
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus OM-D EM-1 / EM-5 “Live Time” Long Exposure Demonstration by Kevin (doesn’t show any issue)
Long exposure issues on the E-M1:
As discussed on Flickr (Click here) and MU43 (Click here) the E-M1 seems to have a fairly worse long expsoure performance than the E-M5. Don’t know if the mentioned issues can be solved via firmware upgrade. One of the commenters said that he received an email From Olympus:
“They had sent my samples off to Germany/Japan and now had an answer. They’re just telling me that unfortunately there will be no fix for the long exposure noise. The advice from Olympus is to make sure NR is enabled or left on AUTO at all times”
And our reader Knut shared his HLD-7 grip impression review:
“Took some pictures of it with different lenses, and added a set on Flickr;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knutivars/sets/72157637489250755/
My thoughts are:
Grip is VERY good. It’s not small, but it’s meant to provide a good grip for use with all the different lenses – which it does perfectly. Used it on a studio-shoot today, and it was lovely to use. It makes the camera kinda huge and will match sufficiently with the FL-50R. The E-M1 can be a small and anonymous camera when you’re out and about – e.g at a restaurant, but It can also be made into a tank of a camera – providing pro features in a compact body. That’s one reason why I love it. The improvements over E-M5 are also welcome – and not only feature-vise like the faster shutter, low-iso and focus-peaking, but things like button-layout and response of the camera when using dials and buttons.
Secondly – I hope there will be a firmware up soon; The C-AF and continuous tracking could use a fine-tune, along with a few other features;
* WiFi app for PC – Allowing tethering.
* Same exposure on different aperature-settings when zooming with a not-constant aperature zoom, like the 14-54, 50-200, 40-150, etc..; by ISO compensation.
* Exposure compensation in manual mode with Auto-ISO.
* 25fps video (again).
Olympus have to remember – this is a pro camera with a longer time at market – and any updates are welcome by the users.”
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E-M1 Store Links:
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
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Funny how rumors about future mirrorless cameras from the competition often refer to a new model as an “Olympus OMD” alike design. it shows how successful the Olympus OMD line is! Fujirumors reports: “The Japanese source told me that the weather sealed X coming in January will have double SD card slots. The design? A new source said that the camera body will be “something like OMD (E-M1 – E-M5) shape“.
Now Olympus has to come up with something else others can”copy” :)
Newsshooter at Interbee 2013: Kowa Micro 4/3 lenses cine lenses from Dan Chung on Vimeo.
Kowa announced a couple of new Micro Four Thirds Cine lenses. The optical design is based on their current industrial lenses. What changes is the lens body (focus ring, mount and so on). As far a s I could see from the video on top there will be five new lenses:
8.5mm T/3.0
12mm T/1.9
16mm T/1.6
25mm T/1.9
50mm T/2.1
No price and release info were given yet.
video found via Newsshooter. Thanks!
Image courtesy: SmallCameraBigPicture.com.
You saw them separately before but never all them together in one comparison shot. The picture has been taken by Giuglio Sciorio. You see the Nocticron 42,5mm f/1.2 (coming early 2014), the current 25mm f/1.4 and the 15mm f/1.7 lens (coming 2014). You can see more pictures including an 35-100mm image at Smallcamerabigpicture.com where he posted a Lumix PPE Report. This is what he writes about the new Nocticron lens:
Metal, glass and built to last – It’s a very well made lens with a feel that is all Leica. Because of all the metal and glass its not a light lens. That said it’s not very heavy but it has heft. The aperture ring is smooth and easy to operate and the aperture itself is very round. I did not count how many blades make up the aperture but I am expecting some very nice bokeh. The Leica 42.5/1.2 is a new level of premium glass for the Micro 4/3 system so don’t expect it to be inexpensive. This is a pro grade lens all the way and like all Leica glass any aberrations are corrected optically not through firmware so expect this lens to perform well on both Lumix and Olympus bodies.
Thanks Giulio!
SLRmagic announced via Twitter that “Our 12/1.6, 35/1.4, and 17/1.6 are in for a good cause!” More about it at Philip Blooms website. The tweet also shows the first image of the production 17mm T/1.6 MFT lens! The lens will be available in Spring 2014 for $499.
Current SLRmagic lenses for Micro Four Thirds:
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR magic Cine 12mm T/1.6 Lens at Adorama (Click here).
SLR Magic 25mm T0.95 at Adorama (Click here).
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Noktor SLRmagic 50mm on [shoplink 25691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
SLR Magic Pin Hole Lens at Adorama (Click here).
