Its Schneider Kreuznach that will announce new m43 lenses next week!!!!!

On February 4th Schneider joined the m43 group. On that day Dr. Josef Staub, CEO of the Schneider Group said that: “This standard has great potential. It simplifies and improves the options for compact digital cameras and offers an excellent opportunity for the industry as a whole, as well as for us as a lens manufacturer. We are working intensively on a corresponding series of lenses” And when asked about manual focus lenses Josef said: “to put a manual focus lenses on a digital body is not the way to exploit the full potential of a digital system camera“.

So we can look forward to see some great lens (or lenses)! I don’t have any specs yet but as you may know Schneider also made many C-mount, FD, SL and M42 mount lenses in the past. Here are some of them:
[shoplink 27395 ebay]Xenon 16mm f/1.2 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27387 ebay]Xenon 25mm f/0.95 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27389 ebay]Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27391 ebay]Componon 50mm f/1.4 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27390 ebay]Xenon 50mm f/1.9 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27394 ebay]Xenar 50mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27388 ebay]Xenar 75mm f/3.5 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27392 ebay]Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27393 ebay]Xenar 180mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].

Nice list!

Anyway, the rumor is FT4 for now. I still need to get some proof that the news is real. Let me know if you find something!!!

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

The (Micro-) Four Thirds group listed at www.four-thirds.org.

According to one of my sources next week a Micro Four Thirds company will announce new Micro Four Thirds lenses. As I told you last week it’s not from Olympus or Panasonic. So stay tuned for more news in the coming days! There are also coming Panasonic/Olympus announcements in June/July. Hope we will soon see that new G5 ;)

One more thing: I want to thank the sources for the latest rumors they sent me in these days. I am working on to double check the info and will soon post them on 43rumors. All I can share with 43urmors readers is that Photokina will bring some great news:)

New Oly/Pana Lens Preorders in Europe, USA and Asia:
The Olympus 75mm lens can be preordered at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Amazon Germany (Click here) and Amazon UK (Click here). And Adorama has also the accessories: Olympus LH-61F, Metal Lens Hood (Click here) and the Olympus LC-61, Metal Front Lens Cap (Click here).
The Panasonic 12-35mm X lens can be preordered at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Amazon Germany (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon Japan (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).

43rumors exists for three years now and during that time we only had two single Four Thirds related announcements. The [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] and the great [shoplink 29677]Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

I have heard of many other camera prototypes but a part of the E-5 they remained in the hidden labs of Olympus. Of course I have heard about another E-XX(X) model and Olympus already said that they are working on an [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] successor too. But it remains a mystery for me if Olympus really will announce the stuff I keep hearing about. As you know the 100mm macro had been deleted from the roadmap and to me it almost looks like Olympus is only waiting for the right moment to merge the two systems in one. That said rumors are still being posted on external websites:
1) A Canadian guy at dpreview forum wrote that “I went to a photo show over the weekend… and spoke to the Olympus rep there… he confirmed a E-7 is definitely coming (which is known), but also suggested that there is much pressure from Japan for Olympus to build a E-720 type camera given that many people still want something between the EM5 and E-5…”
2) And the well (oly) connected Damian McGilliCuddy keeps posting mysterious E-X or E-XXX messages -> He started to post this kind of messages back in February 2012.

As I already told you, I think Olympus goal is to release a “professional” E-M Micro Four Thirds camera that provides full AF support for the great Four Thirds lens system. Once they have done that the only remaining argument for classic DSLR development remains the Optical Viewfinder. But I don’t think this will be a reason enough to keep the DSRL segment alive…