Wow! What a day! Panasonic already shared some details about the upcoming NEXT X lenses. There will be a 12-35mm and a 35-100mm fast X zooms!!!! Panasonic said they will come in 2012 and have a “large” aperture. Those are focal lengths very close to the amazing constant f/2.0 aperture lenses from Oly, the [shoplink 25118 ebay]Olympus 14-35mm f/2.0[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0[/shoplink]! But I do hops they are not that expensive!
The 14-35mm costs around $2100. Check: [shopcountry 25118].
The 35-100mm costs around $2500. Check: [shopcountry 25119].
Let’s assume the price is close to the Olympus lenses and the aperture f/2.0:
Panasonic Lumix X 14-42mm Lens, expected price $399 or £350.
Panasonic Lumix X 45-175mm Lens, expected price $449.99 or £400.
Panasonic Lumix GF3X Lens and Camera Kit, expected price <£600.
Availability: end of October.
According to Panasonic the X lenses it will be fully compatible with Olympus cameras!
Not fully compatible with G1, G2 and GF1.
PowerZoom is multi-speed
It doesn’t rotate on focusing (you can use filters!)
Previews and Image samples
Hot!Nice X lens preview with video at Techradar. Hot! MTF charts and Image samples of the 14-42mm X lens at Panasonic.net. Hot! MTF charts and Image samples of the 45-175mm X lens at Panasonic.net.
New X versus old 14-42mm lens spec comparison at SLRclub.
Panasonic 14-42mm X Lens Hands-On Photos at Photographyblog.
Panasonic 45-175mm X Lens Hands-On Photos at Photographyblog. Hot! Lens size comparison at SLRclub. Hot! 14-42mm X lens preview at Dpreview.
Panasonic X Lens 14-42mm Hands On at ePhotozine.
Panasonic Lumix X Lens 45-175mm Hands On at ePhotozine
Video
More videos: Dpreview 14-42mm X af test on vimeo.
Panasonic GF3 14-42mm Power Zoom lens demonstration on vimeo.
Panasonic X retractable pancake zoom on youtube.
“There may be a more lenses such as macro, more zoom, large aperture, and prime lenses in the pipeline. While we were unable to have specifics, more lenses are already in the works, and on the X lens roadmap. High quality lenses have been developed after learning Leica qualities and applying them to their own designs, and by using software correction they are able to correct any distortion caused by the more compact lenses. This will mean that the distortion will / may show on RAW images, and that Panasonic will need to update RAW support for these new lenses.”
“He also said that the GH3 is not due imminently, as the GH2 is still extremely popular, but that there is a high end GF series camera in the works.”
Poll
Read the tests and previews first and than vote!
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More Panasonic news
Panasonic firmware updated coming (CNET Asia).
Panasonic is launching a new photo sharing service called Lumix Club (Photographyblog).
Panasonic launches Lumix DMC-FZ150 12MP 24x 1080p60 MOS superzoom (Dpreview).
Lumix FX90 Wi-Fi-enabled touchscreen compact camera (Dpreview).
Panasonic DMC-LX5 firmware 2.0 brings image and handling improvements (Dpreview).
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!
Our friend Mike Kobal (Click here) got his hands on the Kipon EOS to m43 adapter which has a built-in aperture ring! He says: “This is a very useful and reasonably priced adapter, well made, no problems mounting my Canon lenses, image quality is very good as long as you stay within the suggested aperture range (markings from 1-6).” That adapter is available at BHphoto (Click here) and on [shoplink 24931 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
ThePhoBlographer (Click here) made a on filed review of the 26mm f/1.4 Toy lens: “With that in mind, this is a lens for the experimental photographer, the hipster, the film lover, or just those people that want a different look and will embrace, “technical flaws” to create better images that others aren’t creating. However, the lens still isn’t perfect. The colliding aperture blades and the backwards aperture and focusing rings can be annoying and will essentially force you to just shoot wide open and not worry about the rest.” Visit his website to see image and video samples! You can check the Toy lens price on [shoplink 24931 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
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