Today Venus Optics announced this new fast 25mm f/0,95 lens. It has a very good optical performance and the best thing about it is the price: You get it now for $399 only at Venus Lens Store (worldwide shipment).
This is the press text:
Anhui China, 16 March, 2022 –Anhui China, Mar 16 , 2021 – Venus Optics, the manufacturer that specialized in making unique camera lenses, is presenting a new Laowa Argus 25mm f/0.95 MFT APO after the previous success in their Argus series. This new lens is designed for the Micro Four Thirds system and offers an ultra-fast f/0.95 aperture. The remarkable shallow depth of field creates a dreamy rendering that easily separates your subject from the background. An APO design minimized the chromatic aberration. Both photographers and videographers can benefit from the flexibility for shooting in low light situations.
If we were looking for a stills camera then there could be quite a bit of redundant technology here, but as soon as the video aspect becomes part of the equation then the whole concept and offering that the GH6 represents might just blow us away. The whole idea of shooting high quality, professional standard video is just an amazing new world for the photographer as more and more take up the mantle and become more videographers, for all sorts of reasons.
This is seriously good stuff, priced realistically and also, thanks to the internet, there are the means to meaningfully share the finished output.
This is not to say that there are no handling issues, and the placement of some dials and buttons can be unfortunate if our usual grip falls in the wrong places. It is, however, a learning curve and most things can be worked around with practice.
Now OM Digital Solutions is not shackled to developing technologies that must also be of use to the medical industry, it appears to be concentrating on doing what, historically, it did best: making innovative first-class cameras that meet the needs of photographers. Their ongoing pushing of the boundaries of what a camera can do has to be good for the industry as a whole.
While many cameras’ highest extended ISOs are usually of questionable usability, the OM-1 is, nonetheless, said to offer improved higher ISO performance compared to its predecessor, one which used a more conventional sensor design. In real-world testing from Jeremy Gray, the OM-1 did indeed show excellent higher ISO performance and an improvement over the E-M1 III. However, as always, lab-testing is also needed.
Pedro Lasta:
I am a Miami based nature/bird photographer and photography teacher. I have enthusiastically used M43 equipment over the past years. I just got my new Olympus OM1 and starting testing its amazing performance for birds in flight. I have put up some images as well as my First Look Review for Birds in Flight photography using the OM1 on Flickr, here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/14779326@N24/
Fsi:
“Been testing the OM-1 against the A1 for the past few days, and what started out as hopeful anticipation that we’d get a camera that Tracked and Continuous Autofocused better than the E-M1 iii/X series has ended with a truly astonishing finding, that we have in fact the BEST camera for birds in flight….” https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65982931
Aura:
“…..Between wide area AF small on the Z9 and all points C-AF on the OM-1, the success rate is nearly perfect on both cameras but the Olympus is far more forgiving in framing as it has the entire field to work with. I’m completely shocked the OM-1 is not only competing, but besting these class leading cameras in AF at less than half the price. I haven’t even started dialing in settings yet, this performance is straight out of the box!” https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65983051
Back in September the latest OM Digital Lens roadmap teased the launch of a new “macro” lens in the 100mm range. Asobinet just spotted the patent of this lens: It’s a 100mm f/2.8 macro:
I am pretty sure this lens will be released this year!
