Say goodbye to 4/3 lenses.

I just came across the 4/3 lens catalog, and took a few minutes to reminisce, since it's been a while now since I unloaded my 4/3 gear. What struck me is just how well Oly and Panny are emulating the lenses available for the old system with the new. While some of the new replacements aren't exact, many are, even across brands.

The main difference is that with m4/3, they're pretty reliably starting from the bottom and working up, a strategy they didn't use the first time around. While this ticks off a lot of more serious users that you find on forums who are stuck waiting for their favorite high end glass, it probably makes better business sense to reach the biggest part of the market first and grow a user base, who can then in turn grow with the system.

My guess is that they will continue to work their way up the range while working on the 4/3 autofocus issue, but if it takes them long enough to sort it out,  they may just end up replacing the whole catalog before they figure it out.

Take a look at the replacements and omissions (some are admittedly approximations)-

Wide:

Olympus 7-14 4.0 -> Panasonic 7-14 4.0

Olympus 9-18 4.0-5.6 -> Olympus 9-18 4.0-5.6

Olympus 11-22 2.8-3.5 -> Olympus 12 2.0, Panasonic 14 2.5

Standard:

Olympus 12-60 2.8-4.0 ->

Olympus 14-35 2.0 -> Panasonic 12-35 2.8

Olympus 14-42 3.5-5.6 -> Olympus 14-42 3.5-5.6

Panasonic 14-50 2.8-4.5 ->

Panasonic 14-50 3.8-5.6 -> Olympus 12-50 3.5-6.3

Olympus 14-54 2.8-2.5 ->

Panasonic 14-150 3.5-5.6 -> Olympus 14-150 4.0-5.6

Olympus 18-180 3.5-6.3 ->

Tele Zoom:

Olympus 35-100 2.0 -> Panasonic 35-100 2.8

Olympus 40-150 4.0-5.6 -> Olympus 40-150 4.0-5.6

Olympus 50-200 2.8-3.5 ->

Olympus 70-300 4.0-5.6 -> Olympus 75-300 4.8-6.7, Panasonic 100-300 4.0-5.6

Olympus 90-250 2.8 ->

Macro:

Olympus 35 3.5 ->

Olympus 50 2.0 -> Panasonic 45 2.8, Olympus 60 2.8

Prime:

Olympus 8 3.5 -> Panasonic 8 3.5

Panasonic 25 1.4 -> Panasonic 25 1.4

Olympus 25 2.8 ->

Olympus 150 2.0 ->

Olympus 300 2.8 ->

A lot of ground has been covered, and we are getting m4/3 glass options that we never had during the entirety of 4/3 (especially nice primes like the 17mm 1.8, 25mm 0.95 and 75mm 1.8).

Once we have reasonable replacements for the 12-60, 50-200, and a reasonably fast prime in the 150-300 range, what will we have left to hope for?

I didn't quite realize what an effective job they've been doing in replacing the system until looking at it side by side. They're already getting there, but in the next 2 years, m4/3 should be a fully mature lens system.