Reading mode: Light Dark

Future m43 primes

Go to last post
Voldenuit said:
I can see why you might disagree, but a fast aperture on a wide angle lens is a lot less important than it is for a normal/portrait prime (hence, the 20/1.7 can do a lot more with its aperture range than any of the zooms could at 20/4). And the 14mm end on the 14-45/3.5-5.6 zoom is super sharp, so Panny's prime already has its work cut out for it. It's also only 1 stop slower, and has OIS (which I'm guessing the pancake won't), which will more than make up the difference in hand-holdability, especially since the focal length will be more likely used for landscape/architectural/group photography than anything requiring a fast shutter speed.
Click to expand...
OIS doesn't help with subject motion though. And its absence isn't such a big deal on Olympus bodies.
Voldenuit said:
However excellent the lens turns out to be, I think Panny would sell a boatload more lenses if they had made a 12mm pancake instead, just because with the 14mm they have to convince people to buy a focal length they already have (probably more than once) as opposed to one which was previously unattainable to them.
Click to expand...
That 12mm focal length isn't unattainable per se, as it is covered by both the 7-14mm or 9-18mm.
 
Fredrik Glckner said:
That said, I think that anyone expecting to find a lot of fast primes in the M43 lineup have been a tad bit naive. How many fast primes have you seen in the Four Thirds lineup? There's the PL 25mm f/1.4, and the next is the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro. And that's it. And we're talking seven years of development of 4/3 lenses here.
Click to expand...
Very true. At least Sigma had the balls to answer the call with their 30/1.4, 50/1.4, 105/2.8, 150/2, 150/2.8 and 300/2.8. I keep hearing them express interest in MFT, but I doubt they will do anything until the user base is many times wider than it is now, or the mirrorless systems grow until they can leverage common optical designs between Samsung NX, Sony NEX and MFT to cut down their design costs.

As it is, my GF1 is perfectly functional for my needs, but should I get more serious than I am now, it (and MFT) is not good enough to be a primary system. Fortunately, I have a 40D and a lot of L glass lying around, so I could always go back to Canon when and if MFT doesn't fit my needs.
 
Plothole said:
That 12mm focal length isn't unattainable per se, as it is covered by both the 7-14mm or 9-18mm.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but not everyone wants to (or can) plonk down $1000+ for the 7-14, and I have a feeling that a (hypothetical) 12mm prime would be a lot sharper than the 9-18. It's still a lot less attainable than 14mm, which is easily accessible (and at high IQ) across a wide gamut of existing lenses.
 
Got this lens and will never leave home without it..awesome lens ..took me 5 mths to find one in excellent condition ..with the pana adapter for my 4/3 sweeeet anf the canon 135 f2 fd lens its a cracker
--
Leica M8.2
Carl Zeiss 35/f2 mm
CV 40 f1.4
Leica 50mm f1.4

Panasonic GF1
panasonic 20 mm
Leica 'D' Summilux 25 f1.4
Canon Macro FD 50mm 3.5
Canon FD 50mm 1.4

Canon 1DS MKIII
Canon 180mm USM 3.5 macro
Canon 17-40mm F4
Canon 135mm f2
 
It seems that some view the format as similar to DSLR in terms of lenses. Fact is they are very different. I do not expect to see much primes made. I just don't think it is a big enough market. You may see a half dozen or so total but my feeling is most users aren't going to buy them. What I expect to see are more zoom lenses and a couple specialty lenses.

--
Enjoy the Day

Paul Guba New Jersey Photographer
http://www.gubavision.com
 
Fredrik Glckner said:
That said, I think that anyone expecting to find a lot of fast primes in the M43 lineup have been a tad bit naive. How many fast primes have you seen in the Four Thirds lineup? There's the PL 25mm f/1.4, and the next is the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro. And that's it. And we're talking seven years of development of 4/3 lenses here.

Fast primes make even less sense on M43, where size is important. So I think we should be happy for the Lumix 20mm f/1.7, and hope that the upcoming Olympus 50mm prime will be useful.
Click to expand...
Huh? Totally lost as to why fast primes, far more compact than any other class of lens (unless you count pancakes as a class, some of which are fast and some not,) "make less sense" on micro four thirds, "where size is important."

For the rest, you may want to consider that micro four thirds is already more popular than four thirds ever was, meaning developing lenses for it is more viable. I guess we'll have to see what the future brings. In the mean time, I'm looking at M mount pancakes for a good portrait lens. :)
Walter
 
saghost said:
Fredrik Glckner said:
That said, I think that anyone expecting to find a lot of fast primes in the M43 lineup have been a tad bit naive. How many fast primes have you seen in the Four Thirds lineup? There's the PL 25mm f/1.4, and the next is the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro. And that's it. And we're talking seven years of development of 4/3 lenses here.

Fast primes make even less sense on M43, where size is important. So I think we should be happy for the Lumix 20mm f/1.7, and hope that the upcoming Olympus 50mm prime will be useful.
Click to expand...
Huh? Totally lost as to why fast primes, far more compact than any other class of lens (unless you count pancakes as a class, some of which are fast and some not,) "make less sense" on micro four thirds, "where size is important."
Click to expand...
Well, I think that the market P&O are targeting for MFT don't know/care about fast primes, and that it is more lucrative for them to keep churning out slow plastic zooms for the masses.

Fast lenses are harder to design, harder to build, have more stringent QC, need more expensive components (such as more powerful focusing motors), and harder to sell to Joe Average.

So while fast lenses may be technically feasible on MFT (especially since there is no emphasis on telecentricity unlike 4/3), for economic reasons, they're probably not going to happen.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but I think he's right that we probably most definitely won't see a big prime lineup in MFT, ever.
 
Voldenuit said:
If you're a prime man, MFT is the wrong place to go looking.

Current primes:

Panny 20/1.7 - excellent lens, fast, sharp (sharpest in center) but with some vignetting wide open (as many other fast primes also have). $399 but coming down.

Oly 17/2.8 - smaller and cheaper than the 20, but slower, softer, and some CA.

Panny Leica 45/2.8 - 1:1 macro lens with OIS, not sharp for a macro lens and too slow for portraiture. At $900, this isn't a lens, this is a blob of ego that refracts light.

Announced/future:

Panny 14/2.5 - pointless lens when the 14mm focal length is covered by nine zooms between the two manufacturers. 12mm would have made much more sense. Due out in mid 2010.

Panny 8mm fisheye - might be interesting, but very specialised. 2010.

Oly 50mm macro: hopefully as good as their Zuiko D 50/2 macro, and also hopefully faster at focusing. Due 2011.

Oly wide angle prime: probably somewhere between 12 and 14mm. Due 2011.

Oly fisheye: Due 2011.

So it's slim pickings, and a long wait for Oly's lenses. If you're really interested in primes, take a look at the Pentax K-x instead, which is not much bigger than a G body, and whose system has fourteen primes, most of which are faster than their MFT equivalents.

A lot of enthusiasts (separate from the P&S upgrader crowd, though there is overlap) are using legacy lenses on MFT, but there are drawbacks to that approach. Naturally, there is no AF, and some lenses need to be manually stopped down or manually opened up for focusing. Also, adapted SLR lenses tend to be big (negating the size benefit of MFT) and adapted rangefinder lenses tend to have very long minimum focusing distance. I'm using a SMC-Takumar 50/1.4 lens on an adapter myself, but it's hardly sensible to buy into a system just to fill in the gaps in the lineup with (sometimes non-fully functional) lenses from other systems.

Wishing for more primes here myself. As someone once said, "wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, see which one fills up first". :P
Click to expand...
All those are already a good choice, but if they do more, better

--
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
 
Aleo Veuliah said:
All those are already a good choice, but if they do more, better
Click to expand...
Did you miss the bit where only 3 of them are available today? And two of those are very close in FL?
 
hwalker said:
hwalker said:
Panny 14/2.5 - pointless lens when the 14mm focal length is covered by nine zooms between the two manufacturers. 12mm would have made much more sense. Due out in mid 2010.
Click to expand...
Excellent summary. I disagree a bit in places though. From what I can see, criticizing the Panny 14mm f2.5 by for its common focal length is like criticizing the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 since the 20mm focal length is also similarly well-covered. I think the point of this lens is to make the carry-always lens that's as fast and as wide as possible in the given size/cost constraint. For many, the 28mm equivalent would be better than the 24mm equivalent for an always-on kinda lens.
Click to expand...
The Panny 20mm and the Oly 50mm macro really seam to be logical choices for me, assuming the bokeh on the Oly is not as unappealing as macros can be.

I have never found the 28mm equiv perspective that comfortable to shoot. The 24mm perspective is much more natural for me, to such an extent that I would consider the 12mm Vlander with an OVF over a 14mm m43.

I would be a happy camera with the 40mm, the 50mm, and a 12mm lens.

chad
 
Two that are my favorites, albeit they are 4/3 lenses, are the Pana/Leica 25 1.4, and the ZD 50 Macro. Both are short enough that I can use them on my EP1 and still have a relatively compact package. While the 50M can be a slow focuser, the PL25 is the fastest focusing lens I've ever used on the Pen.

Bags of Leica M glass out there. It's strictly MF and manual exposure, but if you've ever seen what Leica glass can do, it's worth the fuss. Also, Voigtlander, Zeiss and occasinally Minolta primes are made for Leica M. For the moment, the price is attractive, though that may change if enough M4/3 people start snapping up the older Leica M lenses.

There is the Oly 9-18, just out. Yes, the dreaded Z word, but from what the early tests show, it's as good as its larger 4/3 brother (which is very good), and quite a bit smaller. In the 4/3 world, the zooms pretty much match everyone else's primes for IQ, so a high quality Oly zoom is nothing to sneeze at.

As others have said, there's a 12 or 14mm Panny prime coming (probably a pancake), and Oly is reproducing their 8mm fisheye in M4/3 form.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top