New Olympus 25 f/1.2 and 12-100 f/4 Pro Lenses announced!

19 Comments

1. Steve when you get to review this lens again please compare it to the Oly 25mm f1.8 and the Pan/Leica 25mm f1.4 lens and any other autofocus lens. Interested in Neil Grant Buchan’s comments about the “character” of the f1.2 lens comparing it to the Leica lens which he said he was going to sell.

   thanks

   bob gallagher
   Chicago

   • Will do!!! I will be having a hands on VERY soon, 10 days or so. I will rent the other two for a comparison.

     • Hi Steve,
       Pretty expensive but nice looking. I already have the 20mm panasonic pancake, and 45mm Oly lens.
       WHich would you choose to complete my set : 25 f/1.2 or 12-100 f/4 pro lenses?
       Thanks,J

2. Hi Steve
   Quick suggestion, in your review of the new Zuiko 25mm 1:1.2, it would be interesting to compare to the already existing Zuiko 25mm 1:1.8 – at least on a pure optical performance stand point
   Thanks for you attention
   Best – C.

3. I down sized from Canon 5D and L lens to EM1 and Pan/Leica 25mm f1 4 and 12 -40mm pro zooms for weight, no IS in lens thus small and inexpensive.
   Do I need 1.2 vs 1.4 unless I’m a wedding photographer..NO. DO I ever need more than 50mm effective NO DON’T shoot animals or sports. Had the 1.8 75mm super sharp Oly but sold it for 12-40 zoom cause 75mm x 2 is to long.
   Will only trade body if I start shooting video. I’d like a super sharp 10mm f4 landscape lens with splash proof design. Small lens. Landscape usage. Don’t need zoom.

   • Just wait that you can buy that tiny and light 7.5mm f/2 rectilinear lens Laowa.
     It will be splash proof, but not water proof. It is small and light and will easily allow you to crop the frame for 10mm field of view if wanted. And to avoid in landscape all possible optical problems (preliminary reviews say it to have slight flaring sun at edge of frame) by shooting 11fps burst and then averaging the photos to one.

     Even when lenses ain’t weather sealed, you can very well use them in normal light rain for some good time. But I wouldn’t leave them for hours under rain that can rain 3-4mm. And definitely not use much in pouring rain storm longer than to get the shot.

     Weather sealed lenses are overrated (all, except two of my current lenses are weather sealed, disclaimer) and normal design is more than enough for daily use, but I wouldn’t go most dustiest working environments (like a fine wood working spaces where very fine wood dust is polluting the air and requiring to wear maskes, or coal mines where everything is covered with fine coal dust, and I wouldn’t take any weather sealed lens to any color run or burning man events…. Submerge case is a must then).

     More than normal dust and splashes, I am worried about weather sealed O-rings decaying after years. As I am expecting 15-20 years lifetime for lenses, and I haven’t seen many O-rings that will survive so long under mechanical wearing (O-rings around bayonets wearing down every time you attach lens to body, or zoom/focus rings when you use those).

     At least Olympus 4/3 lenses has not suffered from those, but those are only little over 10 years old now….

4. For landscape I’d like a 10mm f 4 small lens that’s super sharp. Then with em1 mk 2 hi res I’d be happy.

   • That would be lovely. Something that’s able to resolve sharply for the hi res mode.

   • https://www.dpreview.com/news/3271930642/photokina-2016-hands-on-with-laowa-15mm-f2-fe-and-7-5mm-f2-mft

     And it takes nicely 46mm or 49mm filters too! Compare that to 35mm variant of 15mm f/2 and it requires 72mm filter.

5. Hey Steve, are we going to be getting some Photokina reports from you? I thought you were there?

   • You must have missed where I said I was not there 😉 Mentioned that in yesterdays 1st post. Also, as with every Photokina, i am only posting on the things I find to be really “WOW”. Sony, Leica, Olympus, Fuji, etc. Much more to come, but I am not there due to something else that was not able to be missed HERE. But will still go over the releases that are really cool. As for testing new items, that is to come super soon 😉 Thanks!

     • Hopefully you are not going to miss the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 with m4/3 bayonet… 😉
       It will be a huge hit for m4/3 system as it is everything that so many has wished, expect the AF part….. (I just park such lens to infinity and shoot to go with f/2 and everything is resolved from infinity to lens that are size 3.75mm, so everything from gass blades to small rocks. And when wanted to get close, then use focus peaking.

6. UGH!! I love my X-T1 but if that 12-100 f/4 and perhaps the new E-M1 II can give me great results for corporate event shooting, I may reconsider brands. Yeah, Fuji has the 18-135 but it’s a floating 3.5 to 5.6. A constant f/4 would be nice. Hmm. We’ll see. It was between Fuji and Olympus for me before. Now? Hmmm. Nothing against the Fuji, Love it. But for events, not so great.

7. Wonderful portraits. Are they all taken in natural light?

8. So is it time to sell the 12-40 PRO? My standard lens.

   • Couldn’t part with my 12-40 pro. The fact it’s splashproof is reason enough for me to keep it.

     • and yes I know all the Pro lenses are splashproof

   • I used to own 75mm super sharp lens but found it to long. If not photo animals or sports what do we need 100mm for?

     • 100mm is very useful for details and tight crops in landscape.

       Zoom is not there so you would use only either end like original zooms use to be, but it is that you most often use whole range or specific area most often with very good adjustment for focal length for best perspective while maximizing resolution on subject.

       So 12-100mm is like ultimate landscape lens, indoor event lens or even sports lens.

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