In a double press release (Photoscala 1 and Photoscala 2) Schneider announced their future plan to make lenses for mirrorless camera system. The first lens will be the 14mm f/2.0 for Micro Four Thirds but more lenses (also for other systems) will arrive in 2013. They didn’t specify what kind of lens oand for what system we should expect in 2013.
Image courtesy: Photozone
The well known lens review website Photozone reviewed two Fuji X lenses. The 60mm macro f/2.4: “The Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R macro is the best of the three initial lenses for the X-mount.” And the Fuji 18mm f/2.0 (here): “It is certainly a cool little lens for the Fujifilm X-Pro mirrorless system. After all small is beautiful these days. However, performance-wise it is a bit of a mixed bag.“
And SLRgear tested the 18mm f/2.0 lens: “very good performance, even when used wide open, and excellent performance when stopped down just a little. If you’re an X-Pro 1 user, this is another lens that definitely deserves a place in your bag.“
In stock status check:
Fuji X PRO 1 body is in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Jessops UK (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 18mm f/2.0 in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 35mm f/1.4 in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 60mm macro f/2.0 in not Stock at Amazon (3-4weeks) but is in Stock at Digitalrev (Click here).
There is now a second Pentax lens patent that describes another zoom lens for an APS-C mirrorless camera. The lens is the 18-70mm f/3.5-7.1 and a variation of it (19-75mm f/3.5-7.1). I guess that system could be announced at Photokina although I don’t know why Ricoh will maintain two different APS-C mirrorless system (Ricoh GXR and the Pentax).
Source: Egami.
Samyang just sent me the press release to announce the new 8mm for the NEX and NX system. Samyang is a highly regarded company and makes some amazing lenses and I am sure this fisheye is a great lens, but they would have probably sold tons of lenses if that would have been a f/1.4 prime lens instead of this. Is there really a bog need of fisheyes?
Here is the press release and some more images of the lens:
“Samyang 8mm 1:2.8 UMC Fish-eye is currently the smallest and the brightest Fish-eye lens compatible with compact cameras featuring APS-C sensor. It perfectly combines high optical value, impressive lens speed and exceptionally compact sizes.
Its sophisticated optical construction relies on the system of 10 lenses arranged in 8 groups. They include, among others, one aspherical (AS) lens and two lenses made of extra low dispersion glass (ED). This provides perfect sharpness for the entire field of view and maximum aperture of f/2.8. Obviously all surfaces of the lenses were covered with multi-layered UMC anti-reflective coatings adding to the high contrast and splendid light transmission.
Samyang 8mm 1:2.8 UMC Fish-eye will be marketed with Sony E (NEX) and Samsung NX mount. In both cases its maximum angle of view will amount to 180 degree, with the minimum focusing distance of 0.3 meters.
Release date and the expected price will be separately announced on a later date.“
One thing Samsung proved to do very well is…lenses. And this is the rumored list of new lenses coming in 2012-2013:
The premium prime NX lenses will be announced in 2013.
Via PR.
What you see here on top is a new patent from Pentax describing a zoom lens for a mirrorless APS-C camera. The interesting thing is that this doesn’t seem to be a lens for the K-01 but rather for a new (real) mirrorless system with short lens to sensor distance. This may confirm the long time rumor saying that a new APS-C mirrorless series will be announced this year by Pentax!
Source: Egami.
When Fuji launched the X PRO 1 in January the main excitement was for the new sensor. But any time you see some innovation you really need to test it to see if it delivers what it promises. Sandy McGuffog from Chromasoft wrote a couple of articles about the Fuji X PRO 1 sensor. Click here to read part one, part two and part three.
The conclusions are pretty surprising: “The hard truth is that any interpolation engine is going to have trouble with pixels that are spread out, not aligned, and unevenly spaced.” and “So my conclusion is, sorry to say, that the Fuji X-Pro1 X-Trans sensor doesn’t deliver the Fuji promise of outperforming similarly sized sensors. In fact, it underperforms similar DX sensored cameras – with the official SILKPIX raw developer, the underperformance is too slight to be noticeable under normal circumstances, but is still there if you look closely“
Also ReidReviews tested the X PRO 1 sensor. His article can be viewed only by subscribers but in sort he says that at High ISO the files are very clean but also have less color detail.
I am not posting this to denigrate Fuji. Quite the opposite. The Fuji X PRO 1 is a great camera but still…not perfect!