lens » Dan Carr Photography - Photography Product Reviews + Ski, Snowboard and adventure photography tips

Panasonic Announces Their High End Lumix G X 12-35 f2.8

May 212012

We’ve seen this lens behind glass at many a trade show in the last 12 months, the first of a pair of high end weather sealed Panasonic zoom lenses for the Micro Four Thirds System. Today Panasonic finally confirmed the last piece of the puzzle, that the maximum f-stop is f2.8 and they officially announced the lens. No word yet on the second of the two but it could possibly come fairly shortly with the expected GH-3 which should also be a weather sealed body to match the lenses.

Being a higher end product, and having seen this lens myself at CES 2012 where I was quite impressed, I thought this was worth a mention. With so many mirrorless cameras and lenses being released these days, it’s nice to see a product aimed at the higher end of the market that could conceivably be used for professional work. The price is high though at about $1,500 so this is going to have to be a sharp when performer when it comes to stores in August.

Both of Panasonic's high end zooms at CES 2012

Press Release

SECAUCUS, NJ (May 21, 2012) – Today, Panasonic announced a new digital interchangeable standard zoom lens, the LUMIX G X VARIO 12-35mm/F2.8 ASPH./POWER O.I.S. (H-HS12035). The newest addition to the company’s premium lens brand “X,” which is compatible with the Panasonic LUMIX G Series and complies with the Micro Four Thirds™ system standard, this lens offers a versatile zoom range of 12-35mm (35mm camera equivalent: 24-70mm) and features constant F2.8 aperture brightness at entire zoom range. Suitable for professionals and enthusiasts, this new lens captures a wide range of scenes from dynamic landscapes to available light and studio-lit portraits and features superb image rendering for lifelike textures and crisp edge-to-edge contrast.

Canon 24-70 f2.8 L II Availability Slips To July ?

Canon, Industry News 5 Responses »

Apr 012012

UPDATE: This has now been confirmed by Canon themselves via their website. They also confirmed the 1DX is delayed until mid-June. Why can’t they figure out timelines recently ? The 5DIII launched on time and in impressive numbers, it seems that was a huge exception.

Disappointingly (and once again) one of Canon’s most anticipated new lens releases seems to have slipped down the time line. Initial reports had it shipping on April 17th but upon inquiring to my local camera store about CPS pricing, the local Canon rep informed the store that this lens will not ship until July!

A couple of months back I had the chance to have some hands on time with this lens and it appears to be one fine piece of glass that I’m very excited to add to my kit, despite the very high price. If the July date turns out to be true it does seem odd that so close to the anticipated date, the lens could slip a full quarter year but Canon has had a habit of doing this recently. I’m still waiting for my new 500mm lens some 6 months after it was supposed to be on the market.

Hands On With The New Canon 24-70 & 24mm + 28mm IS Primes

Cameras, Gear Reviews 9 Responses »

Feb 142012

Recently Canon announced the introduction of three new lenses to their EF lineup. The long awaited 24-70 f2.8 L II finally broke cover as well as two wide prime lenses with IS, the first of their kind. Much has been made about the projected $2300 price point for the new 24-70 though which is about $1200 more than you can currently get the previous version for. In the last couple of years Canon have updated some old lenses and introduced some new ones, all of which I have found to be exemplary so my gut feeling is that for pros, the price point will be justified. I was never that enamored with the wide open quality of the MKI version of this lens, it’s one of the few L series lenses that I have never owned so the prospect of a higher quality version is something I have looked forward to for some time.

Canon also showed the ‘first ever’ wide angle primes with IS, a 24mm f2.8 IS and a 28mm f2.8 IS. I have to say this came of something of a surprise to and initially I wasn’t quite sure what I’d use these for but more on that in a minute as things become a little clearer when you have it in your hand.

EF 24-70 f2.8 L II

Unusually I was able to get my hands briefly on all three of these new lenses within a few days of their announcement. Of course the first one I looked at was the 24-70. Physically there have been some changes to the lens and it comes in noticeably lighter. The weight difference is 150g , roughly 16% lighter but if you’d told me it was 25% lighter I would have believed you, perhaps something to do with the distribution of the weight. Mounted to my 5dMKII it felt like a perfectly balanced package. Another physical difference is the 82mm thread on the front element, up from 77mm on the previous version. I remember the change from the old 16-35 f2.8 to the 16-35 f2.8 II which went through the same increase in diameter. The end of the MKII 16-35 appeared a fair bit larger than its predecessor, with a bulge in the lens casing. I’m happy to say though the the 24-70 doesn’t suffer from this at all. I was worried it would seem a lot bulkier but actually it feels quite svelte and apart from the annoyance of all your 77mm filters no longer fitting, it’s a change that will go unnoticed by most.

Canon 24-70 f2.8 L II

Canon, Industry News 2 Responses »

Feb 062012

10mm shorter and 150g lighter than the previous version, the Canon 24-70 f2.8 L II will be available in April for approximately $2300.

Pre-Orders

B&H are taking pre-orders for the lens now!! You will not be charged until it is shipped.

Key features

High-speed USM AF
Fluorine lens coating front and rear
9-blade circular aperture
Three Aspheric lens elements
One Super Ultra-low Dispersion lens element
Two Ultra-low Dispersion (UD) lens elements
Minimum focusing distance: 0.38m at all focal lengths
Improved dust and weather resistance
Improved durability for daily use
Front of lens doesn’t rotate during focusing
Manual focus possible in AF mode
Only lead-free glass is used

Canon 24-70 f2.8 II Leaked

Canon, Industry News 6 Responses »

Feb 062012

This one has been a long time coming! Reports of an updated 24-70 have been going around for two or three years. Initially it seemed like it was going to have IS but this photo leaked today (via Canon Rumors) shows that in fact it does not have IS.

82mm Filter Thread
Lighter than the original version (which is a bit of a beast!)
approx $1799

Canon Cinema EOS Cine Lenses In Development

Canon, Industry News No Responses »

Dec 162011

Shortly after the launch of the Canon C300 I interviewed one of Canon’s technical staff about the camera. At the time he mentioned to me that on top of the announced 3 EOS Cine prime lenses there were also two more in development. One wider and one longer. I now have a photo of these two prototype lenses, see below. It’s rare that unannounced lenses are shown so I thought it well worth a mention. No focal length is known at the moment, if I had to guess I would say 100mm or 135mm and 18mm?

On top of these primes, it would seem that there are also two new Cine zooms in development on top of the two that were officially announced announced alongside the C300. The 14-60 and the 30-300 that were announced, are MASSIVE lenses and they don’t really fit the C300 form factor for those who want lightweight rigs. There’s no way they could be handheld or used on Steadicam rigs but here are two NEW Cine zooms that are much much smaller and would seem to target the more portable market. I’d imagine these will be comparable in spec to the Angenieux 16-42 and 30-80 that are so popular in 3d rigs and Steadicam rigs at the moment though potentially one could offer a longer range like a 70-200 which is a popular lens for DSLR shooters.

When will we see these lenses ? Perhaps more info at NAB in the spring of 2012 but given the EF Cine primes that we do know about are not due until next summer I wouldn’t count on seeing any of these new ones on shelves until 2013.