Olympus to flesh out pro lens line with supertele, ultrawide
A 7-14mm f2.8 lens and 300mm f4 lens are due to arrive in 2015 for Olympus Micro Four Thirds shooters. Expect quality, but not a bargain.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
The good news for those committed to Olympus' Micro Four Thirds camera line: two useful new professional-grade lenses are on the way. The bad news: they won't arrive until 2015.
The Japanese camera maker announced Wednesday it's developing the M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm F2.8 Pro ultra-wide zoom and the M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F4 Pro supertelephoto. In 35mm camera terms, those have the focal-length equivalents of 14mm-28mm and 600mm, respectively.
The lenses will be the third and fourth models of Olympus' new Pro line. The first arrived in 2013, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro, which my colleague Lori Grunin really liked and which has an equivalent range of 24-80mm.
Next up is the M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F2.8 Pro, due in the second half of 2014 and bringing and equivalent range of 80-300mm.
Don't expect the lenses to come cheap -- nobody's pro glass does. The existing Zuiko ED 300m f2.8 lens, designed for Olympus' more-or-less discontinued larger Four Thirds SLRs, has a $7,000 price tag. Olympus has gone mirrorless now with its Micro Four Thirds models, though, so those older lenses require an adapter.