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MFT lens 100-400mm, Leica DG, announced (2 Viewers)

Panasonic announces new MFT lens: Leica DG 100-400mm f/4-6.3, picture and site:

http://www.43rumors.com/panasonic-a...ca-dg-100-400mm-f4-6-3-and-lumix-g-25mm-f1-7/

Pre-announcement rumors discussed here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3249257#post3249257

Disappointing that they are only announcing the “development” of the lens. There is not even a tentative release date. However, certainly sounds like it will be a considerable improvement over the current micro 4/3 birding lenses. Better image quality, especially at the long end, and more reach. They are even promising it will be light and usable handheld at maximum zoom.

Its only competition as a birding lens will be the forthcoming Olympus 300 mm F4 prime (+1.4 teleconverter). The latter will be somewhat better in low light situations, and even has slightly more reach with the teleconverter. But of course you lose the flexibility of a zoom lens. I find zooming out often helps you get birds in the viewfinder faster. Weight and image quality comparisons will have to wait of course until the lenses actually become available.
 
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The use of Leica in the lens name seems like a strong indication this is going to be optically better. Available sometime in 2016 (I hope)?

Niels
 
Its only competition as a birding lens will be the forthcoming Olympus 300 mm F4 prime (+1.4 teleconverter). The latter will be somewhat better in low light situations, and even has slightly more reach with the teleconverter. But of course you lose the flexibility of a zoom lens. I find zooming out often helps you get birds in the viewfinder faster. Weight and image quality comparisons will have to wait of course until the lenses actually become available.

I suppose another factor in choosing the Olympus vs. the Panasonic as a bird photography lens may be the enhanced IS and focus tracking abilities Panasonic is claiming when pairing newer Panny bodies with their newer lenses. Will have to see how big a difference that might make, however. I guess the initial reviews on focus tracking seem pretty positive, though Olympus' performance in that regard has also improved through firmware updates.
 
I agree in principle. I think the OM1 is the only oly with on-sensor PDAF, so if wanting that system for AF, right now it will be necessary to buy the top camera of the lineup.

Niels
 
With an estimated cost of $1500 to $1700 and, despite the exchange rate, the figure given for the $ price is often close to the £ price!
 
John,
several reasons for that as you probably are aware. One huge reason is that US stores always give the pre-tax price while Danish and I assume most other EU stores are forced to give the price including VAT and other taxes.

Niels
 
John,
several reasons for that as you probably are aware. One huge reason is that US stores always give the pre-tax price while Danish and I assume most other EU stores are forced to give the price including VAT and other taxes.

Niels

Indeed so, but when I looked at the issue some years back taking the tax situation into account, the result was still that those of us paying in ££s still seemed to pay more than those in the USA
 
I guess reviews will start to appear in a few days after official announcement ...

Niels

I reckon that websites like DPReview and Ephotozine will already have had copies of both this and the Olympus lens for testing and will post 'Hands-on/first impressions'-type reviews on the day of release.

Hopefully, that minimum focus distance of 1.3m will hold up all the way to 400mm (the current Panasonic 100-300mm zoom certainly trumps the Olympus 75-300mm in this respect). It should be really good for butterflies/dragonflies and to get a similar setting on the new Olympus 300mm will require an extra £299 for the 1.4x converter which will make an all-up weight of 1580gms.

Of course, there's the maximum apertures to consider plus the price and the optical quality of each lens to compare before final decisions are made, but this lens certainly looks the better package at the moment.
 
I'm hoping that the weight includes the tripod adapter, so the weight of the lens alone will be less. As it stands, it is certainly much more attractive than the Olympus f4 300 mm, but it still weighs about the same as two Lumix 100 mm-300 mm lenses. I would have hoped just adding an extra 100 mm of “reach” could have been done without doubling the weight of the lens. (Though of course this lens should also have many other enhancements to the Lumix lens).

I'm also eager to see what the maximum aperture will be at 300 mm. Hoping for some small improvement on the Lumix here as well. Would also make me feel better about carrying that extra weight around.
 
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I'm hoping that the weight includes the tripod adapter, so the weight of the lens alone will be less. As it stands, it is certainly much more attractive than the Olympus f4 300 mm, but it still weighs about the same as two Lumix 100 mm-300 mm lenses. I would have hoped just adding an extra 100 mm of “reach” could have been done without doubling the weight of the lens. (Though of course this lens should also have many other enhancements to the Lumix lens).

I'm also eager to see what the maximum aperture will be at 300 mm. Hoping for some small improvement on the Lumix here as well. Would also make me feel better about carrying that extra weight around.

From what I can glean from the other websites, it seems that the tripod 'foot' will be detachable though the ring around the lens may stay in position, if that's correct then the Olympus will at least claw-back a few points in this area. It'll still be over the 'magic' 1Kg point though!
 
I'm also eager to see what the maximum aperture will be at 300 mm. Hoping for some small improvement on the Lumix here as well. Would also make me feel better about carrying that extra weight around.

The filter on my old lumix is stated at 67 mm, with seemingly 72 mm on the new one. If that translates to area actually taking light in, it might be a little faster at 300 mm.

Even more theoretical: new technology could in theory lead to higher light transmission, something that cannot be read from an F number.

Niels
 
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