New Olympus WA lenses

The new Olympus 7-14 2.8 seems to be imminent, however, what differences / advantages would you expect compared to the Panasonic equivalence that has been around for quite some time? Are the ports for the latter expected to fit the former?

Then there is now also a rumored 8mm 1.8 fisheye for Olympus. This is only rumored, however it sounds quite extreme to me, i suppose it will become large, or at least larger than the Panasonic 8mm 3.5. So I assume that ports for an Olympus fisheye like that would not match the Panasonic. I quite happily use the Panasonic today, but would not mind some more light...

Cheers

/O

Hi Oskar,

Is it the anticipated higher optical quality or the extra light you are most interested in. From recent discussions on shooting wide angle lenses behind a dome I got that you need to stop down to get sharp corners. In that case the only benefit from extra light is during focusing, which may not be that much of a deal.

Bart

I think it is a bit early to speculate regarding current ports since no specs on the lens size have been released yet. It does appear that the lens is smaller than the 12-40 which fits the Nauticam and other housings. The issue then becomes the optimal extension for the port to get the best results.

Regarding the quality of this Olympus "pro" zoom lens I own both the Olympus 12-40 "pro" zoom and the 40-150mm "pro" zooms and they are the best zoom lenses I have ever used on M43 cameras. The many reviews by well respected sites support my findings . I would expect that the 7-14 F/2.8 will meet the same high standards, but until well tested we will not know for sure. If you are a first time buyer for the 7-14mm zoom I am sure that the Olympus lens will prover the better choice over the Panasonic 7-14. However if you already own the Pana 7-14 and a matching port making the switch may be a different choice V. the cost. The Pana 7-14 is already an excellent lens, again according to others reviews. Same for the Panasonic 8mm F/3.5 fisheye, an excellent lens which can be used with a very small dome ports. If you already own the Pana 8mm and port making the switch may also be an even more difficult choice of cost V. gain. Still quite early to know if the Olympus 8mm F/1.8 fisheye is even real and if the spec's especially the F/1.8 part are at all accurate. I have found 43rumors to be flat wrong so many times that I would rather just wait for the real Olympus press release which has already been made for the 7-14mm without many details.

Phil,

Thanks for keeping us informed!

TedJ

So the fisheye is now announced as in development, but no further dimension details yet.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9412478684/olympus-8mm-f1-8-pro-fisheye-in-development

The 8mm PRO looks really interesting. Looking forward towards a review, hopefully also in combination with the OM-D EM5 MkII

Because the Olympus 8 mm fisheye and the Olympus 7-14 mm zoom are faster lenses at F/1.8 and F/2.8 they are bound to be bigger than the current Panasonic lenses of the same focal lengths which are, fisheye F/3.5 and F/4 respectively. Bigger girth may require a new gear for the 7-14 to zoom and greater length for both may require different extension lengths for existing ports.

So what is really wrong with Pany 8mm behind a Zen port? Ok I know it probably does match the quality of an Oly PRO lens, or price? The max aperature difference is not AS significant if one is doing CFWA~

leepix:

In my opinion, nothing is really wrong with the Panasonic 8mm in a zen dome port. But leaving aside financial constraints, most of us always are looking for newest and bestest :-)

Beyond that, I do think that GENERALLY, the Oly lenses on Oly bodies seem to produce less ca and I sometimes cannot completely get rid of all of it in Lightroom. Also, being a 1.8 gives a bit more latitude on shutter speed which can sometimes be nice, and may help with faster focusing. Additionally, it seems to me that the Panasonic gives best results around 5.6 to 6.3. Faster than that and I think the edges start softening more, but closed down more the images in general seem a bit softer, perhaps due to diffraction. Since most lenses are at their best 1-2 stops from max, a 1.8 MIGHT give a wider range of apertures that yield best results.

In the end, these differences are minor and my skills, not the camera and lenses, are the major limiting factor in my photography. Still, I am eager for the 7-14 and the 8mm to arrive.

In the meantime, I enjoy the Panasonic the lens quite a bit.