Rumor: Fast Panasonic Zooms coming in 2012

If there is any basis in fact for that tantalizing photo at 43rumors, it is sort of interesting that the two lenses shown are the identical focal length range as the existing Olympus 4/3 zooms. It would not be a bad thing if Panasonic re-housed the Olympus glass.
Ha angle of view is pretty much standard fare in the photo world. It equates to 24-70mm and 70-200mm in 35mm film terms. You probably know nikon, canon, Sony, sigma among others all have lens with those ranges. Given there size I'd say they are certainly not based on the olypus versions. If they are f2 thatd be a miracle, likely f2.8 at the wide end, maybe 2.5 since panny seems to like they like it. Hopefully it's constant but we don't know. They've never made a constant aperture lens before....
 
Wasn't there a rumor about an upcoming 12-35mm f/2.5-3.3 zoom from Panasonic coming up? Might be one one of these X lenses. Personally I wouldn't mind a lower f-stop than f/2 if it means a thousand bucks less than Olympus' lenses.
 
The previous rumor was for a 12-50.

And a 12-50 would be a close to decent lens... Who decides on this stuff anyway, they certainly don't ask video professionals, and when I worked briefly (2 years) as a still photographer (music promotion) I wouldn't have touched a zoom.

Rumors aside, f2 is probably too fast for a decent focal range, (like the 12-50) and 12mm is too wide for a practical* lens - 14-70 would be much better. So, if there was a rumor about an f2.8 14-70mm MFT mount true parfocal zoom WITH an aperture ring, then I would gladly lay down some serious cash for a deposit.

(* Before anyone asks, by "practical" I mean a lens that you don't have to change every ten minutes).
 
Economics say they are listening to the GH2 crowd and not the Af100 camp. Panasonic is hoping to satisfy both camps but the smaller DSLR's are certainly dictating what the market gets.

And a 12-50 would be a close to decent lens... Who decides on this stuff anyway, they certainly don't ask video professionals, and when I worked briefly (2 years) as a still photographer (music promotion) I wouldn't have touched a zoom.

Rumors aside, f2 is probably too fast for a decent focal range, (like the 12-50) and 12mm is too wide for a practical* lens - 14-70 would be much better. So, if there was a rumor about an f2.8 14-70mm MFT mount true parfocal zoom WITH an aperture ring, then I would gladly lay down some serious cash for a deposit.

(* Before anyone asks, by "practical" I mean a lens that you don't have to change every ten minutes).
 
the smaller DSLR's are certainly dictating what the market gets.

Too sad but too true. I've never felt so much like a poor step-child as I have since buying this camera... Hand-me-down 35 lenses and cheap/crap tour bus shutterbug knock-offs is all we've got to chose from - unless we want to pay five times the price of the camera for an over-kill set of primes. Still, even after that, no good lightweight zooms.
 
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