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Introduced last week, Panasonic’s 12mm F1.4 brings a weather-resistant, fast 24mm equivalent prime to the Micro Four Thirds system. The Leica name on the lens is reflected in its sturdy metal build, its aperture control ring and its $ 1300 price tag. We intend to do much more shooting with the 12mm F1.4, including some architectural work, but for now here are some initial samples.
Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH lens gallery
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Panasonic is introducing a new prime lens to the Micro Four Thirds family: the Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH. It will be the widest prime that company offers (not counting its 8mm fisheye) and provides an equivalent 24mm view on Micro Four Thirds bodies. Designed to withstand a little wear-and-tear in the form of splashes and dust, the 12mm F1.4 offers a dedicated ring to control its nine-bladed aperture.
Its rugged build includes a metal mount, body and included lens hood. The lens uses inner focus drive and a stepping motor for quiet operation, and is made up of 15 elements in 12 groups. Pricing and availability information has yet to be announced.
Press release:
The H-X012 Micro Four Thirds Professional Wide Angle Mirrorless Lens
NEWARK, NJ (July 1, 2016) – Panasonic unveiled a new LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12mm/F1.4 ASPH. (35 mm camera equivalent: 24 mm) digital interchangeable lens for Digital Single Lens Mirrorless camera based on the Micro Four Thirds standard. The new 12mm wide-angle lens enables photographers to capture beautiful group, event, and nature photography. It also allows indoor shooting in low lighting and produces an impressive, natural defocusing effect with its F1.4 aperture. In addition, the LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12mm/F1.4 ASPH. boasts a rugged, splash/dust-proof design (when combined with splash and dustproof LUMIX G Mirrorless camera models) to meet the needs of a wide-range of photographic situations.
Integrating two aspherical lenses, two UED (Ultra Extra-Low Dispersion) lenses and an ED (Extra-Low Dispersion) lens, the lens system is comprised of 15 elements in 12 groups. The adoption of five special lenses makes it possible to meet the stringent LEICA standard for exceptional image quality with high resolution and minimum distortion. In general, flare is commonly seen around the periphery of a point source with many high-speed lenses when a large aperture is employed. However, the new LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12mm/F1.4 ASPH. achieves high resolution from the center of the image to the corners by suppressing this flare. Users can take advantage of this lens to shoot a brilliant night skies or night scenes containing illumination to capture true-to-life images with minimal blurring and distortion at the edges. The multi-coated lens elements also minimize ghosting and flaring.
Incorporating an inner focus drive system and a stepping motor, the new LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12mm/F1.4 ASPH. is capable of smooth, silent operation together with the camera’s high-speed, high-precision contrast AF system for both photo and video recording. It is also compatible with the sensor drive at a maximum of 240 fps to take full advantage of cameras with high-speed AF. This stunning AF performance is excellent for recording 4K videos, where precise focusing is essential.
The LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12mm/F1.4 ASPH. comes with an aperture ring for direct, intuitive aperture control. Nine blades give the aperture a rounded shape that produces an attractively smooth effect in out-of-focus areas when shooting at larger aperture settings. A highly reliable metal mount assures durability for repeated use. The lens mount, the barrel and the hood are all made of metal to provide a sleek, sophisticated design that matches the entire line-up of LUMIX G Digital Single Lens Mirrorless (DSLM) cameras.
| Principal specifications | |
|---|---|
| Lens type | Prime lens |
| Max Format size | FourThirds |
| Focal length | 12 mm |
| Lens mount | Micro Four Thirds |
| Aperture | |
| Maximum aperture | F1.4 |
| Minimum aperture | F16 |
| Aperture ring | Yes |
| Number of diaphragm blades | 9 |
| Optics | |
| Elements | 15 |
| Groups | 12 |
| Special elements / coatings | 2 aspherical lenses, 1 ED lens, 2 UED lenses |
| Focus | |
| Minimum focus | 0.20 m (7.87″) |
| Maximum magnification | 0.1× |
| Autofocus | Yes |
| Motor type | Stepper motor |
| Full time manual | Unknown |
| Physical | |
| Weight | 335 g (0.74 lb) |
| Diameter | 70 mm (2.76″) |
| Length | 70 mm (2.76″) |
| Sealing | Yes |
| Filter thread | 62.0 mm |
| Hood supplied | Yes |
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Panasonic has just announced a new prime lens for Micro Four Thirds. The Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH is a metal-bodied prime that provides an equivalent focal length of 24mm in full-frame terms. We’ve got one in our hands, and we’ve got pictures to prove it!
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As you can see, the new 12mm prime is a fairly substantial lens, and at 335g it’s relatively heavy, too. Panasonic is touting its all-metal construction (which even extends to the detachable hood) and 15 glass elements also contribute substantially to the weight. A nine-bladed aperture should ensure both attractive bokeh and sunstars at smaller apertures.
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Of those 15 elements, two are ‘ultra’ extra-low dispersion glass, and one is regular extra-low dispersion. According to Panasonic, they should combine to provide very good edge-to-edge sharpness even at wide apertures, making this an ideal lens for astrophotography (among other things). The front filter ring has a diameter of 62mm.
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A manual aperture ring and wide, well-damped focus ring give a feeling of real quality to the new 12mm, and although it’s not a lightweight lens, handling is very nice on the Lumix DMC-GH4. Autofocus is handled by a stepping motor, which Panasonic claims is capable of keeping up with the 240 fps refresh rate of modern Panasonic M43 cameras’ sensor-based autofocus.
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When paired with a weather-sealed camera like the GH4, the 12mm F1.4 becomes relatively weather-resistant. Panasonic claims that this combination should be ‘splash and dust’ proof.
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It’s hard to make out in this image, but around the lens mount you’ll find the slimmest of rubber seals, to prevent moisture and dust from getting into the camera when the 12mm F1.4 is attached.
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Here’s the included lenshood in all its glory. The Panasonic Leica Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH is the sixth Leica lens in Panasonic’s current M43 lineup – pricing and availability have yet to be announced, but we’ll keep you posted.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Samyang has announced a wideangle prime for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, the 12mm F2.0 NCS CS. With manual focus and aperture control, it will offer an 18mm equivalent angle of view on cameras with APS-C sensors (19mm equiv on Canon EOS M), and 24mm equivalent on Micro Four Thirds. It uses nanocrystal coating to minimise flare and ghosting, and will be available in Canon M, Fujifilm X, Samsung NX, Sony E, and Micro Four Thirds mounts. Pricing and availability are still to be confirmed.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
All of us at Luminous-Landscape hope you had a good holiday. In less than a week we start a new year and you can count on new articles, reviews and videos as well as a new line up of workshops.
Legendary glass maker Zeiss has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years as they started to make lenses for the DSLR camera systems. They didn’t miss a beat when it came to the APS-C sensor category either. Earlier this year they released two lenses with the family name of Touit. The two new lenses are a 12mm 2.8 and a 32mm 1.8 for the Fuji X system and the Sony NEX cameras. Today’s article by István Nagy takes a closer look at the Zeiss Touit 12mm lens. There are plenty of reviews of this lens out there but István takes a look at the lens in real world use. Read . . . Field Testing the Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 Lens
If you are a Fuji X system user and you haven’t heard, there is now new firmware updates available for the X-Pro1 as well as most of the lenses. This is a nice update and you should visit the Fuji Update page to learn more. You’ll also be able to update your lenses. Fuji also updated firmware on the original X100. We have to give Fuji Kudos for keeping there cameras updated with the latest firmware features.
It wouldn’t be the holiday season without a sale, now would it? So we’re having a 25% Off Sale on everything in our online store.
The sale runs from right now through the end of New Year’s Day. To obtain your 25% off on any purchase just enter
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Video Subscribers will find that there is a new travel video online as of today. It is titled The Palouse: A Washington State Photo Trip. You’ll find it in your Video Library of your device, or it can be viewed online in your browser. The video is also available for purchase and may be streamed or downloaded. Check under Subject / Travel & Locations.
You can win an all-expenses paid photographic expedition to Antarctica, along with air fare from anywhere in the world. The value of this prize is $ 15,000.
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The Luminous Landscape – What’s New
Hong Kong-based SLR Magic has formally announced its HyperPrime 12mm F1.6, a manual focus lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. This fast wideangle prime, which has been doing the rounds of testers and reviewers for the past few months, features a traditional aperture control ring and metal-bodied construction. Its optics include three Tantalum glass elements for ‘superior cinematic performance’. It will be on sale from the end of November.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Alongside its three PEN bodies, Olympus has announced the M. Zuiko Digital ED 12mm F2.0 and M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm F1.8 prime lenses for Micro Four Thirds. The 12mm F2.0 is a metal-bodied 24mm equivalent featuring a unique snap-focus manual focus mode. A snap-back focus ring reveals a traditional depth-of-field scale for ‘zone’ focusing and offers improved focus ‘feel.’ Later in the year it will be accompanied by the 45mm F1.8 portrait lens, making Olympus one of the only manufacturers to offer a fast prime at a roughly 100mm equivalent focal length, ideally suited to portraiture. There is also a relatively compact, bouncable and remotely commandable flash, the FL-300R, helping the PEN range look more like a complete system. More details of the 12mm F2.0 are included in our E-P3 preview, along with a gallery of sample images.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)