I already linked to this, first clued in by a reader named John, but people are missing the link: there's a picture on the internet of a Panasonic G1 under glass with what looks like a mock-up of a "pancake" 20mm ƒ/1.7, said to be coming next year some time. The picture seems to have originated on digitalcamera.jp and you can see it here.
This looks like a mock-up to me, rather than a prototype. The lens has no filter threads and it doesn't look like it has a full complement of actual elements in place. That doesn't mean the final product won't look exactly like this, but for what it's worth I personally don't believe this is an actual prototype.
But, just in passing, bravo to Panasonic for planning this lens!
Another thing to bear in mind: The Panasonic G1 is the first Micro 4/3 camera, not the last. No need to bemoan the size or the feature choices just yet. There are going to be more cameras in this standard, even if it doesn't take off. If it does take off, there will be a great many more.
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Mike
I also have the impression that quite a few people who complain about it not being that much smaller than an e-420 haven't actually held an e-4x0 and judge only by web pictures. "In real life", I found the e-4x0 was noticeably smaller than eos 4x0D cameras for instance, which are often described as barely larger than the olympus midget. Those few millimetres are critical!
All that being said, it's still too large for my tastes but my guess is that olympus will make it noticeably smaller than its e-4x0 series, unless oly decides to end its e-4x0 line, which could make sense I suppose.
Posted by: Sylvain | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 09:37 AM
What I don't like is the dem grip and the fact that it looks like an DSLR. A Canon one, at that. :-)
We don' need no steenkin' grips on cameras this size.
Posted by: erlik | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 10:23 AM
It could also be that this will be very much Panasonic's show - Olympus has existing DSLRs to protect whereas Panasonic starts without any previous territory to worry about. With the resources of a giant corporation like Panasonic, they can move quite fast.
Posted by: JH | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 10:25 AM
"We don' need no steenkin' grips on cameras this size."
Erlik,
Well, we kinda do, if there's no place else to put the battery. I'd rather have a decent-sized battery with decent capacity and a grip than no grip and a cheesey, too-small batt.
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike J. | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 11:11 AM
Cheers to panasonic indeed. I'm feeling a little less cranky today since I have faith that the elves at Olympus have been listening and will produce something more appealing to me personally.
Regarding that grip (that I also hate) okay strongly dislike. It could be half as wide and still house the battery. In this case it also gives the shutter button and control wheel (nice) a place to live. They still don't need it in my opinion.....blah blah.
Why can't these camera batteries be thinner and longer? In the case of this camera, you could make the body a 1/2 inch taller and have the battery run the length of it.
BTW I think the entire camera in this photo is a mock up.
Posted by: charlie d | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 11:57 AM
"We don' need no steenkin' grips on cameras this size."
Look at the number of accessory grips being sold to owners of the Canon G9. I bought a used G9 with a grip on and am glad it's there.
Posted by: Scott Squire | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 12:27 PM
Grips! re: erlik's comment and Mike's reply.
I generally agree with erlik, its hard to consider any camera with a substantial grip as svelte. I also notice that in this model the battery does not extend into the grip.
The perception of compactness has much more to do with "lumpiness" of the design, more so than the raw dimensions. To me then, a Leica M4 seems small even though it may measure longer than some DSLRs. Of course much of this comes down to personal preference and as Mike pointed out, this journey has just begun.
Posted by: john robison | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 01:41 PM
Well said, Mike, again.
Posted by: Eolake Stobblehouse | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 06:13 PM
Mock up or not - the fact that Panasonic are showing a fast prime at the launch (and it is planned for sale in 2009) shows that they are catering for the more serious photographer who wants a compact available light lens. Heck it took Olympus 4 years to give us the slow 25mm f2.8 pancake. Kudos to Panasonic for being qicker off the blocks!
Posted by: Wolfie | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 07:16 PM
Imagine that lens as the built in lens to an Olympus Trip 35 sized compact.
The Canon G9 would be the current example. Imagine a G9 with that lens and a 4/3 sensor.
Sweet!
Posted by: Tom V | Saturday, 13 September 2008 at 10:51 PM
Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. I think that _this_ kind of grip is bad on this kind of camera. It's one thing adding a gentle hump like Richard Franiec's G9 grip and completely another putting this kind of intrusive and protrusive... thingamajig.
For instance, Olympus E-420 is prefectly holdable without such a protrusion. The reason I mention 420 and not 410 is that Olympus did slightly raise the "grip" in the former.
I see no reason why all cameras should look like a typical modern-day SLR and I particularly don't get people who complain that E-4xx cannot be held comfortably. Of course it cannot be held comfortably if you insist on holding it wrong way.
Mike, I'm not convinced that they did it to use a larger battery. It looks like marketing at work: let's make a camera that will look more SLR-ey than the usual cigarette-case compact so people will immediately think "wow, this is certainly better." I think that's the reason why almost all of current bridge and "bridge" cams look like that - a step between a compact and an SLR.
Posted by: erlik | Sunday, 14 September 2008 at 02:47 AM