Cosina (Voigtländer) to Make Lenses for Micro 4/3

In a joint press release, Cosina and Olympus have announced that Cosina Co. Ltd., makers of the extensive Voigtländer line of products, many compatible with Leica M mount, will make lenses specifically for the Micro 4/3 standard currently shared by Olympus and Panasonic.

Beginning with a bang, Cosina's first Micro 4/3 lens will be a dedicated, Japan-made, 11-element 25mm (50mm-e) ƒ/0.95 Nokton (this link and the next one to Google Translate) with a price rumored to be in the $900 range.

This follows just days after the announcement of the new Voigtländer 75mm ƒ/1.8 in Leica M mount, a Heliar-type with six elements yet just six air-to-glass surfaces.

Mike

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Comments

[Ben Rosengart]

Manual focus, right?

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I am so doomed! (Although it does look like it's manual focus, which reduces the interest considerably. Maybe I'll survive after all.)

[Michael Houghton]

Now if they'd just make an M4/3rds rangefinder to go with it...

[john robison]

If I were buying I'd be happy to give up a stop if they could make a 25mm f1.4 non retrofocus design that would be really small, perhaps 1/3 the size of this beast and 1/2 the price.

[Soeren Engelbrecht]

if they take the normal 'route' on the wide-angle side, this could mean an 18/1.4 and a 14/2.0 next. And my mother-in-law ending up on ebay to finance them :-)

[Archer Sully]

Yep, manual all the way. No word on whether or not it activates the MF mode on the camera, though.

[Juan Buhler]

This is great news--the GF-1 has become my main body after the M8, displacing the Pentax DSLR I used before.

Now we need Cosina to make a m43 camera with a Bessa-quality rangefinder, and we'll have the best of all worlds.

[Tim F]

Olympus needs to allow the focus magnification screen to be disabled with a half-shutter press. It is a completely avoidable tragedy how awkward legacy lenses are to use with the digital PEN.

[robert e]

Hooray!

[Marcelo Guarini]

I guess the lens is totally analog (mechanical). I doubt it will auto activate the MF mode of the EP cameras which is a pity. I also guess it is optimized for the largest aperture range, which will make difficult to photograph in full daylight. Any way I think is a nice addition to the MFT lens bunch.

Regards.

[Me]

What I dont get... why manual focus? Neither Panny nor Olympus designed mFT cameras as manual focusing cameras. They are very quick point and shoots and they excel at it.

I really like my GF1 with the autofocus 20/1.7. But I hated used legacy glass on the GF1 (frame, magnify, focus, demagnify, take the picture and pray the subject has not moved).

[david bram]

Hey Cosina,
make these lenses in a full frame, Canon EF mount.

[sneye]

A proper lens maker joining in with the m4/3 standard has been my dream. I don't need AF, only speed. A 25mm will have healthy DOF even at wide apertures. For normal use, that is.

[Wolfgang]

Michael Houghton> Now if they'd just make an M4/3rds rangefinder to go with it...
Juan Buhler> Now we need Cosina to make a m43 camera with a Bessa-quality rangefinder, and we'll have the best of all worlds.

Totally agreeing about the 43rds rangefinder, especially if something like that could be done

a) for under 1,000$ or € (full metal like the E-P1 and -2 please), and
b) preferably from Olympus with their great color rendition, and in-body stabilization

[Steve G, Mendocino]

Aaargh!

Photo equipment budget is tight to non-existent for a while due to the purchase of the Leitz/Panasonic 45mm earlier this month (but no regrets...) but the range of glass for micro 4/3 is getting very interesting.

Hoping that the next announcement is a fast 14mm.

[GH]

Manual focus and aperture hardly makes this a part of the m4/3 "standard" any more than an adapted lens. Does the lens have any kind of electronic contact to the mount at all? I guess Cosina is already a part of the Leica, Nikon, Canon and m42 "standard." :)

BTW, since when is a mount supported by only two companies making a camera for it a "standard?"

[Mike Johnston]

"BTW, since when is a mount supported by only two companies making a camera for it a 'standard?'"

GH,
Since they standardized it. You can see a whitepaper summary here.

Mike

[Ahem]

This is a very exciting lens, and I hope they (or someone) will bring a fast 50-70mm prime for portraits.

I wonder how useful manual focus will be with my E-PL1, though.

[Iñaki]

GH
A standard has nothing to do with how popular an item or a system is. A standard simply puts the definition on the overal specification an item has to follow in order to be part of a bigger system and be able to interact with other items made to comply with that standard.

When something is that popular that verges to be a monopoly on the market, we talk about a de-facto standard, de-facto being the key in that sentence.

One of the most commonly made mistakes, as well, is that a standard is free or open.

[Tom]

I want that 25mm.

[Peter]

"Hey Cosina,
make these lenses in a full frame, Canon EF mount."

Refer:
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/english/sl2-e.html

[Edward Taylor]

No matter how good the lens is, it would seem that manual focus would make it good for landscapes only. Anything moving would force use of an estimated focus which may be good enough, but would probably cause the resulting image to be no better than an OEM lens.

I certainly could not get off more than a shot every few seconds if I had to rely on the LCD screen with no magnification for accurate focus. And in sunlight this lens couldn't be focused at all.

[Frank P.]

Mike, You can use all the umlauts you want in your titles. You just have to do a little extra work by using a HTML code substitute.

Here's a table for reference: http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

To get your lower case "a" with an umlaut tophat, simply type the following six characters without any spaces in between them: "& # 2 2 8 ;".

Presto - Voigtländer!

[Derek]

Marcelo Guarini wrote: I guess the lens is totally analog (mechanical). I doubt it will auto activate the MF mode of the EP cameras which is a pity.

Based on how their current lenses work with Nikon, Pentax, and Canon DSLRs, I'm guessing you're at least partly incorrect. Their current DSLR-mount lenses are chipped and allow the bodies, even Canons, to control the aperture. Translation: you get all of the PASM modes with them. They also pass EXIF data to the camera. Now, the auto-magnify function would be a little trickier since there's no AF motor, but is at least possible in principle.

GH, see above.

[Tom]

"with six elements yet just six air-to-glass surfaces." Is that the same as six elements in three groups, or some other permutation?

[John Camp]

I bought an adapter so I could use my M lenses on m4/3, and I used it a few times and found that manual operation on my Panasonics just wasn't worth the effort. Unless they've done something unusual with this lens, I suspect it won't be a lot different than the experience with the M lenses. The Panasonic lenses are really very good, and with the corrections available in post processing, I just don't see much need for anything else. I think that will also be true with the Olympus bodies. Still,not a bad thing to see lens availability expanding, and there are situations (shooting at known distances in bad light, with time to set up) where the lens could be useful.

JC

[Mike Johnston]

"To get your lower case "a" with an umlaut tophat, simply type the following..."

Thanks Frank! Change made.

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"Is that the same as six elements in three groups[?]"

Yes. It's far less important now than it was before the era of modern lens coatings--one of the great advantages of early triplets and the Tessar-type in 1902 was that its limited air-glass surfaces allowed less contrast loss than more complex designs. The difference it makes is minimal these days. But it's still a nice trick.

Mike

[erlik]

Now that is interesting. Hopefully, they will also make the 40/1.4. Or something comparable, since their usual Nokton is "only" F1.1.

As Olympus apparently still has to create the 40-150 and 70-300 from their Standard 4/3 range for MFT, it seems we won't see something fast from them quite that soon. Of course, provided they decide to manufacture both lenses...

[Pavel Derka]

I feverently hope that many people will be turned off by the idea of manual focus ... or some other detail that will make this lens not dovetail with their personal photography. That way I can daydream that I can actually get my hands on one THIS year.
I have the 20 f 1.7 but actually prefer manual focus just like I like the M8 because of that fact.
So for me, this is THE lens. I'm excited about the details of this lens but also because I believe this will open the gates and make the m4/3 system grow at an even faster rate than it already has. More choice, more companies involved and perhaps future M43 cameras tuned better for manual focus. I believe that micro four thirds is the heir to the Barnac legacy now. More even than Leica, even though at first the idea is preposterous.

In any case this is fantastic news whether one wants this lens or not because a truly unusual and brand new option has landed for us. Did photographers ever have it this good before?

[Nick]

Unlike many above, I love using old MF lenses on my E-P1. I'd love it even more if they would activate the MF assist.

On the other hand, while this lens looks just beautiful and may perform very well, it's hard for me to justify at its price. I already have (and love) the Panasonic 20 mm, so I'd be giving up autofocus and k$1 and gaining about a stop and a half of light. Throw in the weight, size, and issues that come with reduced DOF (could be useful, could be annoying, depending on the shot), and it doesn't look all that appealing.

I'll keep trying to remind myself of all of this in the weeks and months ahead, in the moments where my resolve weakens.

[Paris]

The Nokton will focus just fine on the Panasonic G1-G2-G10 series cameras, which have viewfinders, like grown-up cameras.

What is not mentioned anywhere is whether the lens has an auto diaphragm, and contacts to communicate aperture info to the camera. It's been 50 years since you could find a normal lens with a pre-set diaphragm.

The Japanese page DOES say, way down in the lower right, "Food included."

[thomas hobbes]

"I bought an adapter so I could use my M lenses on m4/3, and I used it a few times and found that manual operation on my Panasonics just wasn't worth the effort."

different strokes for different folks i guess. i tried my old manual focus lenses on my dslr and i stopped using the autofocus ones (or turned off the autofocus when i needed the focal length). autofocus is certainly faster in certain situations but mostly i find it gets in the way (you have to focus and compose separately) and is less precise. i ended up getting a sony NEX rather than gf1 or olympus pen because i found it to be better (ergonomics) for using old manual focus glass. i am currently having a great time with old pen f glass on it (every once in a while i'll use the 16mm but i turn off the autofocus). anyway, this lens looks very exciting and i hope the image circle is big enough for me to convert it to a NEX mount (or cosina releases it in all mirrorless mounts).

[Mike Johnston]

"The Japanese page DOES say, way down in the lower right, 'Food included.'"

Paris,
That's a fairly common mis-translation. It usually should be "hood included."

Mike

[Mike Plews]

Interesting. Back in the late 1970's at the first TV station I worked at I had a Bell & Howell 70DR with three lenses, one of which was a 25mm f.95 Angenieux.
I see now that on e-bay that lens commands almost a grand.
I wouldn't be shocked to learn that old B&H ended up in the Sioux City landfill, sigh...

[Larry Beckerman]

Don't laugh, but I've always thought that a compact 17.5mm f2 would be a great lens for my G1. Perhaps a Cosina manufactured one is not out of the question.

[ctein]

Dear Mike,

Maybe we can hope for some nice wide-angle primes? That's the big hole in the m43 lens lineup, and manual focusing would be a lot more palatable in a wide angle.

pax / wishful Ctein

[Dirk]

Wonder whether M4/3 is even still around in five years or so… I'd rather put $900 towards an M mount lens (more expensive and perhaps not 0.95, but definitely still usable in years to come).

[Ludovic]

Dear Mike,

Please post a TOP-revenue-generating to buy this lens today. Or tomorrow. Latest.

Thank you,

Faithful In Overseas