Panasonic S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens review by Photographyblog

Photographyblog reviewed the Panasonic S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and concludes:

The Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens for L-Mount is an exceptionally well-made lens that shines brightest as you use it across photography and video disciplines.

Focusing is a dream, whether that is manual focus via the focus clutch, or the AF motor that is geared intelligently through the Lumix S1 camera for photography and video. You’ll get fast AF for photography and a smooth AF transitions for video, crucially all performed silently.

We’d expect the lens to withstand the inevitable battering endured through a life of use by a seasoned professional photographer, plus it simply feels great in use.

Tack sharp images are a reality from centre all the way to corners, with an unbelievably good control over lens distortion, especially chromatic aberrations. You may not even need to make any lens corrections to raw images post capture. Bokeh is also pleasant all the way from the maximum aperture down to f/5.6.

So, the Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens passes all the tests with flying colours. But now comes the reality of its retail price. It’s the first Panasonic S zoom lens going head to head with an existing Sigma equivalent and its competitor is less than half the price and five star rated no-less.

Is the Panasonic lens worth the extra cash? Commenting on features and handling alone, there are differences, the majority of which favour the Panasonic lens; its manual focus clutch, build quality, plus it is a proprietary lens for the Panasonic system. The Sigma lens is more versatile for close up work, with a superior minimum close focusing distance. If video handling is a concern, then we’d go for the Panasonic lens.

Overall, we have been majorly impressed by the Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens for L-Mount. If the asking price is accessible, then it ticks all the boxes.

First images of the new Sigma 105mm f/2.8 L-mount macro lens

Nokishita leaked the images of the L-mount version of the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 L-mount macro lens that will be announced around September 30.

Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN MACRO Art Lens specs:

  • lens configuration of 17 elements in 12 groups
  • minimum shooting distance of 29.5cm
  • maximum shooting magnification of 1: 1, 9 aperture blades
  • filter diameter of 62mm, and a size of φ74.
  • It will be x 133.6mm (E mount 135.6mm) and weigh 710g (E mount 715g).
  • The US price is around $ 799. 

 

 

 

 

L-mount news roundup…


Lumix S1H vs GH5 Footage Review

Plenty of L-rumors readers images on our L-mount Facebook Group.
Back to School: What You Want versus What You Need (Explora).
Canon S 100mm f3.5 II (LTM) tested on SL2 (Hintingimage).
Bryen Trawick: New Panasonic S1H 2.1 Firmware Update | Shoot Raw Video!
DpreviewTV: Best Camera Backpack for 2020 (Wandrd, Peak Design, Shimoda, the Manfrotto, CosySpeed and Atlas)

Links:
Panasonic S1R at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. In Europe at Calumet DE, ParkCameras, Jessops.
Panasonic S1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. In Europe at Calumet DE, ParkCameras, Jessops.
Panasonic S1H at Amazon, BHphoto. Adorama. FocusCamera. Park UK.
Panasonic 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens at Amazon, BHphoto. Adorama. FocusCamera. Park UK.
Panasonic 50mm f/1.4 S at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. In Europe at Calumet DE, ParkCameras, Jessops.
Panasonic 24-105mm f/4.0 S at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. In Europe at Calumet DE, ParkCameras, Jessops.
Panasonic 70-200mm f/4.0 S at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. In Europe at Calumet DE, ParkCameras, Jessops.

 

 

Announced and available for preorder: New Laowa 14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D L-mount lens

Venus Optics announced this new Laowa 14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D L-mount lens (worldwide preorder here).

Press text:

14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D is a wide-angle lens designed for full frame mirrorless cameras. It features close-to-zero distortion(Zero-D) with 114° angle of view. The screw-in 52mm filter thread and the ultra wide perspective allows photographers to create the inspiring pictures with one-of-kind elements. Also, it is extremely compact and lightweight (weight: 228g, dimension: 58mmx59mm)which can be carried to anywhere, anytime with Zero Burden. 

Full size image samples can be seen on their official product page.

2019 market share anlaysis: Panasonic on 5th postion

According to the newly published Nikkei data Panasonic has now surpassed Olympus and now holds 4.7% of the market share. Olympus is now on the sixth position (not mentioned on the graph on top).

The top five digital camera companies had a 93.7% share in 2019. Camera sales dropped down to 14.83 million units (-22.4%). Those are the market shares:

-Canon 45.4% (+2.4)
-Sony 20.2% (+0.9)
-Nikon 18.6% (-1.6)
-Fujifilm Holdings 4.7% (-0.4)
-Panasonic 4.7% (0.0)

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via DigicameInfo

Sigma CEO Yamaki says they still don’t know when they will release the new Foveon camera

Imaging Resource published a very interesting interview with Sigma CEO Yamaki. Here are some interesting points:

Foveon:

So we continue the development of the sensor, but we cannot commit [to] when we will release the product. There are two issues. The first one is there are some design errors in making the full-frame Foveon sensor. We already have several generations of the full-frame Foveon sensor prototypes. But none of them work properly because of the design error. So we have to correct the design error. The Second problem is a challenge in manufacturing.

Starting from this project, we started working with a new sensor vendor. Yes, a new foundry in the US. They are based in a small city called Roseville (California), which is close to San Francisco. They were the subsidiary of NEC, a Japanese company.

[Ed. Note: Some quick Googling suggests this is TF Semiconductor Solutions, previously TSI Semiconductors (2012-2014), and Renesas Electronics America (2010-2011). As Yamaki-san says, the foundry was originally built in 1998 by NEC. Please note, though, that this is just my guessing, based on a Google search :-)]

FP sales

We are doing extremely good in Japan. The sales here are quite good. But in other markets, sales are not as good as I expected.

24-70mm lens:

We still cannot catch the demand. Because the price is half of the Somy version and it’s also one of the top performing lenses in this category, f/2.8 standard zoom lenses for Sony E-mount and L-mount. I believe it’s the top performer, but to be fair, [I should say] it’s one of the top performers. But the price is half that of the Sony 24-70mm.

APS-C L-mount lenses:

we will probably develop brand new lenses for Leica L-mount APS-C cameras.

Sigma APS-C cameras:

No plan to make APS-C L-mount cameras yet. If we continue the fp concept, probably we will stay with full-frame. But this is just an assumption. We don’t have such a plan right now. But just making an assumption for the future, if the sensor has large pixel numbers like 50, 60, 75 megapixels, you can take a very, very good image using APS-C with a crop mode. So in this case, you can use a very compact lens.

Future of the market:

I guess the market would shrink in 2020, even if we didn’t have coronavirus. Probably the coronavirus issue will escalate the problem. Without coronavirus, I assumed that the market would shrink but probably toward the end of this year to next year, I expected it to hit the bottom, and then level out.

Last year, the quantity of interchangeable-lens system cameras sold in the market was 8.5 million units. But actually, the peak time was 17 million units. So last year was about half. But before digital cameras, film SLR sold about four million to five million units. So it was originally a very small market. So I think it was kind of a boom economy starting from mid-2000 to the beginning of 2010, and then it’s going down to the normal level.

I think probably five to six million is a good number to be stable. Thanks to smartphones, more people are interested in taking better pictures, and some of those people would like to buy high-end cameras. So probably, I think the market size for digital interchangeable-lens system cameras would be higher than for film SLRs. And also because the learning cost is very low compared to the film camera.DE: Oh, yeah, much lower costs than film, that’s a good point. Because now, you can see your picture right away. I remember I would shoot a 36-exposure roll, and sometimes none would come out.

But now my feeling is we’re coming back to more like a five-year cycle maybe, for people getting cameras.