Kowa lenses tested on the GH4 (Guest post by Lee Mullen).

I’m not a reviewer as such but more of a hands on professional and only had the lens for 2 days. I have taken it out to shoot mainly outdoor landscape shots.

These were all taken on the Panasonic GH4.

What I can say is that the lens is built like a tank and has a very similar, if not better physical feel about it than Voigtlander Nokton M4/3 lenses which I also own, that is real quality metal and very smooth focus and an adjustable clickless iris ring with the ‘T’ markings shown (for video shooters like myself). It has some weight in it and really does feel quality made as you would expect from a Japanese optical product.

Image wise, it is very clean and rectilinear with no noticeable barrel/mustache distortion and very sharp in the corners.

Like most ultra wide angle lenses, it does suffer with chromatic aberration, but thankfully Kowa have reduced this pretty well and when looking at comparison images taken with a Tokina 11-16mm using a Metabones Speedbooster, the Kowa is heads up with little CA to notice. Even both lenses at T3.0 (f/2.8), the Kowa is sharper than the Tokina and has a less of a clinical look about it. The Kowa Prominar has some nice characteristics about it’s own look.

On the GH4 it attaches lovely with no play at the mount.

Kowa supply the lens with a nice very wide proper lens hood which has a tightening screw like in the old days. It also comes with a padded case.

Overall, as I professional photographer shooting landscape, HDR, events and real estate photography here in Western Australia, plus a shooter of cinema like video, I can definately recommend this lens which fills the ultra wide gap in the native Micro Four Thirds void. No need really for Speed Boosters or slow ultra wide angles, this will impress you.

Gan Eden
Gan Eden Photography & Video Productions
Western Australia

The new Kowa Micro Four Thirds lenses are already available on eBay:
12mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50867 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50868 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50869 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].
25mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50870 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50871 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50872 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].

All three new Kowa MFT lenses got tested at Mapcamera. The review is written in Japanese but there are really a lot of great image samples to give you an idea of how good (or bad) those lenses are:
Kowa Prominar 8.5mm F2.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).
Kowa Prominar 12mm F1.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).
Kowa Prominar 25mm F1.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).

The new Kowa Micro Four Thirds lenses are already available on eBay:
12mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50867 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50868 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50869 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].
25mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50870 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50871 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50872 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].

Image courtesy: ePhotozine.

ePhotozine (Click here) writes:

The O-MD E-M5 Mark II is, without doubt, a worthy successor to the E-M5, and surpasses all of my expectations, providing excellent image quality in a well-built and stylish compact system camera. All that’s left is for me is to pull my bank card out of my wallet so I can buy it, once I’ve decided whether to go for the black or the silver version! Something that hasn’t happened since the original E-M5, some three years ago…

Engadget (Click here) writes:

Olympus has made it clear that the E-M5 Mark II isn’t meant to replace its flagship E-M1 camera, but rather act as an entryway to its Micro Four Thirds platform. With that reasoning in mind, I have no doubt the E-M5 Mark II is worth buying; I’m just not sure why anyone wouldn’t spend the extra $300 for the even better overall package that is the E-M1.

ThePhoBlographer (Click here) writes:

The Olympus OMD EM5 Mk II is a wonderful camera. It deserves all the praises and wonderful awards that you can possibly give it. Wifi, great image quality, a high resolution image mode to add to the future proofing, crazy fast AF, great lenses, a nice feel, weather sealing, focus peaking that works well, what more could a photographer seriously ask for?

There is also a Full interview with Olympus Product Manager Richard Pelkowski here:

E-M5II store links:
E-M5II in Black at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-M5II in Silver at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-M5II In Europe at AmazonUK, Jessops, WexUK, Namencolor.