Olympus 75-300mm II MFT lens officially announced.

The new 75-300mm MFT lens and the XZ-10 compact camera have been announced and here is the official press release:

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., January 29, 2013 – Olympus makes high-performance super-telephoto shooting more accessible than ever before by introducing the affordable M.ZUIKO ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 II lens (35mm equivalent 150-600mm). Olympus has redesigned the lens to match the distinctive OM-D E-M5® and PEN® Micro Four Thirds® series cameras and added a new advanced ZERO (Zuiko Extra-low Reflection Optical) coating to keep scratches off, and eliminate ghosting and lens flare even in bright lights.

The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 II telephoto lens boasts the same high focal length and first-class components as its predecessor, the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7, and is capable of bringing faraway subjects like children’s faces, animals and landscape features vividly to life with superb-quality close-ups. Olympus fitted a circular aperture that ensures a professional-looking bokeh with smooth and even background defocusing.

The compact size and light weight of this tiny telephoto lens make it convenient to carry. Olympus has redesigned the lens to match the distinctive OM-D E-M5 and PEN series cameras. The lens includes Olympus’ near-silent MSC (Movie and Still Compatible) focusing technology to reduce the whir that can otherwise ruin movie playback on a High-Definition TV.

The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 II benefits from the 5-axis image stabilization of the OM-D E-M5 and maximizes the performance of the Olympus PEN compact system cameras for brilliant still images and high-definition (HD) video capture.
U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4-6.7 II Lens will be available in March, 2013.
Estimated Street Price: $549.99

via DPreview. In french at OpenPN.

Press release about the new XZ-10 compact cameras are out at Techradar, Pocket Lint, ePhotozine, Photographyblog, Cnet Asia, OpenPN and so on… and ther eis also a new white XZ-2 (via OpenPN).