Panasonic confirms at Amateur Photographer that the “new 12-35mm f/2.8 lens is expected out at the end of June, priced £1,000.” Interesting that Panasonic didn’t mention the other new 35-100mm f/2.8 X lens. Don’t know if they forgot to mention it or if that lens will arrive even later! I guess the price in Euro will be 1.100 and expressed in Dollars $1,150-1,200. That’s half the price of the Olympus Four Thirds 14-35mm f/2.0 ([shoplink 25320 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]) and also a couple of hundred dollars less than a lens like the 24-70mm L f/2.8 from Canon.
AP posted other interesting news:
1) Panasonic says Mirrorless global market share (for all system cameras) will be at $50 in 2015 (it is 22% today). Currently it is 54% in Taiwan, 51% in Japan, 28% in UK and 18% in USA.
2) Panasonic lost some market share because of the growing competition (such as Nikon’s 1 system).
3) Sykes (Panasonic manager) said that “the continued loyalty of many photographers to major camera brands such as Canon, owing to their long photographic heritage, continues to pose a ‘massive challenge’ to Panasonic, despite the firm’s success in the CSC arena.” Panasonic expects Canon to launch its first CSC in 2012.
One more little info: All m43 cameras are made in Japan, apart from the G3 which is produced in China.
Just my two cent: I wouldn’t fear the Canon competition that much. Canon always acts very conservative and I don’t expect anything revolutionary. And we already have tuff competitors like the top selling Fuji X PRO 1 (Click here) and Sony NEX-7 (Click here).
New GF5 preorders:
Black GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).
White GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).
Red GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).