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[OM] OT: When is Voigtländer going to wake up? (Micro 4/3)

Subject: [OM] OT: When is Voigtländer going to wake up? (Micro 4/3)
From: Dawid Loubser <dawidl@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:27:14 +0200
The only thing seriously preventing me from adopting something like  
Micro Four Thirds
are the pathetic lens ranges - boring slow zoom after zoom, and there  
is really only one
good (if one can call a lens that needs serious software correction  
"good", but that's another debate)
fast prime available, the Panasonic 20/1.7.

I see no company as being in a better position to inject some  
excitement into the Micro 4/3
word than Cosina/Voigtlander. They have made some pretty exciting and  
amazing lenses for the
Leica M-mount, although, truth be told, apart from a couple of real  
exotics like the 12mm f/5.6,
the Leica lenses available now are more exciting, and generally  
better. At 5-10x the cost :-)

The Micro 4/3 world falls right within their expertise - a small lens  
mount placed close to the
sensor, requiring small lenses. Also, this is a domain sorely lacking  
exciting lenses, especially
fast wides (because, of course, we all know that the existing line-up  
of Voigtländer lenses can be
mounted on a Micro 4/3 body, but that's generally only good for longer  
focal lengths, i.e.
the small 40mm f/1.4 makes a beautiful 80mm f/2.8-equivalent portrait  
lens on one of these cameras.
Or for something more exotic, their 50mm f/1.1 makes for a quite good  
100mm f/2.2-equivalent lens,
although performance at f/1.1 is not exactly stellar, so it will in no  
way render equivalent to, say,
a Zuiko 100mm f/2.0 on an OM body)

If voigtlander were to release a really good and small 17mm f/2 or f/ 
1.4, and perhaps an 8mm (could be slow,
like f/4) custom-made for Micro Four Thirds - even with manual-focus  
only (though AF would be better for
the mass market), I think people would buy them in droves.

Specifically, the 17mm or so lens should not be a compromised  
retrofocus design like the Olympus M-Zuiko 17mm,
but a good symmetrical design like most rangefinder 35mm lenses. It  
would be small, could be quite cheap
(although even $900 would be acceptable if quality is really good,  
just look at the Cosina-made Zeiss
Biogon 35mm f/2.0 which costs in that region), and make the Micro 4/3  
domain suitable not just to
amateurs, but to the more traditional professional rangefinder market  
(or the people who sorely miss
that market, in anyway, after the growth of the big SLR market).

What are your thoughts?

Dawid
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