My thoughts exactly. It looks quite misleading as it resembles the 12-50mm somewhat. I would've rather bought a weather-sealed one for 50usd more. (Knowing Olympus though, they might've tacked 100usd extra for that)

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Pediatric oncologist, photo enthusiast, and proud Pinoy!

E-M5, mZD 12/2, mZD 17/1.8, mZD 60/2.8, mZD 75/1.8, mZD 75-300/4.8-6.7 II (and they all fit albeit snugly in my Billingham Hadley small)

www.pixoto.com/omdem5

I'd rather have primes covering these telephoto focal lengths. A native 300 f/4 could be made relatively compact if built around the M43 sensor. I'm looking forward to the upcoming 150mm 2.8 from Panasonic. The 75/1.8, 150/2.8 and a hypothetical 300/4 would be perfect for me!

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Jonathan
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www.jonathanfriolo.com

I'm right there with you. I'm tempted by the 150/2.8 that's coming soon from Panny but really want that extra reach (minimum 200mm, hopefully 300mm). That or if they would release a 2x tele-converter.

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Pediatric oncologist, photo enthusiast, and proud Pinoy!

E-M5, mZD 12/2, mZD 17/1.8, mZD 60/2.8, mZD 75/1.8, mZD 75-300/4.8-6.7 II (and they all fit albeit snugly in my Billingham Hadley small)

www.pixoto.com/omdem5

I could really use that Lumix 150 ƒ2.8 for a lot of situations (Son's basketball, soccer, & baseball games for example) - but I'm afraid of what the price will be...

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Olympus E-PL5
M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ1.8 | M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ2.8 | M. Zuiko 14-42 II | M. Zuiko 14-150 ED | M. Zuiko 45mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75-300 ED II | Leica DG Summilux 25mm ƒ1.4 ASPH | Lumix G Vario 45-200 |

My exact thoughts. In fact, the announcement today from Tamron points to that very thing: they (Tamron) are getting ready to bring out their popular mid-priced tele-zooms to the m43 system. I'm encouraged by this, because along with the return to profitability by Olympus, and the growth world-wide in m43 sales, it means a pretty good chance that Olympus hopes to recreate in this century the success they had in the last half of the last century with the OM system. Thus, we can still reasonably hope to see much of their line of professional ED lenses recreated in smaller and, if possible, sharper versions of their former selves. If we see them bring out a beefed up version of the OM-D E-M5 this year or next, expect to see some pro-level fast zooms to go with it... all the way up Everest.

The Sigma 150mm 2.8 OS is $1100 and the Nikon 300mm f/4 is about $1379. My guess the Panasonic 150mm 2.8 will come in at a price of $1499!

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Jonathan
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www.jonathanfriolo.com

I'm not generally a fan of minor redesigns, but if it means dropping the price by almost 40%, I'll take it. In their typical two-steps-forward-one-step-back way, Olympus seems to slowly be working through major complaints.

Hope they have some high quality mid-speed zooms coming up next!

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E-M5 | E-PM2 | mZD 12-50 | ZD 12-60 | P 14-42 X | mZD 40-150 R | PL 25 | mZD 45

Looking at the lens architecture and MTF chart, I think the lens is identical to the old one, with probably new ZERO coating on the new one.
Just like the 40-150 is identical to the 40-150 R optically, except for new design on the zoom barrel.

Why is it cheaper? i dont know. Maybe they managed to find a more efficient way of producing the new lens at lower cost, and cheaper component.

So far Oly have refreshed these lens --> 14-42, 40-150, 17, .. now 75-300.
The next 2 lenses to get an update will probably be the 9-18 and 14-150.

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E-M5 | 12-50 | 40-150 R | 45/1.8 | 17/1.8 | 14/2.5
Metz 32CT7

This could be my first telephoto for my omd.

May I know why did you sell your em5?

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OMD EM5, 45mm f1.8

Based on the US price this looks as though it will end up at a similar price point to the Panasonic 100-300 here in the UK.

Unless I'm missing something, what advantages does this have over the 100-300?

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EM-5 | GF1 | 14mm 2.5 | 45mm 1.8 | 75mm 1.8 | 100-300mm

Chris Harrison Photography