Dpreview Blog:On Lenses for Small cameras

Djarum, I think you make a good point, and I doubt you are in the minority. Although Andy and others imply that these companies are out of touch with what we want and need, there are some smart folks at Olympus and Panasonic trying to figure out which lenses will sell and make the system a success.

I'd be very surprised if we don't see some faster zooms soon, though I am not optimistic that they will be able to make one the size of the current Panasonic 14-45.

That said, I'm well pleased with what we already have available. It will take a strong effort for a new mirrorless system to catch up.

 

I'm not sure those lenses would sell as well as you think. You and I, along with most of the folks here, in the various Flickr groups, and other photography communities, are in a huge echo chamber. Outside of that chamber lies a vast market which will buy the Pana 7-14 or Oly 9-18 and not necessarily crave a 10 or 12mm prime. With the 20/1.7, I think that a 24/2 would not sell all that well.

Also, the 14/2.8 is an attempt to address the traditional prime lengths. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people clamoring for a "digital Leica CL". With the 14/2.8, Pana now has 28, 40, and 90mm equivalents, so from that standpoint a traditional "prime shooter" has a very nice kit indeed. I'm guessing that the market research has been weighted towards the Japanese market in this regard, and that may well be prudent of them.

They've given us a normal f/1.7 lens for $400. That's cheaper than Leica or Zeiss and competitive with Pentax (for the pancake) and Cosina. We are not dealing with the same economies of scale as Canon or even Nikon, and honestly, the cheaper f/1.8 lenses from Canon and Nikon aren't as nice as the Pana 20/1.7, at least from my point of view.