Micro Four-thirds @ CES and ImagingUSA

I just returned from what felt like a marathon trip, first to CES in Las Vegas and then on to ImagingUSA in Phoenix. Panasonic, my employer, had booths at both events and Olympus was at CES but not ImagingUSA. A new player JK Imaging/Kodak showed a MFT camera at CES for $499. I’ll write more about the Kodak camera when it shows up in the market.

At CES Olympus showed their OM-D E-M1 Micro Four-thirds camera and Panasonic displayed its forthcoming 4K prototype camera under glass. The only information available about the new camera is that it will have 4K video resolution wrapped up in a body that looks like the Lumix GH3. More information should be available soon and I’ll keep you posted here.

Panasonic also showed the Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 lens for Micro Four-thirds. One of the benefits for working for Panasonic is that I’m often in the right place at the right time to try out new products when there are only a few in the country.

The Leica 42.5 mm f/1.2 lens I used was a pre-production model but the results are still pretty impressive. The lens is fairly heavy in Micro Four-thirds terms and includes an aperture ring on the front of the lens. The images shown here were all made hand held using a Lumix GX7. It looks like the lens will retail at $1600-$1700 so start saving for a predicted March shipping date.—Mark Toal