Paul Furman wrote:
Neil Harrington wrote:
Rich wrote:
"Neil wrote
Rich wrote:
Didn't think of this, but someone on Dpreview did. Panasonic
can't make lenses as compact as Olympus, if those lenses contain
I.S. electronics and parts. Nikon and Canon, who use this
exclusively in their DSLRs. I wonder if they'll bend their rules
(lens I.S. is a money-maker) and shift to the bodies when they
release mirrorless?

Seems very, very unlikely to me. Nikon uses lens-shift VR in most
of their pocket-sized compacts; they're certainly not going to
ditch it in their ILC.

The Panasonic m4/3 O.I.S.14-45 is a very small and lightweight
lens, as compact as one could wish for. Surely Nikon can do as
well.

Not that small. Well-designed and better-built than the 18-55mm kit
lenses from the APS people, which has allowed some size reduction,
but it isn't compact. Olympus's 14-42mm is collapsible and as such,
more compact.

It's collapsible, but it doesn't look any smaller to me. Apparently
it's collapsible (in the Micro 4/3 style) primarily so they can use
the same optics as the lens for the 4/3 SLR. With essentially
nothing but empty space behind the actual elements, making it
collapsible is easy to do. Likewise the Olympus m4/3 9-18, which I've
mentioned before. It's
collapsible, but take the lens off the camera and extend it into
taking position, and there's about 20 mm of empty space behind the
rear element. There's no reason to make an ultrawide zoom that way

No reason to make a wide prime that way but these are wide to
normal/short tele zooms; 18-36 & 28-84 'equivalent'.

Really an ultrawide zoom in the case of the 9-18. Every other ultrawide zoom
I've ever seen has the rear element close to the flange at the shortest
setting. Generally, ordinary kit zooms do as well.



unless you're essentially using the regular 4/3 9-18 optics.

Yeah, this is a good point. Possibly telecentric goals are part of the
reason though I couldn't say, in theory if it's telecentric you
wouldn't need the gap! Perhaps the long end of the zoom contributes
though.
Is there fixed glass at the back when extended?

Nope. When popped into taking position, there's considerable empty space
behind the rearmost element even at the shortest setting. That's what
persuades me it's basically a Four Thirds design adapted to Micro Four
Thirds just by adding the telescoping part. Saves them having to completely
design a new lens.

I think being "telecentric" is just a bonus they get by doing it this way.