Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Schneider-Kreuznach and micro Four-Thirds

Supposedly, an announcement is coming in the next week from Schneider-Kreuznach about lenses they're making available for the micro Four-Thirds format.

I have a few questions about this like:

Will these be electronically compatible, fully usable with auto exposure and auto focus?
What happens to Samsung's NX-system, if Schneider-Kreuznach adds to micro Four-Thirds?

When Panasonic added a low end (micro Four-Thirds) professional video camera, which is high above the micro Four-Thirds still camera bodies, to their line, it set a new tone for the format.  Suddenly, a number of cine lenses became available, even to those using the DMC-GH1 and DMC-GH2 bodies for video recording.

Now, the sense of putting a US$3000 lens on a US$800 body may not seem reasonable but given what you can do with a properly-hacked GH2, it's not completely insane.  It's also not completely different than taking a US$3000 body and adding an US$8000 lens and professionals do that all the time, don't they?

I still don't see me getting into the video business, though trying video may give me a better, more flexible perspective on still images.  I've barely experimented with the Live View functionality, even though I can see limited use for it for photographing animals or shooting over a crowd.  (Should you be hovering a heavy dSLR and heavy lens over someone's head, trying to get a shot into the crowd?  Justin Bieber might hit you, if he doesn't like it.)

In any case, Schneider-Kreuznach could really change the balance of things if they offer lenses that are fully compatible with micro Four-Thirds, so that they work with auto focus and auto exposure.  Their lenses have been Samsung's only hope to get more serious users buying their NX-system.  If they lose that exclusivity, it would doom the mostly-sinking ship, and provide micro Four-Thirds a new boost against Sony's NEX-system, if Sony's format isn't included in their plans or the announcement.

They made their announcement and I wrote about it in this post.

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