Capture Integration is reporting live from Photokina to share the latest breaking news and product announcements. Stayed tuned to our blogs and social media for full Photokina 2014 coverage.
New Leica Lens Offerings
Leica made quite the splash at Photokina 2014, releasing six new cameras (analog and digital,) as well as 6 new lenses and two updates. These lenses include:
M-system Lenses
- NEW: Leica Summarit-M 35mm f/2.4 ASPH Lens. This lens has 6 elements in 4 groups, a nine blade aperture, and a minimum focusing distance of 2.6 feet. A manual lens in operation, Leica has included encoding to ensure proper metadata usage with compatible cameras. This lens is available in both silver and black.
- NEW: Leica Summarit-M 50mm f/2.4 Lens. Much like the 35mm lens, it has 6 elements in 4 groups, nine blade aperture, and the same 2.6 feet minimum focusing distance. It also features the same 6-bit encoding for metadata with compatible cameras. This lens is available in both silver and black.
- NEW: Leica Summarit-M 75mm f/2.4 Lens. Again, 6 elements in 4 groups, but this lens comes with an 11 blade aperture and a 2.3 feet minimum focusing distance. It also features Leica’s encoding for meta data with compatible cameras, and comes in both silver and black versions.
- NEW: Leica Summarit-M 90mm f/2.4 Lens. Last up on the new M-series of lenses is Leica’s new 90mm lens. 6 elements in four groups, eleven blade aperture, and a minimum focusing distance of 3 feet. It also features the Leica 6 bit encoding for compatible cameras metadata usage, and is available in either Silver or Black.
Finally, Leica announced silver versions of two previous lenses, the Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 and the Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4.
S-system Lenses
Leica also announced two new lenses for their S-system, to compliment the newly announced Leica S and Leica SE cameras.
- NEW: Leica APO-Vario-Elmar-T 55–135mm f/3.5–4.5 ASPH Lens. This is a 80-200 full frame equivalent for the Leica S system, that has 10 groups of 12 lens elements, one of which is aspherical to keep overall physical size small.
- Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-T 11–23mm f/3.5–4.5 ASPH Lens. This lens is a 17-35mm full frame equivalent with 11 groups made up of 14 lens elements. As with the 55-135mm, this lens is designed with four groups being asymmetrical to help keep the lens compact.
Canon launches new 7D Mark II
Canon was busy this Photokina, announcing a long awaited version of the Canon 7D, the 7D Mark II, as well as a few other goodies:
- NEW: Canon 7D Mark II. With specs such as a 65 point AF system (all cross points!) as well as Canon’s knockout Dual Pixel AF system, the 7D Mark II seems like a sports or event shooters dream, with a blazingly fast 10 FPS speed made possible by its dual Digic 6 processors. Using a 20.2 MP sensor, the 7D Mark II breaks from the other APS-C cameras released by Canon, adding more resolution than other new additions. With a shutter rating for 200k actuations, this seems like a great successor to an original Canon 7D
- NEW: EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM. Canon wanted to make a lightweight super telephoto lens, and this definitely qualifies. It weighs only half as much as the 00mm f/2.8L II lens, and, with Canon’s OIS, claims an extra four usable shutter speeds due to image stabilization.
- NEW: EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. The first EF zoom lens for full frame cameras with STM, or Canon’s quiet stepping motor for AF, it also has the OIS image stabilization, as well as an improved AF algorithm and lightweight internal focusing system.
- NEW: EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens. The slimmest and lightest Canon EF-S lens ever produced, this lens also includes a silent STM motor for silent focusing, and an incredibly small form factor sure to be a hit with fans of Canon’s EF-S 40mm f/4 STM Pancake Lens.
Sony announces new Zeiss FE lenses for Alpha 7 mount
Last but certainly not least, Sony has announced new lenses for their popular FE mount α7 series of cameras.
- NEW: Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE F4 ZA OSS E-Mount Lens. This lens is ideal for landscapes, and is coated by Zeiss with their T star coating to reduce flare and ghosting. Three ED glass elements suppress chromatic distortion, and it features a constant f/4 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range, along with built-in Optical Steady Shot image stabilization, dust, and moisture resistant design.
We do not yet have images for the following lenses:
- NEW: Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA. This lens is a full frame E mount cameras, and is expected to ship around March 2015
- NEW: FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS. Another full frame E-mount lens, this is also expected to ship around March 2015
- NEW: FE 28mm F2. Yet another full frame E-mount lens, this lens is compatible with two brand new convertors, the 16mm fisheye convertor, and the 21mm ultra wide convertor. Also expected to ship around March 2015
- NEW: FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS. This full frame e-mount lens is a 10x zoom lens, making it a great compact all-around. This lens is targeted to ship around February 2015.
Stay tuned to the Capture Integration blog as we provide more updates from Germany’s Photokina 2014.