Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Goes Titanium And Introduces 8mm Fisheye and 7-14mm Lenses

If a silver Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II did not ring your bell, you can now buy the same camera with a Titanium body. This is basically the same OM-D E-M5 camera camera so it features the same 16MP sensor, and the 5-axis sensor stabilization system.

But, the extra $150 (compared to the $1,049 body silver body) will get you a leather shoulder strap and a serialized owner’s card. And a leather case for the owner’s card. (only missing a leather case for the leather strap). So it is a bit more Bling if you are an Olympus fan.

Maybe more interesting is Olympus adding two new fast lenses to their overgrowing collection: an f/1.8 8mm Fisheye and an f/2.8 7-14mm lens.

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO Lens

The first announced lens has a pretty wide view angle which is 14-28 35 equivalent and has a constant aperture of 2.8 all through that range. It features a ZERO Anti-Reflection coating, and has 7 aperture blades which should provide for a nice bokeh (if anyone cares about bokeh at 7mm).

As with other Olympus lenses, the lens us dust proof, splash proof and freeze proof.

Here are the main features:

This wide-angle 7-14mm zoom lens offers a 14-28mm equivalent focal length range for Micro Four Thirds digital cameras.
Constant f/2.8 maximum aperture maintains consistent performance throughout the zoom range and benefits working in difficult lighting situations.
The lens construction integrates two aspherical ED (extra-low dispersion) elements, one DSA (Dual Super Aspherical) element, one aspherical element, three Super ED elements, one ED element, and two HR (high-refractive index) elements into its design to minimize aberrations, distortion, and color fringing while also contributing to overall image sharpness, clarity, and color fidelity.
ZERO coating helps to suppress lens flare and ghosting for increased contrast and more accurate color rendering.
Dust, splash, and freezeproof construction ensures this lens’ performance in inclement conditions and harsh environments.
A customizable L-Fn button can be assigned to control one of 27 different settings for intuitive handling and quick re-calling of assistive features.
High-speed imager AF linear motor drive system, with MSC (Movie and Still Image Compatible) support, provides fast, smooth, and quiet focusing performance. A manual focus mechanism can also be employed for refined, critical focus control.
Built-in petal-type lens hood helps to alleviate stray light from causing flare and also adds some protection from accidental impacts to the front element.
Rounded seven-blade diaphragm helps to produce and aesthetic out-of-focus quality when working with selective focus techniques.

Those 7 millimeters of focal length will set you back $1,299 and it should tart shipping next month.

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 8mm f/1.8 Fisheye PRO Lens

I am not a big fan of products that have “pro” in their name but this is quite an impressive lens. The 8mm focal length (16mm equivalent to 35mm systems) has a similar feature set to the 7-14: 7 blades, it is splash, dust and freeze proof, and has 7 blades.

it also features an impressive 180° Angle of View and an f/1.8 aperture.

Here are the features:

An 8mm fisheye offers a 16mm equivalent focal length for Micro Four Thirds system cameras along with an expansive 180° angle of view with characteristic perspective distortions.
Fast f/1.8 maximum aperture benefits working in difficult and low-light conditions.
The lens construction integrates one aspherical element, three Super ED (extra-low dispersion) elements, two ED elements, one Super HR (high-refractive index) element, and two HR elements into its design to minimize aberrations, distortion, and color fringing while also contributing to overall image sharpness, clarity, and color fidelity.
ZERO coating helps to suppress lens flare and ghosting for increased contrast and more accurate color rendering.
Dust, splash, and freezeproof construction ensures this lens’ performance in inclement conditions and harsh environments.
High-speed imager AF linear motor drive system, with MSC (Movie and Still Image Compatible) support, provides fast, smooth, and quiet focusing performance.
Minimum focusing distance of 4.7″ pairs with a 0.4x equivalent maximum magnification for photographing close-up subjects with an exaggerated perspective.

Tיe lens will set you back a grand or so and has no shipping time listed yet.

P.S. I just have to post this image of the strap and owner’s card

mike

That is one of the nicest photographs of a terrible camera strap I have ever seen. :)

The “titanium” body is just for show, obviously. The aluminum body of my EP-3 is nearly indestructible. (the big glass screen on the back… not so much, superglue and a screen protector holds it together well enough) Anything that could dent the body would obliterate a lens or the screen. I put “titanium” in air quotes as I expect it is actually just aluminum anodized dark grey. Another site said “titanium-coloured” which is even more intentionally misleading. Titanium can be anodized, though, so who knows?

Anyhow, the new lenses are very interesting, I wasn’t really planning on buying any of the PRO lenses as my m4/3 cameras are more of a small easy for use when traveling. However, Olympus glass is always fantastic, and these very short very fast lenses would make for some interesting shooting opportunities.

Though I have never used a really fast fisheye before, so perhaps you can’t really use it wide open and it isn’t much better than the f/3.5 ones out there? In that case the only other option is the Panasonic 8mm fisheye, which would be much cheaper anyhow. I have the cheap Rokinon/Samyang 7.5mm fisheye. It is pretty cheap, and I don’t really take any fisheye shots not on a tripod, so manual focus is fine for this use.
- mike
  
  Oh, and Sony could learn a thing or two here. Have a wide variety of high quality native lenses from multiple manufacturers, with multiple price points, and people will come to your system.
  
  That is the major thing that keeps me from simply switching over to a7. The lens selection means you might only have a single choice for a particular type of lens, and you might get stuck with a super expensive option.
jason bourne

Titanium, huh?

Can you say, “Gimmick?”