"Leica has very strict standards when making lenses,"

I think I'll stick with the higher standards, thank you very much. The guy basically says it's about getting smaller lenses - as if we need smaller. The GH2 is too small as it is

@davhar
I think what he was trying to say (without offending Leica) is that Leica is old school, maybe stuck in their ways, and not willing to change as easily or as fast as Panasonic is. Panasonic's new x lenses and soon to come pro lenses are a gamble since it is possibly cutting edge or just new technology. I'm skeptical like you and will wait to test before I buy, but at the same time new technologies always come with skepticism. Personally I hope the gamble pays off.

it would be stupit from panasonic to ditch the worlds best lens maker if you want to connect to the pro users. with leica on board the gfx can only be a bigger succes. discussion is good and raises the bar for all of us.

To be honest, since I got the Leica D 14-50 mm F2.8-F3.5, I am not so convinced about quality of leica branded lenses anymore. This lens has quit some distortion, it has breathing like hell and the electronic translation from the focusing ring to the hardware lenses feels very waggly. Means, the optical scale on the lens is jittering (first lens I got was even jittering in the lens-movement and had to be replaced), and the translation is not fixed, so sometimes the same distance of the ring doesn't mean the same distance on the lens.

So I feel that leica brand is not necessarily a proof of quality.

Wow, bit of a sensationalist title to this thread, don't you think? I read the article, didn't see where you found the bit about Leica saying the X lenses suck. Just because Panasonic uses digital technology to correct for aberrations and Leica doesn't certainly won't make Panny lenses suck. Some of the non-Leica branded Panny m4/3 glass performs on par with the best Canon L lenses. They're two companies, they have different approaches to making lenses. When they can partner, great - when they can't, who cares as long as the results are there?

It's my understanding that Leica's licensing of its branding for Panasonic lenses prohibits software lens correction. So the Panaleica lenses are designed to be as linear as possible in the physical realm i.e. optically while the non-Leica Panasonic lenses e.g. the 20mm pancake and the new X series glass employ lens correction in the digital realm.

I know LPowell knows all this already.

@Shaveblog
Actually, I didn't know that Leica-branded Lumix lenses use no digital correction, thanks for making that distinction clear. That alone explains why there is no Leica branding on Lumix Micro Four Thirds lenses. No offense intended, so I changed the thread title accordingly.

Not allowing digital correction on your optics is a bit purist these days. Especially if you want higher margins on your crap glass :)

I understand Leica's perspective, and Panasonic's. Each brand serves a different market, with a bit of Venn overlap that benefits both (revenue for little Leica, prestige for big Panasonic).

I have a fair amount of experience with DSP correction in loudspeakers, both at the high and and low end, and I think DSP speakers are loosely analogous to the topic at hand. In both cases, transfer non-linearities are measured for a finite set of metrics at a certain vantage point in space, then their output signal is digitally corrected to reduce those measured distortions.

I find DSP correction is better at bringing low-cost commodity designs up to an acceptable (at times, even surprising) level of subjective quality than it is at improving a well-designed speaker built with high quality drivers. The marketing behind DSP speakers has always been about polishing diamonds but the president of the world's largest speaker manufacturer (Harman) once admitted to me that she loved DSP because it upped the usability of ever-worsening commodity parts sourced from parts of the world that make China seem Swiss. And I agree - it's amazing what a little DSP can do to fool the listener into thinking a cheap set of speakers sounds much better than it should.

As for camera lenses, I think both Leica and Panasonic have it right. Just as a well-designed speaker like the original ARs still sounds good after all these years, purely optical lens designs a la Leica will always look subjectively better overall, and still look as good 50 yrs from now. DSP-assisted lenses like the Panasonics offer unparalleled value and excellent IQ, but over time they will probably not continue to be as well-regarded. Advances in DSP and optical lens technology will undoubtedly show today's DSP lenses to not be quite as good as we think they are. I've seen it happen to DSP speakers that were hailed and heralded as the new paradigm, and it will happen with DSP lenses as well. The technology will trickle down and enable affordable, shockingly good lenses like the Panasonics, but their IQ will never be quite as good as the best purely optical designs like Leica and Zeiss.

I love my Panasonic 20mm pancake, and I feel lucky to live at a time when you can buy a lens for not that much money that looks this good and weighs practically nothing. But I'm pretty confident it won't stand the test of time like my 1960's era Canon FD 35mm F2. Purely optical lens design, when done right, enjoys a subjective quality DSP will likely never surpass. Approach, certainly. Mimic, most definitely. But at the end of the day, Leica is right not to want to swim in those waters if it wants to preserve its brand identity as the most purely beautiful look full stop.

I think there are good reasons why those legacy lenses became legacy.

I like Panasonic m43 lenses except the fly-by-wire. Newly designed MF lenses from Voigtlander and Samyang look great. Eventually the legacy lens bubble price will come down to earth again.

I meant for @nomad.

@Shaveblog, I want Leica approved HD video optimized Panasonic m43 lens at affordable price. Is that only a wishful thinking? Panasonic has set clearly that their 'X' pro lens line won't be Leica approved. Somehow that doesn't bother me much. What I care the most is final artifact. I can work with MF only lenses and Panasonic HD optimized lenses with DSP. But those Leicasonic lenses are not HD optimized and still have fly-by-wire focus. I'd rather get Samyang lens. Leicasonic m43 lenses are great for photo, though.

Christmas!