6AM GMT, 6th February 2025
OM System has made some welcome updates to three of its existing lenses; the 17mm f/1.8, 25mm f/1.8, and 100-400mm f/5-6.3, and all now sport the ‘II’ suffix. For anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with the comparable focal lengths in ‘full frame’ terms, these are 34mm, 50mm, and 200-800mm, respectively.
Although not 100% confirmed, we don’t think there are any changes to the optical designs of these lenses. They all appear to share the same optical element construction configurations with their predecessors.
Neither the original 17mm, nor 25mm, were dust and splash-proofed. They have, now, both acquired environmental sealing and an IPX rating.
The 100-400 did have environmental sealing but Olympus did not state what the IP rating was, but it is now confirmed to be IPX, too.
Subtle external differences are discernible with the new 17mm and 25mm lenses. The focusing rings look wider, for example. We assume the 17mm retains its sliding focus ring clutch arrangement, for instant manual focus access, though in the pictures we’ve seen so far, it’s not clear. The original 25mm lens was always a budget design and didn’t feature a focus clutch ring; it would be nice if it acquired this feature.
There is little external difference to the 100-400mm f/5-6.3 Mark II compared to it predecessor. However, this new edition of the lens now supports 5-axis Sync IS, which enables the moving sensor image stabilisation in the camera body (selected models) to work in tandem with the optical image stabilisation of the lens. This improves maximum stabilisation headroom from 3 stops to 7 stops.
In the UK the new lenses are officially priced:
m.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 II – £499
m.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 II – £399
m.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5-6.3 II – £1299.99
Availability for all three lenses is slated to commence from 27th February.