Panasonic has just announced a new lens for the upcoming PMA Digital Life Expo for the Micro Four Thirds system.

Claimed as the world’s smallest and lightest digital interchangeable fisheye lens, the new Lumix G Fisheye 8mm f/3.5 lens offers a 180-degree diagonal angle of view, providing a distinctive perspective and distortion effect.

The new lens system is more compact than the 7-14mm zoom, and is built with ten elements in nine groups with multi-coating to minimise ghosting and flare. An ED element is included to minimise chromatic aberration and provide a stable performance from close-up to infinity.

Focusing is entirely internal and the minimum focusing distance is 10 cm, with a maximum magnification of 0.2 times. Being afisheye lens, the new lens can’t accept front-mounted filters. However, a rear filter holder allows sheet filters, such as gelatin filters, to be inserted in the rear of the unit. The inclusion of a stepping motor makes  focusing  smooth and silent. The lens also features a highly reliable metal mount.

A specially designed lens hood is available as an option which means you probably have to ante up for more flare control. Pricing has not be announced but from the looks of it, the lens could be a boon for those who are into wide angle who haven’t yet already got their hands on the 7-14mm.

On the Panasonic site they have enclosed some details on the lens and resolving capability of the think and thin lines can be clearly seen. From this, the resolving power is pretty good. Just note the 20M lines, decent drop. But of course the thiner lines at 40M drops below the acceptable range. This is generally ok for a wide angle as much of the details are squashed into a small frame anyway. There are some sample images posted and to be fair, it does carry a wee bit more “curvature” of the earth with the 180 degree angle that it is able to capture. This is great if you are really looking for a lens that has such a characteristic, and should you use it creatively, the results will be quite impressive. The problem now is the price. No word yet from Panasonic on the final retail price but it won’t be cheap. This f/3.5 lens will cost roughly the same as what the 7-14mm would cost.

Another issue is the Chromatic Aberration (CA) correction that is built into Panasonic bodies. This lens may work superbly on the G series but it may start to give CA problems on Olympus bodies as can be seen in previous lenses from Panasonic. The inclusion of the ED lens is suppose to minimize the CA effect but it remains to be seen how this can be achieved on a Olympus body.

The optics from Panasonic has so far proven to be superb. Be it the 45mm, 20mm or the kit lens. This next fixed focus lens will carry the same quality expectation no doubt but for those who already have the 7-14mm, a half stop improvement isn’t going to make that much of a difference.