would be nice to know :)

I had heard rumors of an 82mm thread on the lens. Any confirmation if this is true or not? What about wide angle and zoom range?

Hi Peter and Jaime,

It's a 13x lens with a filter diameter of 82mm. Not yet sure of the minimum apertures at full wide and full tele.

13x is a strange number is it not?

Aaron

well the lens coming with the JVC unit is fujinon 13x, but i doubt it would be as wide..

13x isn't that odd when you consider that Canon users have been wanting a 10X lens for awhile now. I think it's a fairly good compromise.

-gb-

I may be wrong, but I would think a real focus ring (not one of those infinitely spinning ones) would be a more important concern. Any word on that?

Ashley, that is a valid 110% concern!

I may be wrong, but I would think a real focus ring (not one of those infinitely spinning ones) would be a more important concern. Any word on that?

that is an imperitive element .. heres hoping that Pana listen..
U know i was Soooooooooooo close to jumping ship to JVC with this whole HD thing..
Personally i cannot fault the Leica lenses but the idea of throwing on an adapted 1/2' mount reall appealed to me.. that and the DoF issue.. the Fujinons just gave so much control and clarity, that i was very close to just ditching it all..

now im glad that Pana have extended the Tele on this.. Im also glad they are retaining the dvx type EVF... the idea of having a stat free monitor with all stats in the black areas will make a huge difference in framing and focus finding

but now we have the best of both worlds.. were talkin a top class Leica, DV/DVCPro/DVCPro HD, variable frames and resolutions, solid state as well as tape (heres hoping BOTH can be used in parrallel)
Oh and another thing, for all those DVX owners.. u dont even have to change battery stock :) this in itself will save me 1500bux..

in all, im happy with the way thng are going.. :)

Glad that y'all agree with me. I just thought I was missing something, thought I saw an adaptor for sale for the dvx100a that would limit the focus range and supposedly achieve this effect. Didn't know if, in light of things like this, a real focus was a nonissue.
For some reason, a real focus and to a lesser extent good lenses seem not to be a 'sexy' item and don't get as much attention. The way I look at, these things are like the speakers in a home theater audio system. People love to talk about total watts and THX 7.1 etc, but less attention is paid to the speakers delivering that 7.1. The speakers make more difference than anything.
A real focus is an absolute must for this cam, and lets hope Panasonic comes through with this too. It would be kind of pointless not to, but lets not freak out until we know for sure. I have faith in Jan.

For lens specs, it's the same wide angle, 4.5mm. The telephoto is what gets extended, so it's 4.5 to 58.5mm (vs. 4.5 to 45mm on the DVX). That should help get a shallower DOF effect on the long end of the lens.

No word yet on aperture.