Presents from Panasonic: New 25mm f/1.7 lens, $100 V-Log software upgrade for GH4 and more! (UPDATED)

posted Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 5:45 PM EDT

Panasonic brought a few surprises today with the announcement of a handful of new camera products, including a brand new 25mm f/1.7 prime lens, a trio of updated zoom lenses and an advanced software upgrade for the Panasonic GH4 that adds log video recording modes.

Starting with the new prime lens, this all-new optic joins the Panasonic family of compact-yet-bright prime lenses with fast apertures. Offering a longer focal length than their earlier 20mm f/1.7 pancake prime and shorter than the recently released 42.5mm f/1.7 portrait prime, the new 25mm f/1.7 gives shooters a classic 50mm equivalent focal length lens with a very wide, bright aperture -- and all in a package that's about two inches long and just shy of two and a half inches in diameter.

Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH

Specs-wise, the Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 is comprised of eight elements in seven groups, with two aspherical lenses and a single UHR (Ultra High Refractive Index) lens for increased sharpness and more uniform brightness through the aperture range. The 7-bladed, circular aperture diaphragm help insure pleasing background blur, and along with its small size, the 125g (4.4 oz.) weight makes it a super light and easy to carry lens.

14-42mm f/3.5-6.6 MEGA O.I.S., now with Dual I.S. compatibility

Panasonic's versatile, compact "kit" lens -- the 14-42mm f/3.5-6.6 MEGA O.I.S. -- gets a subtle, yet welcomed update. It's now Dual I.S. compatible, which means it will pair nicely with the recently announced GX8 and provide cooperative image stabilization for stills and video using both the lens's optical I.S. system as well as the GX8's sensor-shift I.S. As for the other physical characteristics, the lens is practically identical, with two aspherical elements and the same small, lightweight design.

Matte: 14-140 (left) & 45-150 (right)

Last up for the lenses, two of Panasonic's longer zoom lenses, the 14-140mm and 45-150mm receives a subtle cosmetic update to a sleek matte black finish. Otherwise, these two lenses are identical to their earlier color variants.

And now for videographers, the Panasonic GH4 has long been an extremely popular and well-versed camera for video and cinema production with its vast array of advanced features and fantastic image quality. New on the GH4 was the introduction of the Cinelike D Picture Style, which dramatically dropped down the contrast and saturation for improved color grading and other post-processing tweaks.

V-Log Comparison: Without V-Log (left) vs With unedited V-Log (right)

Advanced videographers and editors, however, prefer maximum control over the final picture and desire the maximum amount of dynamic range possible. Now, Panasonic is offering a new upgrade option for the GH4, which adds new V-Log and V-Log L options for increased dynamic range performance for video. According to Panasonic, the V-Log and V-Log L Picture Styles are designed around a Cineon gamma curve and offer 12 stops of dynamic range (an increase from the camera's original 10 stops).

Unlike most camera firmware updates, this singular option is a paid upgrade. For $99.99, users can purchase a license key for V-Log, which is then used to unlock the feature with the latest v2.3 of the GH4's firmware. See Panasonic's website for the full upgrade instruction process, or check out B&H's Product Page for pre-ordering information.

UPDATE: There appears to be a tidbit more GH4 news that slipped by us after yesterday's announcements. For our European readers, there's a new GH4 variant coming your way, dubbed the GH4R. This new Europe-only model not only comes pre-configured with the new V-Log preset modes, but also allows for unlimited video recording time! That's surely to be big news to videographers across the pond, who've long had to deal with the 29:59 video record limit for EU-imported GH4 models. In other regards, the GH4R remains identical to the earlier model. While pricing hasn't been officially announced, our friends at DPReview tell us the GH4R is expected to be in the vicinity of £1200, which is about a £150 premium over the list price of the original GH4.

As for the lenses, they are now available for pre-order at one of Imaging Resource's trusted affiliates listed below. Ordering these, or any other product, at these retailers helps support the site!