Panasonic officially announces the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 lens

Yesterday at CES in Las Vegas, Panasonic officially announced the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 lens for Micro Four Thirds. With an equivalent focal length of 85mm and a fast maximum aperture of f/1.2, it's both a perfect portrait lens and a superb low-light picture taker. The Power O.I.S. image stabilizer will further help reduce shake-induced blur, while the manual aperture ring will surely go well with the retro-loving crowd.

Before you get all excited about it, though, we need to inform you that the lens won't exactly be cheap once it becomes available in the first quarter of 2014: it'll set you back as much as US$1,599.

If you're still interested though, here are the full tech specs of the lens:

• Focal length: 42.5mm (85mm equivalent)
• Max. aperture: f/1.2
• Min. aperture: f/16
• 9 rounded aperture blades
• 14 lens elements in 11 groups, 2 aspherical, 1 ED element, 1 UHR element
• Min. focus distance: 50 cm (19.7 in.)
• Dimensions (L x D): 77 x 74 mm (3.02 x 2.91 in.)
• Weight: 425 g (0.94 lb)