Today Panasonic officially announced the Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 lens (the development of that lens was announced in October last year). The price of the lens is $599 and it will be available in black and silver. Shipping will start in June.
From the press release:
The new lens system comprising of 9 elements in 7 groups uses 3 aspherical lenses. The aspherical lenses suppress spherical aberration and distortion effectively while enabling the lens unit to be made smaller.
Panasonic's Nano Surface Coating technology is adopted to minimize the reflection at entire visual light range (380nm-780nm) resulting in the super clear picture quality by avoiding ghost and flare.
The lens incorporates a superior inner focus system, which enables excellent resolution and contrast from close-up to infinity. The inclusion of a newly developed stepping motor makes the focusing action smooth, silent and quicker for use in both photo and video recording.
Notably the performance of AF is by far superior to the phase-difference AF when fast lenses with a smaller F value are used. It is also compatible with the sensor drive at max.240 fps to take maximum advantage of the high-speed AF of LUMIX G cameras.
The LEICA DG SUMMILUX 15mm / F1.7 ASPH. comes equipped with aperture ring and AF/MF switch for direct, intuitive operation. Furthermore, the robust metal design of LEICA DG SUMMILUX 15mm / F1.7 ASPH., including the hood, is highly reliable and durable for repeated exchange of the lens.