Schneider Kreuznach joins Micro Four Thirds

Today Micro Four Thirds has a new member, Schneider Kreuznach! The press release can be found at Photography Blog, Four Thirds User, Imaging Resource, Photoscala, et al. The CEO is quoted in the press release saying "We are working intensively on a corresponding series of lenses".

This is an interesting move by Schneider-Kr as Samsung has apparently gone into nativist mode, and their other rebrando partner, Kodak, is considering to further reduce or even exit digital cameras. This essentially leaves Schneider with very little "visible" branding in the popular cameras market. But Schneider has also expanded in the SLR world - at Photokina 2010, they announced tilt shift lenses for the four popular SLR mounts (Canon, Nikon, Alpha, K).

While the press release does not mention specific products, it will be interesting to see what Schneider does in M43rds. Will they release high-end lenses? Will they rebrand existing lenses? Will they offer their expertise in behind-the-scenes products? Or will they be a paper-tiger like some of the manufacturers that joined Four Thirds in the past? As usual, only time will tell!

Since the press release did not mention any specific lenses, what type of lenses would you like Schneider to make for M43rds?