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Does Panasonic Really Care About Pro Photographers?

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 10/29/2025
11/10/2025
2 Mins read
A Panasonic Lumix S1R camera with two interchangeable lenses on a dark table indoors.
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This year, the only serious camera that I’ve purchased is the Panasonic LUMIX S1R II. I purchased this camera because of the higher megapixel density, good autofocus, Real Time LUT feature, and the ability to do creative things like multiple exposure. It really is one of the best cameras for real creative photographers on the market right now — especially those who don’t want to use post-production. And while they’ve been putting out really solid cameras, I have to wonder: where are the lenses?

Panasonic has made some excellent lenses for the L-mount alliance. Obviously, so too do Sigma, TTArtisan, Leica, and others. But Panasonic hasn’t release a pro-grade lens in a very long time. This makes me wonder where those optics are. They’re not even calling their LUMIX S 100-500mm F5-7.1 O.I.S a PRO lens.

Does Panasonic have more plans for pro photographers? For years, the brand has been a lot more video-centric. However, they’ve been catering a whole lot more to the photography circuit for a while now. Currently the brand has 5 pro lenses. But here’s what they need:

  • A wide angle fast aperture zoom lens
  • A 24mm fast aperture prime
  • A 35mm fast aperture prime
  • An 85mm fast aperture prime
  • A pro-grade macro lens
  • Super telephoto lenses
  • A pro grade 135mm lens of some sort
  • A super wide angle fast aperture prime lens.
  • Innovative new focal lengths

Hopefully these are all coming. They’ve already launched several very good cameras, but we’re waiting on higher end lenses. That’s not to say that what they have already is bad. It truly isn’t. But I want to see more lenses. And more importantly, I want to see unique features come to them like swirly bokeh and all.

It will be a shame if Panasonic releases pro-grade lenses and there aren’t any standout features to make them different from those of Leica and Sigma. The world doesn’t need more copycats of Canon, Nikon, and Sony. We need things that will help us to stand out from AI generated imagery right in the camera. And some unique glass could really make that happen.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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