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Four Thirds Lens owners will be very interested to se Robin Wongs E-M1 FT Lens test (Click here). He tested these four FT lenses and you can see the results on the video I embedded on top:

1) Olympus ZD 7-14mm F4 ([shoplink 41751 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])
2) Olympus ZD 14-35mm F2 SWD ([shoplink 41752 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])
3) Olympus ZD 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 II ([shoplink 41753 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])
4) Olympus ZD 50mm F2 macro ([shoplink 41754 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])
5) Olympus ZD 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 SWD ([shoplink 41755 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])
6) Olympus ZD 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 (non-SWD) ([shoplink 41755 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink])

And the conclusion is:

“The focusing speed of Four Thirds lenses on the E-M1 is NOT as fast as how they are on DSLR E-5, E-3 or E-30. It may not have fulfilled my expectations, but in all seriousness, the focusing speed was FAR from disappointing. In comparison to previous focusing on any micro Four Thirds camera, the focusing speed on E-M1 has increased by quite a far leap, and is now very fast and reliable. For some lenses, the focusing speed was very close to the DSLR E-5. The fastest focusing lens out of the series tested was undoubtedly the ZD 14-35mm f2 SWD lens”

Robin writes that the reason why the E-M1 cannot match the E-5 performance is:

“Looking at Olympus DSLR E-5, it has 11 point AF, and each point has TWIN CROSS sensor, meaning FOUR lines of phase detect sensor were installed in each point to maximize the focusing potential. Looking at the specifications of the new Phase Detect in E-M1, it was not the same, and rather completely different. It has 37 selectable points, which covered quite a large area of the frame. Now here is the main difference, the AF points are NOT Twin Cross, in fact, they were not Cross points at all. Again, knowing these facts, to expect the autofocusing performance to match DSLR E-5, was starting to look more and more difficult to happen.”

I guess most FT Lens owners are not surprised by these results. Already Dpreview mentioned that the AF wasn’t as fast as on the E-5. We may need an E-M2 or E-M7 before we see an AF performance as fast as on the E-5!
Please take time to read the full test at Robin Wong’s site (Click here).
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Preorder Links:
Dedicated page at Amazon.
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.

On that youtube video (Click here) you can see the E-7 prototype. it’s an official Olympus video where the E-M1 creators talk about the camera (found via Fotopolis via Phototumors). I guess some 43rumors reader would love to have an E-7 too :)

New E-M1 tests:
UPDATED: Olympus Magazine issue with the E-M1.
UPDATED: Fashion Photos with the E-M1
Full Size Image samples at SystemKameraForum.
Studio shots at Imaging Resource.
12-40mm lens review by Ming Thein.
An In progress review by Gordon on CameraLabs.
Olympus UK event pics by Implausibleblog on FB.
E-M1 vs E-M5 manual comparison at Seldomescenephotography.
German report of the E-M1 event in Castle Leslie by Pen And Tell (part one and part two).

Hardcore MFT fanboys can also buy the just launched new MFT bag from Olympus! As you can see on the picture it has a real MFT mount on it:

Image courtesy: ePhotozine.

Preorder Links:
Dedicated page at Amazon.
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.

Image courtesy: ePhotozine

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This what you can expect to find inside your E-M1 if a truck rolls over your camera :) This picture belong to a set of exploded E-m1 images posted by ePhotozine (Click here). They also posted a panning video test on youtube and a 10fps sample. Edmond Terakopian shared some Image samples and Olympus press event pics at Castle Leslie on Flickr (Click here).

Robin Wong (Click here) posted the second part of his ongoing E-M1 review (Image Sharpness, Handling and Continuous Autofocus with Tracking). You can also download the full size test and image samples.

And our reader BLI (Thanks!) just noted an important change at Dpreview AF first impression article. Dpreview originally suggested that the AF of 43 lenses was *slower* on the E-M1 than on the E-5. It now seems like they have changed their opinion: they state that their first claim was based on “memory” of using E-5, not actual comparison. After reusing 43 lenses on the E-5, they tend to suggest equally fast AF for 43 lenses.

Preorder Links (updated with Amazon UK and ES):
Dedicated page at Amazon.
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.

Let’s take a break from Olympus news! Panasonic just posted that youtube video with Ian Barry. Great video!

There are also four new camera reviews from Photoxels, Focus Numerique (French), Fotovideo (Dutch) and Photographyblog. Photographyblog rates the camera as Essential and writes:

In short the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 is one of our favourite cameras of 2013, judging it against both its compact system and DSLR competition.

Focus Numerique writes that up to ISO 3,200 there is little difference between the GX7 and the Olympus E-P5. But if go higher the GX7 shows a better performance.

GX7 preorder list (Click on store name to open the GX7 price, specs and preorder page):
Silver GX7 body at Amazon US, BHphoto, Adorama, Samys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK , Amazon JP.
Silver GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Samys, Henrys, Wex Deutschland, WexUK, Amazon UK.
Black GX7 body at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan.
Black GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK, Amazon UK.
Black GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan.
Silver GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan.

E-M1 unboxing video by Damian McGilliCuddy.

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Let’s catch up with some new E-M1 tests:

Mig Thein (Click here) posted the second part of his ongoing E-M1 review and made a JPEG comaprison between the E-M1, D600 and E-M5:

What I do notice though is the highlight rolloff of the E-M1 seems to be the best of the three, though it shares the densest shadows with the E-M5; the E-M5′s highlights are a bit dull, and the D600 seems to clip abruptly. Differences in native tonal response? Probably. Though the two M4/3 cameras are pretty close on resolution, I’d give the E-M1 a hair in acuity and microcontrast; it must be a mix of the lack of AA filter and new image processing engine; fine detail just doens’t seem as coarse as the E-M5. The D600 is clearly resolving a little bit more than the other two – look at all of the number plates – but it’s really surprisingly quite close.

Also DSLRmagazine (google translation here) posted an E-M1 and E-M5 ISO comparison. And they write that the difference is noticeable

More new E-M1 tests:
Full size image samples can be downloaded at Cameras.reviewed.com.
DCfever (google translation here) posted an E-M1 test.
Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 40-150mm f/2.8 Hands-on Photos at Photographyblog.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Photos at Photographyblog.

Yesterdays most clicked links by 43rumors readers. Stats via GetClicky

I just checked my stats to see what link to E-M1 (p)reviews got more clicked. And to my surprise Robin Wong’s E-M1 preview got more clicks than the preview at Dpreview. (Stats via GetClicky). And also Ming Thein and Pekka Potka did quite well. Amazing to see how one man blog can beat a huge website owned by Amazon :) Well done Robin!

Preorders in US and Europe (Click on the store name to read price and specs):
Dedicated page at Amazon.
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.

I guess most of you already forgot that there is a new GF camera. And many months after the official release the camera still isn’t in Stock in USA (see Amazon or BHphoto). And than companies complain that mirrorless isn’t selling well :)

Anyway, there are new GF6 review to read. Not only, there are actually new reviews on all G cameras:
Panasonic GF6 review at CameraLabs, Trustedreviews and Pixinfo.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G6 Review by DigitalPhotographySchool.
Panasonic G5 review at Photographic Central.
Panasonic GH3 review at Imaging Resource.

Reminder: one more new GX camera will come within the next few months! And I am certainly not talking about the just announced GX7 :)

Belfast SLR Magic 17mm T1.6 (prototype) on 5 axis stabilization OMD E-M5 from Seb Farges on Vimeo.

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There is a new SLR Magic MFT lens coming. The SLR Magic 17mm T1.6 CINE lens will be available in Spring 2014 for $499 USD or $449 EUR. Seb Farges tested the pre-production version and posted his early thoughts on Vimeo.

Current SLRmagic lenses for Micro Four Thirds:
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR magic Cine 12mm T/1.6 Lens at Adorama (Click here).
SLR Magic 25mm T0.95 at Adorama (Click here).
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Noktor SLRmagic 50mm on [shoplink 25691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] SLR Magic Pin Hole Lens at Adorama (Click here).