First full Panasonic GX7 reivew posted at ePhotozine (with RAW files).

And finally the first Panasonic GX7 review has been posted at ePhotozine (Click here). They also posted the first RAW files (but how the heck open them?). The conclusion is:

The Panasonic Lumix GX7 introduces a truly unique experience thanks to the tilting electronic viewfinder, and with a new sensor the camera delivers excellent image quality, with particularly impressive noise performance beating the previous class leader at high ISO settings.

Great cam. Let’s hope the new E-M1 has some surprise we are not aware of yet. Otherwise it’s the Panasonic that will that run as best new MFT camera.

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, Henrys and Wex Deutschland, Wex UK ,and Amazon JP.
Silver GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Samys, Henrys and Wex Deutschland, WexUK.
Black GX7 body at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.
Black GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK.
Black GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.
Silver GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.

Barney Sykes about the GX7. And first Full size ISO image samples!


Panasonic Lumix GX7 vs GX1 Camera Comparison with Barney Sykes (Lumix G product manager).

GX7 preorders are still high at Amazon (ranking here). But let’s take a look to some interesting new GX7 info: On top you can watch a nice interview with Barney Sykes from Panasonic. Barney says this is the best sensor in the area “we are competing” (I guess he means MFT). And if you want to check if what he tells is true check out the first ISO Full Size image sample posted by ePhotozine (Click here). To make it easier for you I linked you to the direct E-P5 and GX7 Full size ISO images:

ISO 100 E-P5 and GX7 (actually 125 for the Panasonic).
ISO 200 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 400 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 800 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 1600 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 3200 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 6400 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 12800 E-P5 and GX7
ISO 25600 E-P5 and GX7

Of course these are JPG results and we know Olympus usually is a tiny bit better here. That said..

what camera delivers the best results?

View Results

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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, Henrys and Wex Deutschland, Wex UK ,and Amazon JP.
Silver GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Samys, Henrys and Wex Deutschland, WexUK.
Black GX7 body at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.
Black GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Henrys, Wex Deutschland, Wex UK.
Black GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.
Silver GX7 with 20mm lens at Henrys, Wex UK and Amazon Japan.

DxOmark selects the best MFT prime and zoom lenses.

Short break from GX7 news:

DxOmark (Click here) posted the table of the best prime and zoom lenses for the MFT system. As usual takes these kind of tests with a grain of salt. There are different ways of doing tests and as we have seen from the past conclusions do change from reviewer to reviewer. That said results are not really a surprise for anyone here :)

GX7 First High ISO and full size samples.


A nice GX7 preview by WhatDigitalCamera

Most websites were not allowed to post image samples taken with the new 16 megapixel Panasonic GX7 sensor. There are 55 images at Photographyblog but at Panasonic’s request, they could not provide any pictures larger than 5 megapixels. But the website SuperAdrianMe posted some full size samples on Flickr (Click here). They also posted the first basic ISO comparison test (Click here). What do you think from these early samples?

Preorders price and specs:
Silver GX7 body at Amazon US (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and Wex UK (Click here).
Silver GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and WexUK (Click here).
Black GX7 body at Wex UK (Click here).
Black GX7 with 14-42mm lens at Wex UK (Click here).
Black GX7 with 20mm lens at Wex UK (Click here).
Silver GX7 with 20mm lens at Wex UK (Click here).

Please send me more preorder links if you find them! You cna post them diretcly at Dealsrunner.com or send me an email at 43rumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

Readers stories: Lens Test Trioplan 50mm F2.9 and 100mm F2.8

The next readers story has been written by Henrik Fessler (Article originally posted on mopswerk.de). The post reviews two of the [shoplink 40414 ebay]Trioplan lenses you can find here on eBay[/shoplink].

Contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com if you have an interesting story to share on this blog. Thanks!

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Henrik Fessler:
I am not such a big friend of showing off my camera gear. Ultimately the photographer shoots the pictures, not the camera. But today i’ll make an exception.
The good thing with Micro Four Thirds is the small flange distance between sensor plane and lens mount, as compared to other camera systems. This also makes it possible to put in a metal valve (aka lens adapter) to combine these lenses with a MFT body.
This results in a multitude of possibilities to mount old lenses to a modern digital camera system.
Whether old lenses with a M42 mount, FD Canon lenses, or the Nikon mount system that didn’t change in principle for a few decades, or a couple of other mount systems long gone: With MFT (and the other compact camera systems) a plethora of body-lens combinations can be realized.
I did discover two lenses that are roundabout 50 years old by now: It’s the 50mm and 100mm Trioplan lenses from Meyer/Gˆrlitz (so they were produced in the former GDR): On the inside you’ll find there -aside from lots of air- only three lenses giving the trioplan its name.

Hence there’s some funky specs:

  • Very lightweight, long focusing distance (~100cm for the 100mm)
  • Is as long as it suggests: 10cm length and a focal length of 100mm
  • Not so pricey, you can get them at around 150(+/-50)Ä leaving not too deep marks in your wallet. The M42 Version is more expensive, but it’s also available with an Exacta mount, for which MFT adapters are also available
  • A light metal lens that pleases your hands as well
  • The resolution specs (link to MTF measurements provided below) look quite … ahm sort of vintage :wink:
  • But now for the most important thing: Monster BOKEH :mrgreen:! I am sure: If Monet and the other impressionists would have owned a Trioplan, then we wouldn’t have paintings from them but shots made by the Trioplan!

Sure it’s up to your taste, whether you’ll find these crazy aberrations such as
happy aperture circles and heavy flares pleasing. But for my taste there’s nothing better around to shoot off flowers’n twigs into a fascinating Bokeh cosmos. With the 100mm Trioplan (200mm full frame equivalent on a Micro Four Third Camera) there’s nothing much more to photograph than flowers’n twigs, but it excels at it.
With the new focal length reducers available it might also be worth thinking about adapting this lens to these new possibilities of the MFT system (with a focal length 0,7 reducer the Trioplan 100mm F2.8 would become full frame equivalent of 140mm F2.0 lens :wink:)
A long story cut short: look at a Trioplan sample shot for yourself, whether you’ll find the pictures of this impressionist lens as fascinating as i do:

And if you like the tech part of photography and you want to dive into the geeky side of photography: I also have measured the MTF curves of this lens (alongside with the 50mm Trioplan lens) in my lens measurement test of the Trioplan Lenses … in the end it’s not comparable to today’s quality levels, but in the end it will be the picture, that makes the difference …

Check out the current [shoplink 40414 ebay]Trioplan lens eBay acutions (Click here)[/shoplink].

UPDATE: E-P5 sensor gets DxOmarked. And first $150 off at CameraLand

UPDATE: We just got notified by DealsRunner.com that there are two Black E-p5 superkits (with 17mm 1.8 and VF-4) in Stock with a $150 discount at [shoplink 40585 ebay]CameraLand (Click here)[/shoplink]. P.S: DOn’t worry about the one wrong picture you see on top. They say they uploaded the wrong pic for mistake. The seller is super trusted!

The Olympus E-P5 sensor just got tested at DxOmark (Click here) and as expected it delivers the same kind of performance of all other Olympus 16 megapixel cameras (and same performance as the GH3). The new PEN is certainly a nice camera but the DxO team writes:

“With the market moving towards smaller, highly portable cameras featuring APS-C format sensors, Olympus needs to constantly reassert the advantages of the MFT format.”

I do hope the new GX7 camera will mark a clear new advancement in terms of image quality performance. it certainly delivers a great advancement in terms of features (in body IS, built-in EVF and so on). Meantime the E-P5 ins’t a hotseller according to the Amazon US mirrorless ranking (Click here). Same story for the German ranking and UK ranking.

New Olympus 17mm and Panasonic G6 reviews.

EOSHD Panasonic G6 test (plus GH3 comparison shots) from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

The Panasonic G6 got tested by Andrew at EosHD (Click here):

“Although it doesn’t match the stills and raw video quality coming from the Canon 5D Mark III (nor is it full frame) for $650 you can’t expect it too – yet the G6 gives generously and it has put a smile on my face. The GH2 is back! And for $650 it is better than ever.”

Photographyblog (Click here) tested the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens and writes:

“Overall, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.8 is a huge step up from the pancake-style M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8, being sharper, faster and quicker to focus, while offering better build quality and more features in a slightly bigger and heavier – but still tiny and lightweight – package. This does come at a hefty price premium though, with the new lens being about 70-90% dearer.”