New Olympus E-PL2, XZ-1 and Panasonic GF2 reviews

Imaging Resource (Click here) tested the Olympus XZ-1: “Olympus has entered the flagship digicam fight with a winner. It’s learned from its competitors, avoiding the brick in favor of an almost too svelte box, adding a manual control with the lens ring, including a pop-up flash and a hot shoe, avoiding the noise of a 14-megapixel sensor for the sanity of a 10-megapixel sensor, delivering a versatile zoom range that starts wide enough, and concentrating on optical performance.”
Also the polish website Optyczne (Click here to read the google english translation) posted an XZ-1 review
ThePhoBlographer (Click here) is continuing the Olympus XZ-1 field review: “The camera’s focus never failed at all, which leads me to conclude that even in the normal focusing mode, it will be able to capture most things that users will want to take photos of. ”
Check price and availability of the XZ-1 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 19904].

Photoreview Australia (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2: “Overall performance for the review camera was similar to the E-PL1 we reviewed just over a year ago. The review camera’s metering was still biased to favour shadows over highlights. Highlight clipping wasn’t as bad as we found with the E-PL1, although it was quite important to meter on a mid-tone area in subjects to avoid over- or under-exposure.”
Check price and availability of the E-PL2 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 18844].

Blog.Paran (Click here) compared the Panasonic GF2 and Samsung NX100 image quality.
Check price and availability of the GF2 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 17361].

New Olympus E-PL2 and Four Thirds lens reviews

[shoplink 21542][/shoplink] ePhotozine (Click here) is one the very few website still reviewing Four Thirds lenses. Tehy just posted their Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD lens test: “Very few lenses give as solid a performance in all areas as this lens. As it is sharp from wide open, it allows the relatively bright maximum aperture to be used to great advantage. Although the price may be higher than other alternatives, this is a premium lens that provides premium performance and if quality matters, it may well be worth the extra money.”
Check out the 50-200mm lens price at [shopcountry 21542].

Techradar (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2: “The E-PL2’s Live Guide also doesn’t explain how the camera settings are changed, it merely indicates their impact. This means that novices photographers aren’t encouraged to progress on to more advanced shooting mode such as aperture or shutter priority and to explore more of the control available to them. This is a shame as the E-PL2 provides plenty of control and opportunity for customisation. While it cannot quite match the image quality from an APS-C format DSLR all round, the E-PL2 produces high quality images. The level of detail present in low sensitivity images is high and noise control at the higher settings is impressive.”

Also Photoreview Australia (Click here) posted an E-PL2 review: “Overall performance for the review camera was similar to the E-PL1 we reviewed just over a year ago. The review camera’s metering was still biased to favour shadows over highlights. Highlight clipping wasn’t as bad as we found with the E-PL1, although it was quite important to meter on a mid-tone area in subjects to avoid over- or under-exposure. Autofocusing was noticeably faster than we found with the E-PL1 and accurate in most conditions, although it slowed markedly in very low light levels.”
Check out the E-PL1 price at [shopcountry 18844].

New GF2, 14mm lens and XZ-1 reviews

[shoplink 17361][/shoplink] Our friends over at Quesabesde just published the full Panasonic GF2 review (Click here to read the google english translation). The review starts with an almost undeniable truth (attention google translated text!): “keep one thing very clear: the miniaturization has also affected the philosophy of the model, now more oriented to new users that experienced photographers.“..”A simpler and smaller camera is not what many expected, but we must recognize that their potentially commercially speaking, can be mostly targeted at all those users making the transition from a compact and want something of higher quality but much larger .“…”Moreover, during the time we spent with this camera has proved an excellent and inseparable companion for those days when simply too lazy to carry all the equipment.”
Quesabesde also tested the new Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens: “Made the relevant warnings, the performance of this light fixed lens (the official price is around 400 euros) is correct, but not great or as good as expected from a fixed lens. Although we have no complaints in terms of contrast, resolution and control of aberrations, distortion and vignetting especially when we use the maximum aperture are somewhat excessive.”
Direct links to the Panasonic GF2: [shopcountry 17361].
Direct links to the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5: [shopcountry 16258].

Geek.com (Click here) tested the Olympus XZ-1: “overall, the Olympus XZ-1 is a fantastic camera if you are looking for a serious compact. It’s fun to use and takes fantastic images. That noted, the video needs work and if you want something this size you should seriously be considering Micro Four Thirds. If you want to stick with a fixed lens I’d recommended the XZ-1 over the Canon G12 or the LX-5. The S95 has a size and price advantage so that will come down to user preference.”
Click those direct links to check out the XZ-1 price and availability: [shopcountry 19904].

DxOmark: Fuji X100 sensor outperforms the best m43 sensors


How does the Fuji sensor perform against the best m43 sensors? According to DxOmark (Click here) the Fuji can deliver better results in all measured aspects (Color depth, Dynamic range and ISO performance).  A bit surprising to see that the older [shoplink 14826]Panasonic GH1[/shoplink] is the best m43 camera here. Anyway, you have also to take into consideration other aspects of the camera. DxOmark measures the RAW performance of the sensor (not the .jpg results). And if you need decent video quality nothing beats the GH cameras. The main “advantage” of the X100 is the hybrid viewfinder and (if you like it too) the classic design and button layout. But it’s also an expensive fixed lens camera only. Price on [shoplink 19929 eBay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] is crazy high. Preorders with a bit more “affordable” prices are available at J&R (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).

Let’s cross the finger that Fuji will join m43. We need other sensor makers to put some pressure on Panasonic!

—
P.S.: If you are located in US than you definitely should take a look on those GH1 deals:
1) Panasonic GH1 with 14mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $364. and if you would buy it separately with the GH1 it would cost you a total of $764. With that deal you save $64!
2) Panasonic GH1 with 20mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $399. You save $99!
3) Panasonic GH1 with 45-200mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $349. You save $100!
4) Panasonic GH1 with 14-45mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $359. You save $90!
5) Panasonic GH1 with 14-42mm lens for $499 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $199. You save $100!

New Olympus E-PL2 and full Micro Four Thirds linup reviews

[shoplink 18844][/shoplink]

There are two new [shoplink 18844]Olympus E-PL2[/shoplink] reviews.

The polish website Optyczne (Click here to read the english translation) tested the E-PL2. In their final score the E-PL2 earns 52 points which is much more than what the Samsung NX100 (45 points) and the Sony NEX-5 (45 points) earned.
Also Peterwestphoto (Click here) tested the E-PL2: “How good is the E-PL 2? For my wife, it’s a 10 out of 10. She puts the camera in AUTO with the standard 14-54mm lens and she’s a happy camper. For me, I start with the camera on AUTO (but I’m ready to go to APERTURE, SHUTTER PRIORITY or PROGRAM mode) with the 17mm pancake lens and the 9-18mm and 14-54mm plus the 40-150mm (80mm to 300mm 35mm equivalent) telephoto and maybe the 9-18mm and 150-300mm super zoom and I’m ready to travel.”
Click those diretc links to check the E-PL2 price at [shopcountry 18844].

Neocamera (Click here) made a full Micro Four Thirds lens test: “In terms of performance all is not perfect though, nor did we expect it to be for such extreme compactness. What we see is that is most M.Zuiko lenses are really strong performers at the center of the frame, even at their maximum aperture. Corners softness is a notable problem which is consistently more pronounced near wide-angle, probably a side-effect de designing lenses with such narrow barrels. It is important to know that any form of softness is visible in proportion to display size. So, corner softness which can be seen at 24×18″ may not be visible at 12×9″.”

Reminder: Those are the current Olympus m43 lenses:

  • Zuiko 9-18mm F/4-5.6 ED  ([shopcountry 14818])
  • Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 ED ([shopcountry 14816])
  • Zuiko 14-150mm F/4-5.6 ED ([shopcountry 14800])
  • Zuiko 17mm F/2.8 ([shopcountry 14798])
  • Zuiko 40-150mm F/4-5.6 ED ([shopcountry 15864])
  • Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 ED ([shopcountry 15861])

A Fuji X100 review made by a GH2 owner (First X100 on Amazon for $4,000)

I just noticed two things on Amazon. First a third party reseller is trying to cheat you by selling the Fuji X100 for….$4,000!!! Click here to see that on Amazon. The second news is that a current Panasonic GH2 owners posted a Fuji X100 review made from a m43 user perspective (Click here to read the full review on Amazon). You might be interested to hear what he thinks!

“The [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] was my first exposure to an electronic viewfinder (EVF) and despite its real limitations when working in sub-optimally lighted conditions, I appreciated the ability of the EVF of the GH2 to display information that an OVF could not display. I decided to add a [shoplink 14796]Panasonic 20mm f/1.7[/shoplink] and [shoplink 16258]14mm f/2.5 lens[/shoplink] and was happy with the resulting setup which was even more compact and lighter than my [shoplink 21426]Nikon D3100[/shoplink] and [shoplink 21427]35mm f/1.8G DX[/shoplink] lens. While the image quality of the Nikon D3100 was still better than the GH2, the smaller lighter size of the GH2 and its excellent video capabilities made it my choice for many situations.

Then came the [shoplink 16841]Fujifilm X100[/shoplink]. Combining the small compact size of the GH2 and its compact prime lenses plus incorporating the advantages of both the optical viewfinder of the D3100 and the electronic viewfinder of the GH2, I became seriously interested in the X100. The fact that the lens was not interchangeable was not an issue for me as the X100 lens is a 23mm f/2.0 – the perfect focal length as far as I was concerned. The 35mm equivalent of 35mm would have been my favorite focal length with the D3100 and the GH2 but neither Nikon nor Panasonic makes a compact and light prime lens that has a 35mm equivalent focal length of a 35mm. That the X100 lens was also a fast f/2.0 lens was definitely an ace in favor of the X100. While cleaning the sensor of my [shoplink 21428]D700 [/shoplink], I realized another reason why the non-interchangeable lens nature of the X100 was a non-issue. With a non-removable lens, the X100 will likely not need any sensor cleaning at all, I happily realized. Yes!

Viewed sideways, the X100 was considerably smaller and thinner than the D3100 with the 35mm f/1.8GDX lens and still substantially thinner than the GH2 with the 20mm f/1.7 lens. The X100 wins against the two others on this point.

The GH2 ranks lower than the X100 and D3100 in image quality and with the X100 being thinner and having both OVF and EVF and with my preferred focal length lens, the X100 is now my first choice for a small and light compact camera.”

P.S.: The first non asian Fuji X100 is sold by the French dealer Selecttoy on [shoplink 21430 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Hope this is a good sign that the X100 will be soon in Stock in eruopean and american stores too.

Seb Farges GH2 videos taken with the Nikkor 10mm and Canon 13mm.

Seb Farges is a film director who uses the [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink]. And he particularly likes to use cheap third party lenses. The video on top has been made using the C-mount Canon 35mm 1.2 and Cine-NIKKOR 10mm 1.8 lenses. I like it a lot! One more new video made with the C-mount Canon and the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 can be seen here: http://www.vimeo.com/21228832

Look for C-mount Canon 35mm 1.2 lens auctions on [shoplink 21394 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Look for Cine-NIKKOR 10mm 1.8 lens auctions on [shoplink 21395 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 is available at [shopcountry 16258].

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