Image on top: The Olympus lens raodmap.

We just got confirmation from our sources that there will be no new Olympus m43 product announcement this month.We know Olympus plans to announce two new m43 lenses this year but I am not sure yet when this will happen (could be in November). One of the new lenses is the 50mm f/2.0 (or f/1.8 ?) macro lens ([shoplink 18415 ebay]Click here to see the current Four Thirds macro[/shoplink]). I am not sure yet about the specs of the second lens. Olympus had a fisheye lens on the roadmap but I guess they dropped that lens as there is already a Panasonic and (soon) a Samyang fisheye lens.

One more thing: Does it mean that we will not have any new m43 product soon? No, I just heard someone else could announce new m43 products. More about that this week! A third party lens maker could unveil new lenses soon. I am asking my sources to send me more info about that! Thanks!

Reminder -> Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

A small update about the Samyang 7.5mm fisheye for Micro Four Thirds. The lens should be officially announced within the next few days. P.S.: A couple of image samples are available on their website (Click here)..

P.S.: All Samyang lenses for Olympus can be found on eBay only and under seven different brand names (Click on it to see all Four Thirds lenses from the specific brand!):
[shoplink 20647 ebay]Samyang [/shoplink] [shoplink 20684 ebay]Walimex [/shoplink] [shoplink 20649 ebay]Rokinon [/shoplink] [shoplink 20650 ebay]Opteka [/shoplink] [shoplink 20651 ebay]Falcon [/shoplink] [shoplink 20653 ebay]Vivitar [/shoplink] [shoplink 20652 ebay]Bower [/shoplink]

Two days ago we posted a rumor with low credibility (FT2) that Panasonic could buy the Olympus Imaging division. External websites + some new (and completely unknown sources) told me Panasonic and Olympus are talking about that since a couple of months.

Meanwhile I asked some of my very good sources if they heard anything about that. All do say that they don’t know anything about a possible sale of the camera division to Panasonic. There is absolutely no word about that going around at Olympus. This doesn’t mean that this would not be possible as such an acquisition would only be dealt by the very top Japanese managers from Panasonic and Olympus. So only time will tell if the rumor is true or not.

As I said earlier, I hope it is a wrong rumor as I think the whole Micro Four Thirds system would lose some of their “appealing”. What do you think?

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The japanese blog Egami (Click here to read the quirky google translation) found a new Panasonic patent that displays a sort of foveon sensor. The google translation is not so good but as far as I understood that sensor has no Low Pass filter. There is a sort of “photonic crystal” that splits the light into RGB directing the single beams to three different micro sensors. Unlike the Sigma foveon which has three layers placed one under the other the new Panasonic sensor would avoid the light loss typical from foveon sensors (that’s why foveon sucks at high ISO). As usual with patents this sounds very promising. But it is a patent so there is no clue if we will ever see such a sensor in a real camera!

The next patent found by Egami (via Nexthardware) discloses a patented from Olympus that allows a flash sync speed of 1/20.000 of a second! The even more interesting news is that the technology is based on a new electronic shutter system!

Before you read the rumor: This is a rumors website. Always keep your feet on earth. In that case the rumor hasn’t been confirmed by my trusted sources so it’s based mostly on rumors from external websites!

A couple of weeks ago a trusted source told me that he wouldn’t be surprised if Olympus would sell his camera division. It was just a chat and he didn’t explain me why he thought that. In the meanwhile I got a rumor from a new source a while ago saying that Panasonic could buy the Olympus imaging division. I didn’t post that rumor simply because it came from one single unknown source. But now the rumor is spreading around the web on other websites too. So it’s time to post it with a very low credibility ranking of “FT2” (=rumor from non reliable and unknown source).

According to those rumors Panasonic is negotiating the acquisition of the imaging division from Olympus! And we have been told that Olympus first reaction was “positive”. At SLRclub (Click here) some secret Olympus source said that Olympus wants to keep their highly profitable and healthy medical business.

At that point I want to repeat once again that the rumor is unconfirmed! And if you ask my opinion, I really do hope it is NOT true!

Reminder -> Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

The image on top (Click on it to view the full size) shows the first real 12-35mm and 35-100mm samples (Source: DC.watch). Both X lenses will come within the first half of 2012. All we know now is that they are fast. Our reader “Monodrift” (Thanks!) made a [shoplink 14814 ebay]14-45mm[/shoplink] versus 12-35mm size comparison. You can click on it to see the full size image:

As you see the 12-35mm is not a lot bigger. But I do hope it is a lot faster anyway!

Click on picture to enlarge the image!

Wow! What a day! Panasonic already shared some details about the upcoming NEXT X lenses. There will be a 12-35mm and a 35-100mm fast X zooms!!!! Panasonic said they will come in 2012 and have a “large” aperture. Those are focal lengths very close to the amazing constant f/2.0 aperture lenses from Oly, the [shoplink 25118 ebay]Olympus 14-35mm f/2.0[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0[/shoplink]! But I do hops they are not that expensive!

The 14-35mm costs around $2100. Check: [shopcountry 25118].
The 35-100mm costs around $2500. Check: [shopcountry 25119].

Let’s assume the price is close to the Olympus lenses and the aperture f/2.0:

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Preorder the current X lenses:

Black 14-42mm X lens is available for preorder at Amazon (Click here).
Silver 14-42mm X lens is available for preorder at Amazon (Click here).
Black 45-175mm X lens is available for preorder at Amazon (Click here).
Silver 45-175mm X lens is available for preorder at Amazon (Click here).
Black GF3 with 14-42mm X lens at Amazon (Click here).
Red GF3 with 14-42mm X lens at Amazon (Click here).
White GF3 with 14-42mm X lens at Amazon (Click here).