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Silver Olympus E-P3 with 17mm lens

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Lenses

Viewfinder

On top you see a new small picture leak. Again, it’s not me doing those small leaks startegy. But let’s talk about one of the  he real innovation of the new E-M5, the five axis stabilization. I got some details from sources that explains how this will work. Until now the Olympus image stabilization compensated for “two kinds of rotary movement….yaw and pitch“. But in reality the camera shake is caused by five different motions. The new five axis IS will also correct “horizontal shift“, “vertical shift” and “rolling motion“. The system is perfect for macro and shooting while moving.

No other camera manufacturer did something like that until today. That is certainly one of the areas were Olympus is the leader.

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USA deal:
The Fuji X PRO 1 is still the most requested camera at Amazon (Click here). But right behind it you can find the Olympus E-PL1 (Click here) which now sells for $279 with lens. And it’s even $50 cheaper at Cameta (Click here).

And also Kowa (Click here) will show some new m43 lens at the CP+ show in Yokohama. These are the lenses:
12mm f2.0 4/3 “LM12XC (110,000 yen 4,450)
16mm f2.0 4/3 “LM16XC (100,000 yen 8,150)
25mm f2.0 4/3 “LM25XC (90,000 yen 5,550)
35mm f2.0 4/3 “LM35XC (90,000 yen 2,400)
50mm f2.0 4/3 “LM50XC (90,000 yen 300)

Don’t know if this are newly designed lenses or lenses based on current Kowa C-mount lenses (here on eBay).

So it’s all about Olympus now!

I first thought this is just a super well made collage of the three mini leaked pictures but de facto it is not. It’s a true image and probably the right original image. I have more news to post soon. Stay tuned on 43rumors today, tomorrow and the next days

The next rumor is about Panasonic…

Again for my European friends: Watch out the new refurbished items at Olympusmarket (Click here). They have all new E-PM1, E-PL3 cameras on auction!

That it is a Hungarian website (mlzphoto.blog.hu) leaking new pieces of E-M5 images! Those are 100% real images of the camera. That is the maximal resolution available. For the first time you can see the back of the camera and the hot shoe. The hot shoe over the viewfinder looks a bit clunky, or better…like a Transformer Robot

Something else. I am completely NOT suprised to see that the Fuji X PRO 1 (here to preorders) is current most (pre)ordeed mirrorless cameras at Amazon (Click here). As you see innovation pays back. Hope it will be so with the E-M5 too! via Fujirumors (thanks Stefan)

UPDATE: One more picture:

I finally sleep 10 hours and I am a bit more relaxed and “lucid” today. Yesterday I had to work at -15 Grad Celsius and than we had all those sensor rumors and discussions. I hope I can give you soon more updates about the image quality. The only thing I can tell you know is that a trusted sources (not Olympus marketing guys) tested the camera and said video quality is better than GH2 and image quality is definitely improved in JPEG (he didn’t test RAW). Of course those test had been made by a single person and you know that can be very subjective. So forget discussions about who made the sensor, how good/bad are the specs….we have to see the real images to see if can be happy or not!

Ok, let’s start to talk about a very good news. Olympus will announce two new Micro Four Thirds lenses that will be available early summer:

1) The 75mm f/1.8. It has a metal design. I haven’t seen that lens yet but I guess it has a similar 12-50mm finishing. It’s a perfect portrait lens!
2) The 60mm f/2.8 macro is weather sealed like the E-M5 body and has a close focusing distance of 0.19m.

I have no info about the price yet but those are definitely nice addition to the already good looking Micro Four Thirds lens range.

For my European friends: Watch out the new refurbished items at Olympusmarket (Click here). They have all new E-PM1, E-PL3 cameras on auction!

Personal note: Thanks for all discussion we had yesterday. Will learn from your critics and suggestions. I already have taken some good decisions. Will tell you more about that after the E-M5 announcements. Thanks!

A short break from rumors. There are two REAL news to report

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 for Four Thirds:
Olympus hasn’t unveiled any new Four Thirds lens for a very long time now. But Samyang is making their homework and released an amazing 24mm f/1.4 prime lens. And it is now shipping! That’s the official press release from sent to me by Samyang:
“Optics of the lens has been constructed based on the system of 13 lenses arranged in 12 groups. It should be noted that four lenses has been made of the low-dispersion glass (ED), while two another are aspherical lenses. We have also employed multi-layered and anti-reflective coatings of UMC type adding to the perfect light transmission. Samyang 24 mm F1.4 ED AS IF UMC has been designed to work with most popular reflex cameras produced by renown manufacturers and equipped with small-image sensors
or smaller. The lens will be available with a mount for the following systems: Canon, Four Thirds, Nikon AE, Pentax, Samsung NX and Sony Alpha.
Warranty
36-months guarantee is provided for Samyang 24mm 1:1.4 ED AS IF UMC.
Price
599 EUR gross – mount: Canon, Four-thirds, Pentax, Samsung NX and Sony”

I don’t know yet where you can preorder the lens. You can find Samyang lenses for Olympus on eBay (Click here) and branded as Rokinon at BHphoto (Click here).

Kenko 400mm f/8.0 for Micro Four Thirds:
You can now read the full specs of the new 400mm Kenko lens at Kenko Japan (Click here).

Here are some new camera specs:

1.44 million dot viewfinder. Same specs as the VF-2 but with new “tweaks” -> Olympus seems to love tweaking…sensor and EVF
Fastest AF of any mirrorless AND DSLR camera!
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 or Jpeg motion recording
9fps without the super fast AF. 4.2 with super fast AF enabled.
5-axis image stabilisation
610 million dot 3 inch OLED screen tilted by max. 80° upwards or max. 50° downwards
HLD-6 external battery grip
MMF-3 Four Thirds mount adapter
FL-600R electronic flash
Comes in a silver or black body.
In Stock in April 2012 for 1099.00 Euro ($1200 Dollars in USA) or with 12-50mm kit lens for 1,299.00 Euro ($1450)

That’s 500 Dollar less than the Fuji X PRo 1 ($1699 at Amazon).  $400 more than the GH2 ($800).  Will it sell well at that price? Everything depends form the final REAL image and video quality.

UPDATE: It has also “3D tracking for improved moving object tracking performance”

Stay tuned! More rumors coming soon!

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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I just learned a couple of things with the upcoming Olympus release. While the rumors I reported here are almost any time correct the perception and meaning of the used words are sometimes very different:

1) Olympus marketing words:
I talked with my sources and it looks like Olympus marketing uses big words when describing the new camera performance but de facto they compare the E-M5 with their own current Olympus cameras. So when they say the sensor has an “extended dynamic range” we have to keep in mind that Olympus has a different idea than we have when using those words. We tend to imagine much more than what Olympus is really delivering to us. It’s like when Steve Jobs said “this is our best product ever”. An Android phone can have better specs but for Apple the newest iPhone is always the best.

2) The way to present rumors:
There is a discrepancy between what I write and the perception of many readers. Example: When I got the rumor about the sensor having an “extended dynamic range” I started to talk about possible sensor and technology scenarios. As you know I always said I don’t know how image quality improvement has been archived or what sensor is used (a part that it has 16 megapixels). The thing is that I didn’t “calculate” that this would increase the “emotional” side of the story and lead you to an eventual disappointment. In summary to much guesses and fantasy discussions tend to discredited me even if I made it clear that this are just discussions based on no-facts.

So I learned from this and I will now 100 times make you clear that one thing is Olympus marketing statements and rumors, another story is reality.

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