New Camera (pre-)reviews
Olympus XZ-1 Field Report at Luminous Landscape: “At low ISOs (up to 400) and without too much file manipulation the XZ-1 is capable of producing very acceptable image quality on up to about 11X17″ prints, and is certainly more than acceptable for web-destined images. In comparison with its primary competitors from Canon, Panasonic and Samsung, I would judge it as having a very slight edge in terms of usability though not high ISO noise.”
Direct search links to the XZ-1 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay (Click on shop name).
The Olympus XA: The smallest rangefinder camera by Konstantinos Besios (SteveHuffPhoto.com): “Of course the image quality is not a par with a Leica, but for those instances where even a small camera bag is too much to carry this little rangefinder is perfect (and the price is really a bargain !!)”
See the Olympu XA auctions on eBay (Click here).
Panasonic GF3 Hands-On Preview (Photographyblog) and first look at Amateur Photographer.
Spanish GF3 presentation video at Quesabesde.
Preorders at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay
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Recent comments
Comment from John McKay: Junky, that XA is in mint condition. I h...
Comment from Mr. Reeee: I much prefer shooting all manual lately...
Comment from tttulio: Olympus XA? Smallest RangeFinder? No way...
Comment from Jon: I have the XA and XA2 and I tend to use ...
chode
12 months ago |Why do you post pictures of an Olympus XA when it has nothing to do with micro 4/3rd rumors or cameras??
admin
12 months ago |Relax! Just for fun! it’s nice the see a bit of the companies history! A bit fundamentalist you?
chode
12 months ago |Sorry, just anxious to see some real pictures of new m4/3rds cameras and got a bit disappointed when I saw a junky old XA!
Dummy00001
12 months ago |http://www.diaxa.com/xastart.htm – it has quite a number of fans.
John McKay
12 months ago |Junky, that XA is in mint condition. I have one and it was a great camera in it’s day when I was a working news photographer. If you were trying to get a photo but didn’t want to give yourself away with a big 35mm motor drive camera the little XA was the way to go, no one suspected you were a pro with a little camera like that.
funky
12 months ago |Haha, I was wondering the same thing, keep seeing links to the XA in ebay. Not sure its link to micro four thirds. It doesn’t have interchangable lenses nor is it based on a 43rds sensor..
Inge-M
12 months ago |Olympus XA is a pearl.
Mr. Reeee
12 months ago |It’s the hipster analogue trend, dude.
The Rollei 35 was smaller than the XA! And much cooler…
fred schumacher
12 months ago |The XA is a great little camera. For years, I always had one in my pocket. It was a little hockey puck. I dropped it off a mountain once, the back popped open, I blew the sand out, and kept on taking pictures with it. I got rid of my Leica M3 after I got the XA. The 35 RC was also a good camera, although more conventional. The most popular photo I took when I was part of the Dakota Photo Documentary Project (DPDP) in 1976 was with that camera.
The greatest benefit of Olympus film cameras was their small size, quiet operation, and small lenses. While other DPDP photographers were lugging around big camera bags full of Nikon equipment, I carried all I needed in my pockets, allowing me to work much less obtrusively and also more quickly. I was not getting into the face of people with a big clacky thing. This is the direction Olympus needs to go with fourthirds: back to their roots. They will never be able to compete with Nikon/Canon head to head. Olympus’ niche is the small unobtrusive camera with small lenses. They do need an EPL body with a built in eyelevel finder on the side, like the original Pen. Too many of us are now at bifocal age.
AndyOz
12 months ago |Thanks Admin. The XA is a great camera – I own one. Nice sharp lens. If only Olympus would make a micro 43 with some design points from the XA.
Yesterday you said you were going to post some rumors about lenses from Olympus – is that going to happen today? Please dont keep us waiting too long. Is there something coming which is a HG zoom as well as the primes?
admin
12 months ago |No HG zoom!
AndyOz
12 months ago |Oh thats a shame. So what is the exciting news about lenses? Is it just the 50mm lens that coming with the 12mm?
Are there indications that Oly is at least going to release some more HG zooms and primes later in the year?
Inge-M
12 months ago |On roadmap, is the also a Fisheye lens, so maybe come soon.
A Fisheye lens is very usable i nature, mountain, valley, and a tip is all line so you not will bend, let go to senter in picture, if you not is interest in Fisheye effect.
43RC
12 months ago |The Olympus portrait lens must be something very special.
They seem to be very tight-lipped about it.
peroni
12 months ago |Agree with whatever you said
Reza
12 months ago |Funny I just bought an Olympus 35 RC, and fell in love! It’s a tad bit smaller than my E-P1, and kind of old fashioned and cool. If I’m not wrong it has only 4 aperture blades, which might make for some “distinctive” bokeh… I can’t wait to put a roll of film and go hunting!
Reza
12 months ago |Admin your user registration system doesn’t seem to work, I tried to create an account and nothing happened. Without an ID the comments are working screwy…
Ahem
12 months ago |They’re screwy when logged in as well…
Reza
12 months ago |It’s amazing with the comment system working so “screwy”, the last few posts have gathered about 600+ comments! Admin, you’re doing something right, good job. Now go fix the comment system!
admin
12 months ago |Sorry for that! I am trying to fix that
JM
12 months ago |Sending of news and rumors doesn’t seem to work (stuck at please wait in both Chrome & IE9)
Chris
12 months ago |Ha ha very funny looks like my dads old camera.
Nick Clark
12 months ago |Some amazing street shots in that XA article! Who cares if it’s not 4/3rds, it’s nice to have a break from the ranting occasionally
XA4
12 months ago |I know an old guy who carried an XA with him everywhere for 20 years. Ingenious little camera.
For 2012 Oly should turn the E-PM1 into a fixed-lens digital XA. Olympus need not follow Sony, instead, remember and channel its 35RC, XA, OM heritage.
AndyOz
12 months ago |Interesting. So based on the Olympus heritage, the model line up could be:
- Pen Mini : based off XA fixed lens large 4/3 sensor. As small as possible
- Pen Lite : cant think of any old models – maybe should just be like the current E-PL2 which sounds better specced than the E-PL3
- Pen : based off Pen F / 35RC with small EVF in top corner – rangefinder
- Pen Pro : based off OM with EVF central – high performance manual controls
That would be a good lineup. Any other ideas/wishes out there?
Mr. Reeee
12 months ago |That line-up sounds reasonable.
Let the bickering can begin about which focal length a PEN mini should have!
I don’t think a fixed lens really serves M4/3 very well. Oly would be forced to come out with at least one good pancake prime on the level of either the 14mm or 20mm.
AndyOz
12 months ago |I dont suppose anyone will come back to this thread with all the 45mm lens news. Maybe you are right Mr Reee about the Pen Mini. Perhaps it shouldnt be a fixed lens.
A fixed lens XA style camera could come later for some special anniversary. It seems like the Pen Mini and the Pen Lite (E-PM1 and E-PL3) will share the same body structure just with different features. I reckon that Oly should have made the E-PL3 and E-P3 off the same body design with flash, IBIS etc just put in some different features and specs. Then the Pen Mini should have been made as small as possible with no IBIS to really differentiate the products. Oh well we will see how they turn out.
BTW Mr Reee did you get the Voigt 25mm or are you waiting for the Leica 25mm/1.4?
Mr. Reeee
12 months ago |I much prefer shooting all manual lately, so I’m still waiting for the Voigtländer 25mm. I also want the .95 aperture. Still, I could sell it and buy the Leica 25mm and make a decent profit.
Stephen at CameraQuest sent an email last week saying that the next round of Nokton 25mm lenses will start shipping around July 2nd.
I actually went out and bought a Voigtländer Nokton 35mm f1.4 lens on Monday at Photo Village in NYC. I LOVE this thing! It’s built like a little tank and smaller diameter than the 20mm, but only a few mm longer. It’s such a pleasure to use, really sharp with great colors. It’s great street shooting setting the distance scale! It’s also got little handles on the aperture and focus rings, so coupled with the GH2′s control wheel for adjusting shutter speed, it’s incredibly easy and fluid to adjust exposure and focus while composing with the EVF!
Besides, it looks very cool on my GH2.
Some guy even stopped me on the street and said, ” Wow! Is that a prime?”
Jon
12 months ago |I have the XA and XA2 and I tend to use the latter much more due to it being less finicky tha the former. Both are great cameras though. Too bad a digital-reincarnation is AWOL.
tttulio
12 months ago |Olympus XA? Smallest RangeFinder? No way!! the Contax T was smaller and had the Zeiss lens quality you expect from Leica.
I had an XA, the distortion of the lenses makes it a joke. fun camera for the missus handbag.