Surprise! Truesense (ex-Kodak) announces a new Four Thirds sensor with Global Shutter (and Monochrome version too!)

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Back in 2011 Truesenseimaging was acquired by Platinum Equity through a transaction with Kodak. And one year after the acquisition they surprised us by announcing a new Four Thirds sensors! You can download the full specs as pdf (Click here). And there are some very intriguing specs. First this sensor is available in both Color and Monochrome version! I am probably among one of these few guys that would like to own a Monochrome MFT camera. The sensor also features global shutter.

Here are the key features:

  • Global shutter and rolling shutter
  • Very fast frame rate
  • High NIR sensitivity
  • Multiple regions of interest
  • Interspersed video streams

 

Resolution: 4000 x 3000
Total Resolution: 12 MP
Pixel Size µm: 4.7
Diag. mm: 23.5
Max Frame Rate (fps): 60
Configurations:
  • Monochrome
  • Color
Optical Format: 4/3

What is the strategy behind this? Are we going to see a Panasonic or Olympus camera featuring this sensor???

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Save up to $2500 on refurbished Four Thirds Lens deals (they will be 100% compatible on the next OMD?)

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[shoplink 34575 ebay][/shoplink]

Try to guess when Olympus launched the last New Four Thirds Lens? Don’t remember? It was the Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-54mm 1:2.8-3.5 II back in November 2008! And honestly I don’t recall any rumor about possible new FT Lens releases. Still, some of the FT lenses are unmatched in terms of quality by any of the current MFT offerings. So if you care about getting some of the great FT Glass here are some new deals on refurbished FT lenses that will make you save up to $2250 on the usual normal price:

Save $2250 on the Olympus Zuiko 90-250mm f/2.8 ED at [shoplink 34573 ebay]Camteacutions[/shoplink] or Cametastore. Original price (new condition) here at BHphoto.
Save $650 on the Olympus Zuiko 14-35mm f/2.0 SWD ED at [shoplink 34575 ebay]Camteacutions[/shoplink] or Cametastore. Original price (new condition) here at BHphoto.
Save $700 on the Olympus 35-100mm f/2.0 ED at [shoplink 34576 ebay]Camteacutions[/shoplink] or Cametastore. Original price (new condition) here at BHphoto.
Save $900 on the Olympus 150mm f/2.o at [shoplink 34577 ebay]Camteacutions[/shoplink] or Cametastore. Original price (new condition) here at BHphoto.
Save $300 on the Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm f/2.8 F2.8 ED at [shoplink 34578 ebay]Camteacutions[/shoplink] or Cametastore. Original price (new condition) here at BHphoto.

Many of you will now say. Why the heck should I buy a FT lens? Easy answer, those are superb lenses and will be also fully supported in terms of AF speed on the future OMD cameras. At least that is what Olympus promised us for the next future. And I am sure they are telling us the truth. And I have no hard time in recommending you good lenses. They will last forever (unlike cameras). Even Philip Bloom uses the f/2.0 Olympus lenses for his work :)

 

 

 

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New XZ-2 reviews and an Olympus APP report (on the E-M5)

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The great XZ-2 and the even cheaper XZ-1:
Our friend Robin Wong posted part two and part three of the XZ-2 review. It’s a really nice camera and Robin talents really shows how to get the most out of it. But as I told you before…that $199 you pay for the XZ-1 now (Click here) really kills the XZ-2 sales!

The new Olympus phone APP:
The Olympus Image share Application is now available on iTunes and Android store. And our reader Matt Johnston tested the APP on the E-M5:
“I just wanted to send a quick update/review of the new Oly app and a Flash Air SD. I live in the US, but bought a Flash Air card a few months ago from Japan just to play around with to see how it compared to my Eye-Fi card.  To make a long story short, I could see the potential, but was turned off by the very rudimentary web interface you had to use for everything (browsing thumbnails, viewing full sized individual pictures, and saving images to your phone/device).  Anyway, after reading your post yesterday I downloaded the app and tried to connect to the card with both my E-P2 and my E-M5… both worked great!  I don’t have any other cameras to test with, but I’m curious if this might work with other brand cameras as well? It’s quite simple and only takes a few seconds to setup.  You first have to connect to the WIFI network that the card generates.  Then just open the Oly app and it shows you thumbnails of all the pictures on the camera. From there you can either view large versions of individual photos by clicking on them, or you can select multiple photos and have your phone save them to the camera roll.  To apply art filters, you have to use a photo already saved to your phone.  The good news is that you can apply Oly art filters to any photo on your phone… including pics taken with the iPhone camera or uploaded from other cameras!
I did have two recommended improvements if you can forward them on to Oly.  First, it takes a long time to load individual, full resolution photos… I shoot RAW + full size JPEGs.  RAWs don’t show up in the app (which is good IMO), but the full resolution JPGs take 10 seconds or longer to view. That delay is also present when using the very basic web interface from the Flash Air card so I’m sure it isn’t Oly’s fault.  It also goes much, much quicker if you set your camera to generate smaller JPGs.  The problem is when you scroll to the next photo (and wait 10+ more seconds) and then scroll back… it doesn’t cache the photos you’ve already viewed.  You have to reload the photos (10+ secs each), every single time you view them!  Maybe Oly could create a cache that resets after the app is closed.  That way for each viewing session you browse quicker.  The other improvement I would love to see is to add an auto-refresh option.  If you were on a paid shoot and your client was watching the progress on an iPad, they would have to refresh the thumbnails between every shot.  Not a deal breaker, but it seems like it could easily be added.
Now to be fair, everything you can do with the Oly app is possible to do with the card by itself — namely, connecting to your smart phone/tablet, viewing thumbnails, seeing full size images, and downloading them to your device.  What the Oly app adds, is a nice interface to everything.  I almost gave up on my Flash Air card as it was so cumbersome to use via their painfully basic web interface.  Before this app came along my Flash Air was sitting unused in favor of my Eye-Fi card.  Now I can see myself using it much more often… way to go Oly!”

Thanks Matt for your report!!!

P.S.: A long list of E-PM2 cameras is sold by Cameta on Amazon (Click here) and on eBay (here on slidoo).

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Panasonic and Olympus Preorder Links with specs and price:
Special GH3 page at Amazon (Click here) and a full Olympus presentation page at Amazon (Click here).
GH3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.
35-100mm X lens at Amazon (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US.
E-PL5 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
E-PM2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
XZ-2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
60mm macro at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
12mm Black prime lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
15mm cap-lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).

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Panasonic reports six months financial results.

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If you can read the complex language of financial reports than download that Panasonic pdf file. It contains the results of the last size months and a forecast for 2013 (see screenshot on top). In very short, the situation ins’t good. TV business is going worse than ever, restructuring expenses are 11 times(!) more expensive than predicted and when it comes to digital cameras that’s what Panasonic writes:

“AVC Networks
Sales decreased by 24% to 690.0 billion yen from 913.6 billion yen a year ago. This result was due mainly to significant sales decline in flat-panel TVs, BD recorders and digital cameras. Segment profit significantly improved to 19.9 billion yen, compared with a loss of 15.7 billion yen a year ago due mainly to fixed cost reductions and restructuring effects.”

Of course Panasonic already announced a long list of actions and some of them are described in the document. I am less worried about the relative small Digital Camera business. That’s not their main core business.  Panasonic has to fix the TV business first. On the good side of their report you can notice that Panasonic is doing profit on very future oriented business like green terminology and house electronic stuff.

More info at Bloomberg.

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Panasonic losing shares in Japan. Olympus on first place.

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BCNranking (translation here) released the mirrorless market shares of the current year. I don’t speak Japanese and google translation tool isn’t good enough. So dear Japanese readers correct me quickly if I say something wrong!

As you see from the graph on top Olympus leads the market with 28.6% closely followed by Sony (23.5%), Panasonic (17.3%) and Nikon (12.8%). Panasonic managers won’t be happy to see that their shares dropped from 30% to almost the half during this year!

One more news: In October these were the most sold cameras in Japan: E-PL3 (10.6%), NEX-5N (10.3%), EOS-M (9.2%), GF5 (8.9%).

There are no such analysis for EU and US countries. Only some purely indiciative and constantly changing popularity rankings by Amazon:
US ranking (Click here): NEX-5n on top followed by the GF3.
DE ranking (Click here): NEX-6 on top (E-M5 on pos. 6).
UK ranking (Click here): Nikon 1 on top followed by the G3.
FR ranking (Click here): GF5 on top.

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GX1 deal (when is the GX2 coming?).

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GX1 gets cheaper and cheaper:
The GX1 got another small price drop and now sells with 14-42mm kit lens for $460 only at Amazon (Click here). I am certainly not the only one having noticed the price drop as it managed to get back into the first page of the most popular mirrorless cameras at Amazon (here is the ranking). At that price it is $59 cheaper than the new Panasonic GF5 camera with the same kit lens. The GX line wasn’t supposed to be above the GF line? :)
The price dropped even In Europe (See price history for Germany). At [shoplink 34544 ebay]Fotomundus[/shoplink] you can get a GX1 for 50 Euro less than last months price.

GX2 coming soon?
And now let’s talk about the possible future GX2. It has been quite for some time now. I know via sources that this is the next camera that Panasonic will announced. And we also know that Panasonic officially said (back in Spring) that they will “better define” the GX line during the year. But there is no 100% reliable info yet about the exact release date. All we heard for now is that the GX1 has the GH3 sensor and a complete new design.

More GX1 related deals:
If you buy a GX1 (or GH2 or GF5 or G5) you can save up to $200 on camera+lens at Amazon (Click here to check the deal page). Here is the detailed deal list. Just click on the camera name link to check it out:

 

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