Our reader Mistral (Thanks!) found the following news via NHK and translated it for us:

“Sony and Olympus announced yesterday September 14th that they have entered into exclusive negotiations to conclude a capitalistic partnership.

–    Olympus discussed with several potential partners but eventually chose Sony
–    Sony will invest ¥50bn (i.e. €485m or $640m) in Olympus
–    Olympus and Sony will set up a joint-venture to develop medical devices of the next generation, such as high definition endoscopes with video and 3D technology
–    in order to leverage Olympus’s business of digital cameras, which is in a slump (literally: 不振), Olympus and Sony will promote cooperation and jointly develop some components

Both parties expect to sign a definitive agreement within a month.”

If that news is true than I guess there will be more Sony technology in future Olympus cameras. Not just sensor (see [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink]) but also OLED viewfinder technology, video knowledge and so on…

Genesis from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

I am a big fan of Philip Bloom and now I like him even more after he posted the first video shot on the new Panasonic GH3 :) More info can be read on his blog: http://philipbloom.net/2012/09/15/genesis/.He writes: “What I can say is it’s a massive step up from the previous model and has a superb 72mb/s All-I codec which is a world away from the compressed as hell AVCHD codec that we are used to on many cameras and on all their previous G series cameras.”

By the way. here is the original GH3 video leaked on Friday:

You see Bloom shooting with the GH3!

Thanks Philip for sharing your video!

On top you can see a new picture of the Olympus XZ-2. It has a new 12 Megapixel 1/1.7 inch sensor. The lens is 28-112mm f/1.8-2.5. It has a 920.000 dot 3 inch tiltable screen. Full HD, touch AF and for sale in October at 549 Euro

Meantime Digicaminfo also wrote that the The EPL5 and EPM2 will have the same 460k dots 3 inch screen but the one of the E-PL5 can be tilted.

UPDATE: These are the price info for Europe I got from a trusted source. Lepidi yesterday wrote that the Black 12mm lens would cost 899 Euro while the trusted source says it is 999.  There may be a difference between France and the rest of Europe:

E-PM2 14-42 Kit €599,-
E-PL5 14-42 Kit €699,-
XZ-2 €549.-
15mm f/8.0 €79
12mm f/2.0 Black Edition €999,-
60mm f/2.8 €599,-

Speaking about Europe…[shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink] added new refurbished Oly stuff that includes for example:
[shoplink 33437 ebay]Black Olympus XZ-1[/shoplink] [shoplink 33440 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with kit lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 33441 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL2 with kit lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 33442 ebay]White Olympus E-PL1 body[/shoplink] [shoplink 33443 ebay]Black Olympus E-P2 with kit lens and EVF[/shoplink]

UPDATE: I have been told by a trusted sources that following prices posted by Pierre Lepidi are NOT correct. Lepidi answer is that these prices are correct for France only.
Here is the news from lepidi posted yesterday:
——-
– The 60 mm macro f/2.8 will be priced at 599 euros,
– The ultra-pancake 15 mm f/8 will cost you 79 euros,
– And the 12 mm f/2 black limited + hood + lens cap for 899 euros. That’s 290 Euro more than the cheapest price I found on [shoplink 23576 ebay]eBay[/shoplink]. Damn, Olympus makes us pay that hood a lot! Like they do on the current 75mm 1.8 hood.

Speaking of the 75mm lens. Amazon US (Click here) is finally shipping the pre orders and the lens is marked as “Temporarily out of stock“.

Panasonic now removed the official GH3 video and I thought it would be nice to post some high resolution screenshot of the new camera. You can see quite many details on them! There is even Philip Bloom using the superb [shoplink 25118 ebay]Olympus 14-35 F2.0 lens (lens here on ebay)[/shoplink] on the GH3…LOL :)

As usual click on the thumbnails to open the full size version:

What a day! Within a couple of hours all images about the new cameras got leaked! On top you see the E-PL5 and on bottom the E-PM2! As you already know both use the same [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] sensor with TruePic VI image processing engine and touch screen. Price should be 399 Euro for the E-PM2 (with 14-42mm kit lens) and 599 Euro for the E-PL5 (with 14-42mm kit lens).
As you knwo there will be a new 15mm f/8.0 cap-lens and 12mm Black edition (both leaked here). Announcement on Monday! Stay tuned on 43rumors to get all news about the Oly/Pana Monday showdown!