Last week the chinese website Tech.sina.com posted a short interview with the ex chief of Olympus Akira Watanabe. ePhotozine (Click here) wanted to be sure that the translation from chinese to english is correct and asked Olympus to confirm the correctness of the text. Olympus confirmed that “We will replace E-XXX by PEN series.” and that “E-X and E-XX DSLRs will continue as long as mirrorless systems can’t fulfill SLR users demand. We don’t know when we will have technologies that will be able to substitute this camera class.” It sounds like the [shoplink 21666]Olympus E-30[/shoplink] could be replaced by a newer model. Anyway we didn’t receive any rumor about a possible E-40 or E-50.
Fact is the E-30 is almost impossible to find in Stock (Check [shopcountry 21666])

P.S.: I found a japanese patent (Click here) showing a new Olympus lens. Some japanese reader can help me to find out the specs of the lens?

I received very small pieces of rumors from people that claims to have seen and/or tested the G3. They all do confirm that the G3 has an updated body design. It’s smaller than the G2 (less high, less thick, less wide). The camera has less manual controls and is much more touchscreen oriented than the [shoplink 14834]G2[/shoplink]. The Q-button is integrated into trash button. The left dial is completely gone. As I already told you weeks ago it’s exactly like having the [shoplink 17361]GF2[/shoplink] instead of the [shoplink 14828]GF1[/shoplink].

The 16 Megapixel sensor definitely brings an upgrade compared to the G1/G2 sensor but it is not as good as the [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] at High ISO.

There are no other new features (P.S.: price $649 with 14-42mm lens). And there will be no new lenses. The real exciting stuff will be announced in late August. And in June Olympus should announce at least two new Micro Four Thirds lenses.

P.S.: A wonder when the G3 will be in Stock in US if the eight months old GH2 is still out of Stock in US stores (See at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay). Hmmm…..

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

This is the week of the new Panasonic G3. It’s going to be announced on Thursday (May 12 in Japan). But before to report the latest G3 rumors we should make a small summary of the last week rumors (including rumors of Sony, Samsung, Pentax and Nikon mirrorless cameras):

1) Olympus will make a own designed sensor for the Pen PRO (Click here to read the article).

2) Valentin Sama’s prediction about all camera manufactors (Click here to read the article).

3) Panasonic G3 with lens will be priced at $649 (Click here to read the article).

4) Nikon delayed the mirrorless camera announcement (Read at MirrorlessRumors.com).

5) Samsung leaks a 300mm f/2.8 XF-ED lens on youtube (Read at MirrorlessRumors.com).

6) Sony NEX-C3 manual and lens leaked (Read at MirrorlessRumors.com).