Olympus E-PL2 tested at Digitalcamerareview (+GF2 and E-5 reviews)

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CNET Australia tested the new Panasonic GF2: “Panasonic’s second compact interchangeable lens camera won’t disappoint new users with its sleek footprint and very good image quality. It’s those looking to upgrade who might be left feeling a tad disappointed, particularly compared to the strong offerings from other manufacturers in the same space.” The reviewer gave the camera 8.3 out of 10 points.
If you own the GF2 feel free to add your rating at 43rumors (Click here). Reminder you must be a registered member!
Direct GF2 shop links to [shopcountry 17361].

Digitalcamerareview posted their new Olympus E-PL2 test results: “Can I honestly recommend that current E-PL1 owners “upgrade” to the E-PL2? No. However, if you’re currently shopping for a new camera there are plenty of reasons to consider this one. The E-PL2 offers a small, light camera and plenty of features at a competitive price. ” The E-PL2 gets 3.5/5 points.
Rate the E-PL2 at 43rumors.
Direct E-PL2 shop links to [shopcountry 18844].

And ThePhoBlographer compared the Olympus E-5, Pentax K5, Canon 7D, Nikon D300s. That’s what he thinks about the E-5: “The punchiest colors by far, but the worst dynamic range. This was a major disappointment for me as I’m a former Olympus user.
Direct GF2 shop links to [shopcountry 17163].

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A new non japanese Chief for Olympus! + bad financial results

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Source: Photoscala.

Bad news for Olympus! The Japanese company reports a turnover decline of 4.5% for the third quarter (October to December 2010). Consolidated operating profit falls by 46% to 8.9 billion yen (about € 78.7 million). Source: Financial Results for the Third Quarter ended December 31, 2010 (PDF file). And the “worst” part of the company is the Imaging Division that had a 28% sales loss compared to last year. Strong YEN and sales drop in North America are the main reasons for the bad results. The medical division of Olympus is still the strongest and most profitable business.

It sounds like Micro Four Thirds didn’t help them to increase the turnover. Some expert out there that can explain us the reason for such bad results?

But we also have a major and very unexpected news. Michael C. Woodford will become Chief Executive Officer of Olympus on 1 April 2011.  Mr. Woodford comes from the Olympus Medical & Industrial Division of Olympus. He is the first non japanese chief in Olympus history. That’s almost a “revolution” for a japanese company! Let’s hope he can bring some fresh new ideas inside Olympus. Good luck Mr. Ford!

Source: Photoscala.

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(FT4) Panasonic deleted the release of a mysterious “GS1” camera. 12-50mm zoom lens release postponed!

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[shoplink 19791 ebay][/shoplink]

There are some changes in the original Panasonic roadmap. I have been told by two sources that Panasonic had the plan to announce a new “GS” camera in Spring 2011. That plan has changed and the GS camera will not be announced. It is unclear yet if we will ever see the GS :(
The sources could not (or didn’t want) to tell me more about the camera. I really hope this wasn’t the Micro Four Thirds version of the [shoplink 19791 ebay]DMC-L1[/shoplink] model. That would be pity!

Panasonic also made a major change regarding the lens roadmap. The 12-50mm f/2.5-3.3 lens release has been postponed at least until the last quarter of the year. Also in that case I didn’t receive any reliable info about the cause of the delay although I do speculate that the reason is they have not enough production capability to release many new lenses. As you know the 25mm f/1.4 lens and probably a few reworked lenses (like the 7-14mm OIS) are scheduled to be announced in April.

I have quite a few new rumors I am working on and I will post them soon. So stay tuned on 43rumors!

Links:
– DMC-L1 at Amazon and [shoplink 19791 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].

P.S.: Hidden message for one of my sources: Dark K. drop me a line if you read that ;)

VERY IMPORTANT: Always keep in mind that those are rumors. Some of them could turn out to be true some of them could NOT!

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

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(UPDATED) X100 preorders removed and weird message from B&H (+E-PL1/2 deals reminder)

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UPDATE: False alarm, BHphoto does it list again.

Looking at the message above you get a little bit worried that the Fuji X100 release might have been delayed. Soruce of the message is BHphoto (Click here and type “x100” inside the search box). And also Amazon (Click here) removed the X100 preorders! Only Adorama (Click here) is accepting preorder but they also say “currently we do not have a scheduled delivery date from the manufacturer“.

Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here) are now offering $50 of Olympus E-PL-2 camera’s with 14-42mm lens and $100 off dual kit with 40-150mm.
The same deal is available on the E-PL1 too at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

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E-PX dreams

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43rumors readers do send me hundreds of mails per week and when I am very busy at work I sometimes miss to read them. I just found that mail and E-PX rendering a reader sent me months ago! Auch!

This is not a real camera but I was messing around with sketch up and created an image of what i think the entire community can agree they want in a micro 43 camera.

It features….
-Built in EVF
-High resolution LCD screen
-Built in hotshoe with accessory port (for stereo mic and GPS tagging)
-A shutter speed dial/Exposure setting wheel
-typical menu buttons on the back
-Sensor that turns on EVF when face comes up to the screen.

Here are some general notes
-Could not find a good place for a built in flash
-Camera should have a dedicated movie button
-camera should have a secondary zoom wheel for menu navigation and other things.

feel free to comment and or make your own concepts with sketchup!

In some way the concept is close to the one described by the Panasonic patent we found last year. Clcik here to read mroe about that: https://www.43rumors.com/ft2-panasonic-rangefinder-styled-micro-four-thirds-camera/

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Panasonic 12.5mm f/12 Lumix G 3D tested at SLRgear

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[shoplink 16264][/shoplink]

For the first time SLRgear tested a 3D lens. And they had a lot of fun with the new Panasonic 12.5mm lens: “The images were realistic enough that I found myself shifting my head to see if I could see more of a scene by moving to peek around a real opening into 3D space. When you do that, though, the 3D background just appears to float, unmoving, behind the foreground objects, an odd, somewhat unsettling phenomenon that caused a couple of viewer’s queasiness.

The big problem is that “the very small, and fixed aperture of f/12 limits your shooting to bright daylight.

Check price and availability of the 3D lens at [shopcountry 16264] (Click on shop names to directly visit the lens product page).
Read user reviews and add your rating about the 3D lens: https://www.43rumors.com/cameras/panasonic-12-5mm-f12-3d-lens/#ratingandreviews

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Kipon EOS to m43 adapter with built-in aperture ring review (Sankei.jp)

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[shoplink 19603 ebay][/shoplink]

Sankei.jp reviewed the Kipon EOS-m4/3 adapter. Up until now, if you wanted to use a Canon EOS lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera, you had to set – and stick with – a single aperture as current adapter rings lack the electronic communication required to change it. The Kipon EOS-m4/3 adapter super-cedes this problem by featuring a built in aperture ring you adjust manually. The adapter costs $195.00 and is available on [shoplink 19603 ebay]eBay only (Click here)[/shoplink]

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