Rumors form others: Pentax Q, Sony NEX-C3 and Mirrorless rumor roadmap!
There have been some new rumors about the competition during the last 24 hours. Before that I can tell you that other soruces confirmed the Panasonic and Olympus announcement dates. June 13 for Pana and June 30 for Oly. So be prepared to follow the announcement live on 43rumors on those days!
1) Pentax will launch a 12 Megapixel APS-C mirrorless camera in August (MirrorlessRumors.com via Photorumors)
2) Sony NEX-C3 will be announced on Wednesday June 8 (SonyAlphaRumors.com)
The real suprise is that Canon seems to have no plan to make a mirrorless system at all! Anyway, I hope Olympus and Panasonic do recognize that they are not alone anymore. It’s time for them to bring some real r-evolution!
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Comment from pdc: At a recent photography swap meet severa...
Comment from Michael Meissner: When I first was looking at micro 4/3rds...- Comment from Michael Meissner: Even if you put the HQ in Hawaii, you ar...
Comment from cL: For example?...
Kornflejk
12 months ago |Still it isn’t clear what is coming from Sony on June 7th. A77 almost for sure but there is one more mystery SLT camera – NEX7 or successor of A55? Or even anything different?
What I am interested in: EP-3, NX20, NX200, Pentax Q.
Dummy00001
12 months ago |> What I am interested in: EP-3, NX20, NX200, Pentax Q.
Was just in shop tried few cams. I still like ergonomics of NX10 over the G2/GH2. As it is still not clear whether E-P3 has EVF, it is out of consideration -> not interesting (at the moment).
NX10 + 20-50mm or 20mm still looks and handles unexpectedly good: I appreciate that Sammy made the camera thinner, yet relatively tall. It almost has sufficient grip, on par with my E-620 (but NX10 is lighter).
Based on that, I’m interested in NX20 and tentatively in NEX-7, to see what Sony has in mind.
Cornflake
12 months ago |NEX 7 will be pricey. And it is better to (you have to) accompany it with new (and probably the best glass for NEX they will release so far) Carl Zeis zoom kit lens to gain as much as possible from it, although i think there will be a cheaper bundle with current mediocre zoom kit lens. But who would buy that?
NX10 was very competitive product and i like their lenses (20-50mm and both pancakes). I hope that NX20 will raise the bar higher.
Pentax Q is a big question. A digital version of Auto 110?
Tobias W.
12 months ago |As long as Sony does not release a plethora of lenses suiting the form factor of their ridiculously shaped “cameras”, Panasonic and Olympus must not fear Sony.
Parci
12 months ago |I would tend to agree, but market statistics show otherwise, they must very much fear Sony for the NEX3/NEX5 alone.
Mr. Reeee
12 months ago |The NEX-5 is actually a very compelling camera, it’s very small, light and given that the LCD is more than TWICE the resolution of any other LCD I’ve seen and the fact that it pivots makes it VERY usable.
The 3 lens “arsenal” is the killer.
I see a LOT more Sony NEX cameras around than M4/3 cameras!
Esa Tuunanen
12 months ago |Agree about Oly/Pana needing to fear Sony already because of its big brand name and marketing power.
And I agree about mirrorless being the future and eventually pushing mirror bodies into minority when mirrorless tech gets mature also in those aspects where it’s now lagging behind but…
We know that you small fashion camera guys like your fashion gimmicks so instead of praising every fashion camera as second coming of Jesus could you finally admit that market has plenty of space also for ergonomic bodies offering stable shooting stance and direct controls?
Or maybe you just don’t want DSLRs to loose their position…
themartist
12 months ago |When you say Pro GF camera coming in September… do you mean that the GF3 will be more consumer, with the Pro GF version being more a follow up to the GF1? What advantages would this have over the GF3? Is it just a dial thing?
Personally, I’m looking for the most pocketable companion to my GH1… so perhaps the GF3 will be my new toy. I have a Nex-5 with a 40mm leica summicron… and even though its the smallest combination, I’d still like smaller… also I’m getting a little tired of manual focussing without an evf… so the automatic focus 20mm 1.7 would be ideal on a little GF3 (unless Panasonic are including an even smaller fast pancake to complement it)
Gareth Lovering
12 months ago |When are we going to hear what Sigma are bringing to MFT?
Agrivar
12 months ago |+1000
Michael Meissner
12 months ago |Regarding the quote:
> Anyway, I hope Olympus and Panasonic do recognize that they are not alone anymore. It’s time for them to bring some real r-evolution!
Note, cameras and lenses do have a long design time (probably in the order of 3-6 months for minor tweaks, year or more for major designs). Even if Olympus and Panasonic corporate HQ realizes they no longer have the mirrorless arena to themselves, it is likely some amount of time before they can issue a challenge.
I have no insight into what goes on in Olympus HQ (and talking to the US guys I know who work for Olympus, even they are mostly in the dark until a product is well along), but it is clear, Olympus is at least trying to move to an AGILE style development, where they put a product out and then iterate in successive generations. However it can be stressful for those of us who can only buy a camera once every 2-3 years to have a new replacement come out in 6 months or so.
You had the original E-P1, and there was complaint about not having an electronic viewfinder, so 6 months after the E-P1 was announced, they come out with the E-P2 that now has an EVF. Then the complaints probably were the cost and not having a flash, and the E-PL1 came out as the low cost model. People were still complaining about focus speed, so the E-PL2 comes out with a new 14-42mm mark 2 that focuses faster (and also on my pet hobbyhorse, they added wired shutter support back in). Having buttons only also was an issue that they addressed in the E-PL2.
Dummy00001
12 months ago |> Even if Olympus and Panasonic corporate HQ realizes they no longer have the mirrorless arena to themselves, it is likely some amount of time before they can issue a challenge.
I can’t believe that to Oly or Pannay, Sony’s entry was surprise. Price of NEX-3 might have been – but otherwise, if you are working inside the industry, made of limited number of companies and consultants, it is impossible to miss that your competitor is planning something.
Plus, I doubt that Sony made the move on a whim: for launch of new product line they have likely ordered a market research and sales forecast. If one market research company could have compiled the data – then the others could have too. And Pannay and Oly highly likely had seen the reports, had seen that at the projected growth rate the market has capacity to accommodate another major player.
cL
12 months ago |Yeah, Sony’s entry is inevitable. Sony is really just like Microsoft. They’re so large, the only way they can grow is by devouring others.
Sony was a major failure in DSLR market segment before they bought Minolta. They were clueless about what professionals want, so buying Minolta got them the nod (and they were smart enough to keep Minolta engineers and listen to what they said, rather than buying the name only).
If there is one Japanese camera maker that resembles Olympus the most, it would be Minolta. Both have long history of making excellent small cameras for affordable price. If you did your homework on Minolta’s old film cameras, you’ll find a lot of futuristic looking cameras that used small format (110 size films. Minolta’s half frame never really enjoyed the success Olympus had with its Pen series).
So I guess what Sony is doing now is just kind of like the continuation of Minolta’s tradition, but now with partner with Zeiss (rather than Leica in Minolta’s film days). To me, NEX isn’t a big surprise. It will have its market share among people who always want the latest gadgets for bragging right. Those people aren’t really the same type of photographers as your DSLR-holding pros where photo output is the most important factor. Once they grow tired of photography, they’ll move away and use their latest iPhone19 instead if a photo moment ever arrives (then they’ll use some apps to degrade their photos so they’ll “look kinda cool, but not really”).
cL
12 months ago |> @Michael Meissner: “I have no insight into what goes on in Olympus HQ (and talking to the US guys I know who work for Olympus, even they are mostly in the dark until a product is well along), but it is clear, Olympus is at least trying to move to an AGILE style development, where they put a product out and then iterate in successive generations.” >>
Olympus has been doing things like this like forever. That’s how they killed some of its legendary cameras. But unfortunately that’s how you make money with least amount of R&D.
Speaking of clueless of Olympus USA HQ, it’s not hard to tell. If you follow the reports of photo shows, you know they usually have someone who knows very little about the camera they’re presenting. They need to give them a camera, use it for a couple of months, share the insight with other sales and with designers of the camera before they go out and speak about it…. Olympus USA HQ is in Pennsylvania…, can you get any farther from Japan where R&D is done? If I were the consultant to Olympus, first thing I would suggest would be move the HQ! Communication between HQ locations is vital. Placement of HQ is a major strategic management. Don’t keep the division out of loop.
Michael Meissner
12 months ago |Even if you put the HQ in Hawaii, you are still rather far away from Japan. I suspect there is blame to go around, but speaking as a person who has made a career of being a remote person, there is only so much you can do in some cases if you are in a remote location and HQ keeps everything local.
Tom
12 months ago |well its more, Panasonic recently announced the G3 with seems to be the best m43 camera to date, and therefore, the best mirrorless camera on the market. And this for a sane price. My guess, Sony, Olympus, Pentax and Samsung will announce new cameras, before the G3 is going to be available worldwide. Otherwise, they would lose customers to the Panasonic cameras.
Thats why they will now push everything to announce new cameras.
The G3 has got an extremely well reputation, and my bet is, the new Panasonic Mini will as well, when its the same sensor.
Im very curious about that 24 MPixel sensor by sony. On SOnyalpharumors the sources say that:
iso performance ist surprisingly good for a 24 MPix sensor. That sounds to me, that its on the same level, as for the 16 MPix sensor. But i cant imagine they managed to increase the DR futhermore i think, it will decrease.
The second thing im very curious about is how Samsungs going to play. I bet they didnt reach DR and ISO PErformance of the SOny 16 MPix sensor. I guess, it will be on par with Canons 18 MPix sensor.
Im very confident regarding Olympus’s camera. My bet is a 12-14 MPix sensor on par with Canons 18 MPix sensor regarding DR and ISO Performance.
And last but not least. Pentax. well… i really dont know. It has to be a very very cool camera to be tempting. Pentax is even more dead then Olympus, if such a thing is possible. But Pentax makes great cameras, so im very curious about it. But i would never spend in this system, even if its a retro looking APS sized sensor camera.
Ganec
12 months ago |> The real suprise is that Canon seems to have no plan to make a mirrorless system at all!
INHO canon cannot succeed in this category and they know it. Their compacts are currentl the slowest from all (AF speed); they must come with something new (what they did not introduce for long time .. except lenses with build-in telekonvertor);
They will not get additional money from this switch: they must choose to join already established bayonet (in this case they will not earn money on lenses) or develop new one (which is costly) .. and this will eat their own business (lowend DSLR + G line)
amalric
12 months ago |The duopoly m4/3 and NEX will go on I think, with other entrants having small mkt. share. Sammy might do a comeback. But how to stop Sony in its tracks, with its great marketing power?
Probably with a dual pronged straategy: very small cameras with pancakes, and semipros inspiered by the X100, which are real photographic instruments. Good video will play a role, but I am not interested by it.
If Oly and Panny can fight back Sony for another year customers will notice that as a system, as a panoply of native lenses, m4/3 is much stronger.
The problem is that P&S just buy one additional lens. So O&P must woo dSLR owners with good stuff as a second camera. Typically the G3, and Oly’s mid to upper tier coming cameras.
At some point people will literally weigh alternatives and m4/3 stands a better chance than others.
JM
12 months ago |Is it just me, or some rumors started to disappear from this site?
cL
12 months ago |For example?
Duarte Bruno
12 months ago |I’m curious if the Pentax could be a mirrorless version of the K5 which has been a sensor benchmark. Now with an evolved 12MP sensor it could be a High ISO and DR monster. Add IBIS, and all Pentax have to do, is to license the Epson EVF to have a winning body.
The only issue with Pentax is that they don’t have a lens system and manufacturers don’t make money by selling just bodies.
amalric
12 months ago |Smaller lenses are the strength of m4/3. Problem is that they are ridiculously priced, therefore open to Sony’s and Sammy undercutting them.
It seems to me that customers are not very brand faithful in mirrorless, so competition might be harder than in the dSLR sector.
Also thanks to cheap Chinese adapters you can easily switch legacy lenses from one brand to the other.
Michael Meissner
12 months ago |When I first was looking at micro 4/3rds, in the store I held a G-1 with 14-45mm lens next to an Olympus E-620 camera with 14-42mm lens, and an Olympus E-P1 with the micro 4/3rds 14-42mm lens. Given the G-1 and lens was the same size as the DSLR, it was one of several reasons I went for Olympus instead of Panasonic. Yes, the 20mm is quite small, but the Panasonic zooms are on the large side.
pdc
12 months ago |At a recent photography swap meet several Panasonic and Olympus m43 cameras were being carried about by visitors, but no Samsung or Sony mirrorless cameras were seen. Does this mean that with photographers m43 has greater credibility? If so, will they hold on to to this lead if they continue to dummy down the bodies? If takes the right combination of function and performance to gain long term market traction, and it is only the electronics giants Sony, Samsung and Panasonic who seem poised to grab the majority of the “populist” good-IQ mirrorless camera market.
Future marginalization of Canon and Nikon at this level seems inevitable, so it will be very interesting to see if the third-tier camera companies Olympus and Pentax can hang to their share or create new niches in this market. The reviews of product announcements over the next 3 months should really help us see the way ahead. Important, as interchangeable lens systems mean a substantial investment over time, and one really wants to avoid buying rapid obsolescence.
Admin, a “43rumors” site now seems irrelevant. Why not shift all traffic to “mirrorlessrumors”, and shut down 43rumors?