The rumors summary (and then we will start with new rumors!)
It has been a busy week. it’s time to make a rumors summary before we start to post new rumors.
1) Olympus will have a press release on February 2nd. And they will probably unveil new compact cameras. We know that Olympus will also at least release two new FourThirds cameras during the next weeks but we don’t know if they will announce them on the same press release. The E-620 successor and the E-3 (and E-30?) successor. The E-620 should use a new generation Panasonic sensor and be announced in February. The E-3 successor should also use “some kind of new sensor”. Available in March and maybe announcement at PMA (late February).
The crazy rumor we received says the E-5 (or whatever the name will be) will have a new type of mount!
2) Panasonic will launch a new Lumix camera on January 31?. Very likely a MicroFourThirds camera (G1 successor?). Also the new Panasonic ZS-7 and TS2 cameras should be unveiled. We also heard that the LX3 successor could be unveiled but I really hope our sources didn’t make the mistake to believe the ZS-7 is the LX3 successor. We will know it soon…
3) Olympus will announce a new MicroFourThirds camera in May-June
4) Panasonic and Olympus will both soon launch the new MicroFourThirds lenses.
– Olympus 9-18/4.0-5.6 (February-March 2010)
– Olympus 14-150/4.0-5.6 (May-June 2010)
– Olympus 40-150 lens (February-March 2010)
– Panasonic Lumix G Vario f/4.0-5.6 100-300 mm (February-March 2010?)
– Panasonic Lumix 14mm pancake lens (February-March 2010?)
– Panasonic Lumix G 8mm Fish-Eye APSH f/3.5
5) Samyang will release two new FourThirds lenses in March. The 85mm f/1.4 and 8mm f/3.5 fisheye!
6) And here the new BIG question: What’s going on with Fuji? Are they going to announce their MFT camera soon?
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Recent comments
Comment from Marcus: There is no reason not to have reasonabl...
Comment from Agent00soul: Well, the solution for small and reasona...- Comment from Marcus: Well, no matter what lens you put on you...
Comment from Michael Meissner: In terms of Olympus announcing more p&am...
Marcus
3 years ago |“f/4.0-5.6″? C’mon! What’s up with all those super-slow zoom lenses?? Does anyone have any idea why panasonic and olympus are hellbent on making sure people won’t be able to produce shallow DoF and low ISO with μ4/3 cameras? The smaller sensors already enlarges the DoF and by using one of those super-slow lenses that panasonic and olympus keep pushing out you’re getting into compact camera territory, which IMHO is absolutely insane.
I would very much like to go μ4/3, but with the current crop of lenses available I just can’t. There’s just no point in having a “big” sensor and then putting only slow glas in front of it, thus counteracting all advantages that big sensors provide (i.e., low noise/iso and shallow DoF). So the μ4/3 sensor has 4 times less noise than my fixed lens camera, but then again I can use 4 times smaller iso with my camera’s f/2.8 than with a μ4/3′s f/5.6, which makes the point moot. (And no, lugging around a big bag of fast primes is not an option — besides, μ4/3 doesn’t even have particularly many (nor particularly fast) primes.)
Michael Meissner
3 years ago |In terms of Olympus announcing more p&s cameras, given they just announced 9 p&s cameras at CES, so I doubt they will be announcing more 3 weeks later. However, I no longer am surprised by anything Olympus does, so they very well could announce 576 more cameras.
In terms of faster zoom lenses, it is a tradeoff in terms of the size of the lens vs. the aperture. I’ve tried my f/2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens on my E-P2 and it is usable, but frankly, the 14-42mm tends to stay on the camera, because I bought the E-P2 to be a small camera that fits in my jacket pocket. If I want the bigger lenses, that’s what the E-3 is for, where the larger grip and heftier body balance better.
Also, in terms of ultra-small DOF (i.e. f/1.4 on a film camera or full frame), in general, I find this makes for pleasing pictures only in a few cases, and often times it would have been a better picture if there was more DOF. However, often times it is a matter of whether you can get the shot at all under the circumstances.
Marcus
3 years ago |Well, no matter what lens you put on your cropfactor-2 (μ)4/3 you’re not getting the shallow DoF of a f/1.4 on a full frame (nor would I want to (however, f/1.8 on a cf-2 would be nice, and it’s 10 times as large as f/5.6)), so your point is moot. Also, I understand that you might want small and light lenses for the small μ4/3 cameras, but I don’t care about small μ4/3 cameras, but something like the lumix G1/GH1. (Another reason for going full-digital is the possibility to use swivel screens, and that’ll be an absolute requirement for my next cam since I tend to shoot high and low a lot and I absolutely hate having to get my eye to the viewfinder when the cam is high or low.)
Agent00soul
3 years ago |Well, the solution for small and reasonable bright lenses is (drum roll) PRIMES. We already have the excellent 20/1.7 and now we just need a few wider and longer lenses in the same style.
Marcus
3 years ago |There is no reason not to have reasonably fast zoom lenses, too. Even a big zoom lens is a lot smaller than 3-4 primes.