It’s Black Friday again, and you can find plenty of new deals at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Cameta (Click here) and J&R (Click here).

The new deal of the day is the $100 discount on the Black Panasonic LX5 at Amazon (Click here). And if you need a m43 camera than you have to take a look at the GF3 camera bundle deal which is ongoing at Amazon (Click here). There is a GH2 body only option for $759 at Amazon (Click here). The megadeal running since yesterday is the GH2 with 14-140mm lens for $999.95 at Adorama (Click here). Please insert the Coupon Code “S2141401”. (I guess it will end soon)

—More deals—
Panasonic compact camera deals at BHphoto (Click here).
Olympus E-P2 body for $299 at Amazon (Click here).

After a long time [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink] got some new stocks of refurbished Olympus (m-)43 cameras and lenses. Right in time for Christmas! Here is the list. As usual the first ending auctions are on top. Click on it to jump on the relative ebay page:
[shoplink 27256 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27257 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27258 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27259 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL2 double lens kit[/shoplink] [shoplink 27260 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27261 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27262 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27263 ebay]Olympus 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27264 ebay]Olympus E-450 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27282 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27283 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27284 ebay]Olympus 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27288 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27289 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL1 double lens kit[/shoplink] [shoplink 27290 ebay]Silver Olympus E-P1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27291 ebay]Silver Olympus E-P1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27265 ebay]RED Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27266 ebay]Olympus E-30 body[/shoplink] [shoplink 27268 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL1 with 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27269 ebay]Olympus E-5 body[/shoplink] [shoplink 27270 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL2 with 14-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27271 ebay]Silver Olympus E-PL2 with double lens kit[/shoplink] [shoplink 27272 ebay]Black Olympus E-PL2 with double lens kit[/shoplink] [shoplink 27273 ebay]White Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27292 ebay]Four Thirds Olympus 40-150mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27293 ebay]Black Olympus E-P2 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27294 ebay]Olympus 75-300mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27295 ebay]Olympus 35mm macro lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27296 ebay]Black Olympus E-P2 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27297 ebay]Four Thirds Olympus 14-42mm lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 27274 ebay]Olympus FL-14 external flash[/shoplink] [shoplink 27275 ebay]White Olympus external viewfinder[/shoplink]

UPDATE_2: Hold on guys! Adorama is offering an even more crazy deal on the GH2 with a coupon code. The offer starts in a couple of hours so please hold on! And the codes were “reversed”. Now it should be fine. Here are the deals:
GH2 with 14-42mm lens for $699.95 at Adorama (Click here). Please insert the Coupon Code “S1442144”.
GH2 with 14-140mm lens for $999.95 at Adorama (Click here). Please insert the Coupon Code “S2141401”.
Limited Quantity at this price.

And here are the Amazon GH2 deals:
GH2 with 14-42mm lens at Amazon (Click here) for $795 only! No joke, That’s $105 less than the GH2 body only sold by third party resellers at Amazon (Click here)…LOL! And at the moment of writing you can find eighteen GH2+14-140mm kits for $1199 at Amazon US (Click here). For Europeans: There is a cashback action on the GH2 and G3 in Germany (Click here). The only other Cyber deal that is still ongoing on m43 cameras is the GF3 + free accessory action at Amazon (Click here). Full deals homepage at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Cameta (Click here) and J&R (Click here).

Reminder: Within the next two weeks Panasonic will announce the new GH2 firmware with “Progressive Segments Frame” recording -> 1080/25p signal recorded as 1080/50i with 24Mbit/s. And that is the official features/improvement list from Panasonic:

• – New video mode which is suitable for editing video recorded at high bit rate (24Mbps)
• – New functional option with Power Zoom Lens ([DISP FOCAL LENGTH (Display of Focal Length)], [STEP ZOOM], [ZOOM RESUME], [ZOOM SPEED] and [ZOOM RING*])
• – Full area enlargement of AF area setting
• – Improvement in the speed of consecutive shooting when shot with auto bracket
• – Increased number of recordable images in consecutive shooting
• – [EX.TELE CONV. (Extra Tele Conversion)] can be set ON/OFF separately in photo or video recording
• – More accurate light adjustment of built-in flash
• – Improvement in the AF performance in video recording
• – Synchronization of alarm volume for low battery with [BEEP VOLUME]
• – New [HALF-PRESS RELEASE] function
• – Improved NR (Noise Reduction) in high sensitivity shooting
• – ON/OFF control of the touch-screen

Christmas time is also the “business time” for all camera manufacturers. There are plenty of deals, rebates, bundles on offer in worldwide stores. There is no exact way to see yet which camera and lens is selling better than others. We can only get a vague idea by looking at the worldwide Amazon rankings. So let’s check how Panasonic and Olympus are doing:

USA
The United States are probably the most conservative market on the world. Mirrorless had not the same success as in Asia or Europe. When you loo at the full DSLR+Mirrorless+compact camera ranking (Click here) you will see only Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras on top. You have to switch over at the Mirrorless camera/lens ranking (Click here) to see what is popular. The most sold lens is the Panasonic 20mm pancake (no surprise). But when it comes to the cameras Sony and Nikon are outselling the m43 alternatives. No good news here for Panasonic and Olympus. But I guess the reason for that is the poor marketing. An example? The GX1 will be in Stock only AFTER the Christmas sales time. Not really a smart move from Pana.

UK
Same story as in the US. People buys DSLR cameras or compact cameras and not very often Mirrorless Click here to see the rankings. When watching the pure mirrorless rankings (Click here) you see that Panasonic is the real king of that market. Close behind you find Sony and then Nikon.

GERMANY
What’s going on in Germany? No surprise, DSLR and compact cameras are ruling the world (Click here). Nikon, Canon, Nikon , Canon all the way! But again Panasonic is the king of the mirrorless rankings (Click here).

FRANCE
You would expect France to be different than Germany or UK buyers or not? No way. Nikon-Canon dominates the french market too (Click here to see the ranking). And when it comes to mirrorles (Click here) than Sony is playing the major role in France.

JAPAN
The only real market that has fully accepted the Mirrorless philosophy is Japan. Watch the full Mirrorless+DSLR ranking (Click here) and you will notice a strong fight between all manufacturers with Olympus and Panasonic cameras challenging the big two (Canon and Nikon).

I absolutely think that Mirrorless is the future but what this sales do show is that Olympus and Panasonic have a lot of homework to do in order to challenge the Canon-Nikon DSLR market. And I guess the real weak point for both is the marketing strategy. A wonder how these rankings will look in one year when we will have Canon and Fuji pushing their Mirrorless systems.

Ethic statement:
SLRmagic is a company located in Hong Kong. I know their manager Andrew very well and I know he is continually working to meet the customers demand for m43 lenses. He contacted me to ask me if I have time to review the latest 12mm f/1.6 Hyperprime lens. I accepted the offer but warned him that I will not hide any of the negative aspects of the lens (if I would find them).

Why I need that lens:
A friend of mine (Franco Maurina) invented a new kind of theatre. The theatre takes place in a complete dark and small room. That’s why I need a fast wide angle lens. And that’s where the Hyperprime 12mm f/1.6 lens is playing the main role along my [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] camera. I will post this video soon on youtube but in the meanwhile I posted a few image samples and first impressions.

New deals (with readers suggestions)

The Olympus E-Pm1 $50 discount will end tomorrow at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and B&H (Click here).
Cyber Monday deals at Personal-View (Click here). These are deals for filmmakers (lights, stabilizers, matte box, handles, etc).
Olympus E-P1 body for $239 on BestBuy (Click here / via E-P1.net).
Eric sent me this: “I thought you might like to know that Target has the Lumix DMC-GF3 Digital Camera (Black) with 14-42mm on Sale starting tomorrow – Sunday – for $399 plus a $75.00 Target gift card. So that is like $325, plus you can sell the 14-42 easily for $125 on eBay – so (if you can use a Target gift card) it is like getting a GF3 for $200: Weeklyad.target.com”
Joel sent me this: “Panasonic.com is having some good sales also. Free shipping, but for some states they do charge state sales tax.
GF3 is available in all colors with the 14-42 regular kit zoom at $499.99 PLUS the 14mm f/2.5 gets added for $0.01 – a great deal. Bought the camera for my wife and I’ll take the 14mm prime.
G3 (black only) is available with standard 14-42 zoom for about $524 – best price I’ve seen (I bought one).
GH2 with the 14-140 is a bit over $1200, a very good price for that kit.”
Gary sent me this: “GF2 w/14-42 in Canada for C$289.99 at Newegg.ca”

Europe deals

There is a cashback action on the GH2 and G3 in Germany (Click here).
Red GF2 with 14-42mm lens for 298 Euro at [shoplink 27204 ebay]Digitalkamerprofi on eBay DE (Click here)[/shoplink].
Black Olympus E-Pl1 body for 159 Euro at [shoplink 27205 ebay]Foto Mundus on eBay DE (Click here)[/shoplink].

Our US readers can enjoy a lot of Micro Four Thirds deals (while we european have a hard time to find such good deals). Here you can find all deals homepage at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Cameta (Click here) and J&R (Click here).

And here is a short list of Micro Four Thirds deals:

1) You get a free 16GB SDHC card and a free Backpack when you purchase the GF3 at Amazon (Click here).
2) $100 instant rebate on any lens when you purchase the GF3 at Amazon (Click here).
3) Panasonic GH2 with 14-140mm lens for $1199 at Panasonic store (Click here).
4) $100 or $150 discount on the Olympus E-P3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
5) $200 price drop on the Olympus E-5 body at Amazon (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).
6) $20 price drop on the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake at Amazon (Click here).