The video on top shows a GH2 car-video using the Manfrotto suction cup ([shoplink 22507 ebay]click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]) and the Manfrotto 3D junior ([shoplink 22508 ebay]click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]). Anyway I would be to scared to use them on my car! Is it really safe? :(

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 review at Digital Photography School.

Olympus SZ-20 review (Letsgodigital). I

Olympus TG-610 review (Letsgodigital and ePhotozine).

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX77 review (Letsgodigital).

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 versus Leica V-Lux 30 (Fotopolis).

New mirrorless lens iTunes app (Click here to see it)

The image on top shows a Yasuhara M-mount camera [shoplink 22495 ebay](Click hee to see camera and lenses on eBay)[/shoplink].

Yesterday Yasuhara announced the new Nanoha macro lens for Micro Four Thirds. One of our Japanese readers wrote that nice and short history about the Yasuhara company:

“The company made film camera once in ’90’s. And the employee is only one (and he is the president:-) who can be seen on the article. The price (of the macro lens) is expected to be lower than 50,000 yen (450 Euro) and will be in the mass-production on late June (now development is in the final stage). It’s included with 5 dedicated target holders that is customizable in some degree (can be seen as pictures of a black plastic frame in the article) The lens has white LED light. The image circle is for APS-C, but there is no plan for DSLR, because the lens is designed specifically for mirrorless systems (short flange focal length). In the interview, Mr. Yasuhara seems to like mirrorless system very much. Beside this “Nanoha macro”, there will be two more lenses until march ’12. One is ordinary, but one is very extraordinary.
NANOHA – (nano – hu[t]) double meaning: nano-meter and leaves of greens, esp. rape blossoms’ ”

http://www.yasuhara.co.jp/nanoha/ (japanese website)
http://www.yasuhara.co.jp/index-e.html (english website)
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/special/20110527_448563.html (lots of image samples taken with the new Nanoha macro lens)
Yasuhara products on [shoplink 22495 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

As we told you a couple of days ago Olympus financial results are pretty bad (Click here to read the article). Yesterday the new CEO from Olympus (the brit Michael Woodford) said “he will cut jobs to achieve his mid-term cost targets and reverse what he said was an unacceptable slump in earnings, but would avoid forced redundancies in Japan for cultural reasons.“…”He said that he planned to cut expenses by 30 billion yen (100 yen = RM3.75)in four years, describing this as a target that took into account Japan’s conservative culture.” (Source: btimes.com.my).
Hmmm, I think cutting jobs is the worst way to save a company. The real problem from Olympus is the camera division which is doing very bad. The rest of the company is quite healthy. That kind of news sounds like, “hey we don’t know what to do with our camera business and that’s why we will cut the expenses to save our ass”. What about making better products instead of cutting jobs???

P.S.: A month ago Panasonic announced that it will cut 35,000 (overseas) employees (Click here to read that article).

The Japanese manufacturer Yasuhara announced a new macro lens for Micro Four Thirds. As you see from the image on top it looks more like a machine gun! On Nonoha’s website you can find a description written in English: “The magnification is much more than ordinary macro lens. The magnification is up to x5. It means 1 pixel on the picture is about 1 micrometer on the shooting target. With NANOHA, you can find small wonders easily without using microscopes. And we added some patented features for your good shooting.”
UPDATE: Yasuhara made some really nice lenses in the past liek the [shoplink 22469 ebay]MC 50mm/f2.8 (Click here to see that lens on eBay)[/shoplink]. The company went bankrupt or something around 2004 I think, and this is new starting project. (Thanks Mice for sharing that info). Yashuhara also said that the mass-production lens would be far better both in the shape and image quality.

It’s really amazing what that lens can do. Take a look at the image samples posted on DC.watch (Click here). I don’t know when the lens will be available, but price should be around 450 Euro. But those are the specs:

Hope to get soon more details about the lens! If you are in business for a cheap macro lens take a look at the macro reverse adapter you can find on [shoplink 22465 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. The adapter allows any 52mm mft lens to become a marco lens.

Olympus were so kind to send us an official explanation about why for a short period there were no E-5 cameras listed in their European online stores. Here is the text:

“We took E-5 off the shop as we had too many orders.
The shop is quite new and technically it is not so easy to stop the order taking.
We have so many orders now, that we’re not able to supply the new orders in a decent delivery time.
So we decided to take it off for some days/weeks.
[shoplink 17163]E-5[/shoplink] is very successful and we plan a long life cycle for this product.
And again, we will stop our SLR business only in case we will be able to provide similar qualities in MFT.”

The E-5 is now back at Olympus shop Germany: http://shop.olympus.de/e_commerce/?payssite=de

The video on top shows how to make a selfmade bellow lens! Amazing or not? You can read the full description and see the image sample at DC.watch (google english translated).

Olympus E-PL2 reviewed at DigitalcameraHQ. Links to the E-PL2 at [shopcountry 18844].

Panasonic GF2 review at PCworld.

Panasonic GH2 review at Digiphotomag. Links to the GH2 at [shopcountry 16254].

Kipon EOS-M43 adapter test at Sankei (Click here to read the translation). You can get the dapter on [shoplink 19603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Olympus SZ-20 Review (Photographyblog).

Olympus E-5 review (Mobile01). Links tot he E-5 at [shopcountry 17163].

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 at CNET.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS37 Review at Photographyblog.

As you know the [shoplink 14826]Panasonic GH1[/shoplink] with the newest firmware isn’t yet hackable. That could change very soon! Vitaly (the hacker) updated the Lenin project status: “We got GH1 v1.34 firmware dump. I’ll start to work on reversing tomorrow, must not take long.” Source: Personal-view.com. Vitaly told me that he will bring a new updated PTool version that will allow you to downgrade the GH1 firmware to version 1.32.

And not only Vitaly can make miracles in these days. Also Panasonic made one! They finally shipped plenty of GH2 stocks to US. The black body only is in Stock at Amazon US via Samy’s camera (Click here). And all kit options are almost in Stock at J&R (Click here). They will ship the cameras on 05/31/2011!