The very well informed Amateur Photographer website (Click here) noticed that “high-end digital SLRs threatens to raise street prices in the coming weeks as UK dealers struggle to meet demand after last month’s Japanese earthquake.”

Also our sources told us that product shortage is expected for all Japanese camera producer (Including Panasonic and Olympus). The worst “rumor” I received told me that there will be supply problems for the next 6 months! If you noticed a price increase on Panasonic/Olympus products drop me a message at 43rumors@gmail.com. The only thing I have seen is that in US there were almost no price drops or deals on any Micro Four Thirds product during the last 3 weeks and also the Panasonic GH2 is out of Stock again (Check [shopcountry 16254]). That’s pretty unusual.

The only real good deal is the GH1 kit offer. It’s ongong since a few weeks and will last until the last GH1 has been sold:
1) Panasonic GH1 with 14mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $364. and if you would buy it separately with the GH1 it would cost you a total of $764. With that deal you save $64!
2) Panasonic GH1 with 20mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $399. You save $99!
3) Panasonic GH1 with 45-200mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $349. You save $100!
4) Panasonic GH1 with 14-45mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $359. You save $90!
5) Panasonic GH1 with 14-42mm lens for $499 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $199. You save $100!

P.S.: There were a few dollar price drops on the Panasonic 100-300mm lens which is now in Stock for $525 at Amazon (Click here).

Olympus XZ-1 with VF-2 Electronic Viewfinder – Best of Both Worlds? (TheDigitalStory)

GF1 vs. E-PL2 size comparison on Flickr.

Olympus E-PL2 test at DC.watch.

Angle and Frame bis (Jjsemplephotography).

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ18 / ZS8 review (CameraLabs)

Link to the new redesigned Olympus Cafe Forum: http://www.olympuscafe.com/forums/

I received that message from Chris Kovacs,: “We would like to introduce you to a new venture in fine art photography. Adore Noir Magazine is an digital (PDF) black and white fine art photography magazine. You can download a sample of Adore Noir Magazine from the download section of our website. Download directly to iPhone, iPad and any other electronic device supporting PDF files. The sample includes the full feature of acclaimed photo artist Dominic Rouse and an article on the Artistic Mind, by Sandra Djak Kovacs. We hope you enjoy this new venture.
Kind regards,
Chris Kovacs, Editor, www.adorenoir.com facebook.com/Adore.Noir.Magazine“

For all our GH2 current and future owners. Noah Kadner just sent me the press release text of his latest training video:

“Call Box, a provider of interactive training for digital media professionals, has released their latest training course worldwide, “Panasonic GH2 Guidebook.”
About the Panasonic GH2 Guidebook
Created by Apple Certified Pro instructor Noah Kadner, this course takes users through the usage of the GH2 camera in production and post-production. “Panasonic GH2 Guidebook” features original content broken down into learning modules with interactive demonstrations and easy to understand, real-world examples. The course focuses on the use of the DSLR camera as a filmmaking tool.
“The Panasonic GH2 is an exciting milestone in the evolution of affordable, high-quality cameras.” says Kadner. “With the right settings and accessories you can easily create video content that looks like a Hollywood movie. This course gets you up to speed with tips and tricks only hinted at in the manual and is aimed at the starting to intermediate user.”
In addition to camera settings and lens recommendations, the Panasonic GH2 Guidebook also gives tips for working with footage in post-production. “We go step-by-step through copying and archiving operations off the SDHC media cards,” says Kadner. “Then we look at ingesting, editing and outputting finished projects with a focus on Apple’s Final Cut Pro. As far as we know, this is the first training course of its kind for the GH2– the camera is that new.”
Topics include Interchangeable Lens Choices, Working with Lens Mount Adapters,
Controlling Exposure with ND Filters, Audio, AVCHD Format Choices, Extra Tele-Convergence, Final Cut Pro Workflow, SDHC Card Management, HDMI Output, Focus Control and more.

Pricing and Availability
“Panasonic GH2 Guidebook,” is available on as a digital download and is priced at $34.99 (US). It can be purchased directly from the company at http://www.callboxlive.com/products/panasonic-gh2-guidebook.“

I guess you are curious to see who won and who lost market share during 2010. Bloomberg posted the market share of all units sold in 2010 (compact cameras and system cameras). It’s not a surprise to see that Canon is leading the group. But Sony is just a small step behind and Samsung is very close to Nikon. I would have almost bet a bunch of dollars on a small Panasonic and Olympus market share growth but de facto they didn’t grow at all. Panasonic and Olympus do have almost exactly the same share as 2009. It’s a bit difficult to analyze the results. Most of the sold cameras are compact cameras so m43 sales do have only a small influence on the whole data. Generally spoken worldwide camera sales jumped 10 percent to 141 million units last year.

If you need more detailed data take a look at BCNranking (Click here) which displays the weekly cameras sales in Japan. And you can check the Amazon Bestseller rankings to see what’s selling best on Amazon. As you can see compact cameras are always on top:

Amazon US (Click here): The LX5 is selling well
Amazon DE (Click here): The Panasonic TZ10 is on top
Amazon UK (Click here): Again the TZ10 on top.
Amazon FR (Click here): and for the third time the TZ10 on top!
Amazon IT (Click here): No Olympus or Panasonic cameras on top.

Camera manufacturer Ikegami showed a pre-production version of the 4/3 sensor ENG style camera at the NABshow in Las Vegas! The HDS-F90 features a 8,9 Megapixel Four Thirds sensor of the same size of the [shoplink 16841]AG-AF100[/shoplink]. But unlike the Panasonic camera the lens mount is the cine standard PL instead of the m43-mount. It records in MPEG2 4:2:2 on GFPAK Flashcards. According to Dslrnewsshooter the camera will be priced higher than the AG-AF100 and the Sony PMW-F3.

Links:
Ikegami website: http://www.ikegami.com/
Ikegami stuff on [shoplink 21547 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The Panasonic AG-AF100/101/102 at [shopcountry 16841].

If you own the Panasonic LX5 you might be interested to take a look at the new Nauticam underwater housing. It has a depth rating of 75 meters and will sell for $950. You can read the full specs here: http://nauticamusa.com/. It’s a lot more expensive than the [shoplink 21531]Ikelite housing (Click here ot see that item on eBay)[/shoplink] which costs $545 only. I am not an expert and I don’t know if the price difference is justified because of better specs.

Olympus XZ-1 user do have an even cheaper alternative: The Olympus PT-050 which is available for around $300 (300 Euro) at [shopcountry 21532].
Olympus E-PL1 user can get the Olympus PT-EP01 at [shopcountry 21533].
and the E-PL2 user can get the Olympus PT-EP03 at [shopcountry 21535].

Herman Wong sent us a bunch of very nice pictures of the Panasonic booth at the NABshow in Las Vegas. You can see them here: https://picasaweb.google.com/108753860378700835441/

And 43rumors reader Rob sent us the link to the new Cine section of the Four Thirds Group website: http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/cine-sys.html. It adds very useful information’s to the Zeiss CP.2, Schneider Cine Xenar lenses and the HORSEMAN TS-pro (a tilt/shift lens control system that enables tilt shooting with an ordinary lens).

Shop Links:
The Zeiss CP.2 primes at [shopcountry 15756]).
Schneider Cine-Xenar primes at  [shopcountry 21514]).