Dominic Papenheim and Claudia Baehr from Olympus talking to Megapixel.co.il in Photokina.co.il.

1) Starting from 00:41 they talk about the [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink].

2) At 04:00 the Interviewer ask if the E-5 can compete with Full Frame camera. The answer is that Full Frame and E-5 are on the same level.

3) At 05:00 the Interviewer ask about the auto-focus speed which is slow on the [shoplink 14832]Olympus E-PL1 + 14-42mm[/shoplink] kit compared to the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]. Olympus answer was that new lenses like the 9-18mm do have faster auto-focus than the kit-lens.

4) At 07:00 the Interviewer ask how the compact (not mirrorless) market will change in the next year. Olympus will introduce many new technologies (3D, WiFi, GPs and more).

5) At 09:35 Olympus says that especially female do like mirrorless cameras because they don’t want big cameras.

6) At 12:05 they talk about the lens road-map. Olympus doesn’t give any answer about possible future 3D lenses.

7) At 12:40 In Japan the mirrorless market share is 40%, in Europe 9% and in US 7-8%.

One more news: Olympus just updated the Olympus Viewer 2 to version 1.1 (Source: Olympus Japan)

Les Machineurs just uploaded a new GH2 video. He used the [shoplink 17123]50mm f/1.4 Pentax Asahi SMC[/shoplink] and [shoplink 14796]17mm f/1.7 Panasonic[/shoplink] lens. ISO 1600 except the last shot at 3200. 1080p24 AVCHD 24mb/s. Edited with Final Cut Pro and QuickTime ProRes HQ codec.

Adobe annouced the Camera Raw 6.3 Release Candidate which supports the Panasonic GH2 (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cameraraw6-3/)

P.S: Hybridcams.fr posted one single GH2 image sample and some other smaples by Katten on Flickr . At Dpreview you can find one full size 100-30mm image sample.

Panasonic GH2 preorders (Click on store name to visit the product page):
Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Japan

Olympus [ib] version 1.3 has been released today (Download at Olympus Japan). Following features have been added:

– Added the function to upload images to Flickr.
– Added the function to upload movies to YouTube.
– Added the function to upload images to “Private Space” on [ib on the net].
– Added the function to upload images to “Share Space” on [ib on the net].
– Added the function to back up images to “Photo Bank” on [ib on the net].
– Added the function to order online-prints (Photo Print, Photo Book) on [ib on the net].

Meanwhile DC.watch posted a new Olympus 40-150mm lens review. Reminder: The new Olympus Lens is in Stock at Amazon (Black lens) and Adorama (Black and White lens).

Barry Green (DVXuser forum) explains why the Panaosnic didn’t add 25p recording: “I was floored when I asked them where in the world 25p went, and the response I got from one of the Lumix reps from a PAL territory was basically “what are you talking about? It has PAL support, it does 50i!” Because they think they’ve gone beyond that. They offer 50i, 60i, 50p, 60p, and 24p.
It doesn’t help the PAL users who want/need 25p, but … near as I can tell, this is their thinking. They’ve gone and enhanced the camera beyond that stuttery film-look 25p, and added 50i for the “live” video look. And frankly, for the vast majority of their customers, that’s probably true — they will probably prefer that. For PAL users who want 25p, we’re left with either a case of use 720/50p and drop every other frame, or use 1080/24p and speed it up by 4%. ”

Panasonic GH2 preorders at: Amazon US, BHphoto, Amazon UK, Amazon France.

Amazon recently added a new bestseller category for mirrrorless cameras! That’s one more proof for the success of such cameras. But there is one BIG mistake. Amazon US names the category “Micro Four Thirds cameras” unlike other Amazon Europe stores where they call it “Compact System Cameras”. Is that a mistake or a Panasonic/Olympus marketing action?

Check out the current rankings:
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon US (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon Deutschland (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon UK (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon France (Click here)

Amazon Canada and Amazon Japan do not offer the new ranking system.

What can we learn from those rankings? Generally spoken Micro Four Thirds is winning the game against Sony and Samsung. In UK and Germany, Samsung is doing surprisingly well and in France the NEX cameras are on top of the list. And the most popular camera is (as usual) the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink].

I was one of those guys that played some time with the old medium format Holga Pinhole camera. What I didn’t know is that there are [shoplink 16969]Pinhole kits on eBay[/shoplink] that do tranform your Micro Four Thirds camera in a digital Holga. [shoplink 16969]Check out the current auctions on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. You can also find some image samples!