Nikkei reports:

Japanese camera manufacturers are bidding farewell to a once-major component of their operations, with Panasonic Holdings and Nikon suspending development of entry-level point-and-shoot cameras under their flagship brands.
The companies will instead focus resources on pricier mirrorless models going forward, aiming to navigate a market upended by smartphones.

Nikkei analyzed why this is happening:

Camera makers had long competed with one another by increasing the number of pixels and by shrinking the size of their devices. But then smartphones came along, offering apps for editing pictures and allowing photos to be easily shared with family and friends. This changed the way people took photos.

Smartphone makers are racing to offer advanced photography features in their devices. “It’d be a challenge for camera makers to be successful with keeping their compact digital camera businesses,” said analyst Ichiro Michikoshi of research firm BCN.

Compact digital models accounted for 36% of global digital camera shipments in 2021, according to CIPA. The broader camera market will likely shrink even faster with Japanese companies, many of them big players, scaling back operations in compact digital models.

The bright spot is the mirrorless segment, with global shipments jumping 31% on the year to 324.5 billion yen in 2021. Mirrorless single-lens models offer fat margins, and users replacing lenses and other parts will keep contributing to the manufacturers’ bottom lines.

Retailers are focusing on this segment as well. “These days we recommend mirrorless cameras even to novice photographers,” said a salesperson at electronics and appliance retailer Joshin Denki.

Tech Tuesday with David Smith – Pro Capture Breakdown

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT.
Pro Capture Mode tutorials at GetOlympus.
Lensbaby Universal Expansion Pack with Reflectors Expands the OMNI System (Explora).
7 Forest Photography Ideas, Tips, and Examples (42West).
For the First Time, a Chinese Lens Is Outdoing Many Others (ThePhoBlographer).

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

LUMIX Academy | GH6 FILMMAKING ESSENTIALS | Assist Functionality

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT.
WaterFire Providence 2022 bonfires fire spinning poi staff Panasonic GH6 HLG HDR Travel walking tour (travel and events).
how to shoot 6K videos with Your GH5?? |Test footage
The Profoto A2: Studio Lighting in the Palm of your Hand (Explora).
How to Become a Freelance Photographer (42West).

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

The prestigious website Nikkei reports:

The company (Panasonic HD) said, “We have stopped developing new models that can be replaced by smartphones.” Production of existing products will continue for the time being, but in the future, the company plans to concentrate on developing high-end mirrorless machines aimed mainly at enthusiasts and professional filmmakers. We are planning to release a mirrorless machine jointly developed with Leica Camera, which we formed a comprehensive partnership with at the end of May, in about a year.

I guess this means the GF and GM line are dead for the eternity :(

via Digicameinfo

ThePhophlographer tested the OM-1 autofocus performance with the new 1.2 firmware update. Here are his findings:

• It’s better for sure. But it degrades a bit when the scene detection modes are on. Granted, Bird AF is pretty essential technology for a camera like this.
• OM System lets you prioritize either the spot you tell it to focus on or the scene detection. And the scene detection for birds isn’t that great unless the bird is taking up 1/4 of the photo if they’re in shadows. An example of this is birds hiding in trees. But if they’re in full sunlight, it’s a different story. The camera just needs to see the head and detect that it’s a bird.
• Eye detection for birds is still not the best compared to Canon. Right after using this, I went and tried the Canon EOS R7, which did a much better job.
• In C-AF with the 2x teleconverter and the 40-150mm f2.8, I was able to track birds in flight pretty easily when setting the autofocus to the whole area of the frame or to a large area in the center. The images aren’t incredibly sharp consistently, but I blame that on the teleconverter. I’ve never got photos with it that I’m very satisfied with.

So overall, the C-AF ability has improved; and I’m glad to know that my earlier critiques of it were looked at with some seriousness. Would I use this in the forest or for serious bird photography? Totally! But I also really want to use it with other lenses. The camera does a great job otherwise. And overall, it’s still the lightest and smallest system in the hand that you can use for birding.

–

OM-1 store links:
OM-1 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon. GetOlympus.
OM-1 in EU at Calumet DE. Fotokoch DE. Wex UK. Olympus DE, Olympus UK, Olympus FR, Olympus IT, Olympus ES. Olympus NL. Olympus BE. Olympus AT. Olympus CH.

LUMIX Academy | GH6 FILMMAKING ESSENTIALS | Sensor, Codec & Frame Rates

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT.
Panasonic Lumix GH6 Review: Competent At Photography Too! (Tech360).
Sunrise vs. Sunset: When Should You Photograph? (42West).
Behind the Scenes of SMOSH: Under the Influence with LUMIX
In the Bag: Things to Consider When Buying Your Next Camera Bag (Explora).

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

The new generation NYA-EVO backpack has now been launched on Kickstarter (Click here):

For our backpack materials, we experimented with tons of sustainable options and settled on ECONYL® — which transforms nylon waste, otherwise polluting the Earth, into ECONYL® — a regenerated nylon. It reduces the global warming impact of nylon by up to 90% compared with the material from oil.