news – Page 841 – 43 Rumors

A one and a half hour MFT video discussion with many photographers.

October 25, 2012
news
16 Comments

Stuckincustoms posted that long Micro Four Thirds video talk with Gordon Laing, Giulio Sciorio, Peter Tsai, Amy DangRabbit, and Scott Giorgini. I hope you have a lot of time to watch this because it is as long as a regular Hollywood movie!

Great video guys! And a big hug from 43rumors! :)

Panasonic postpones the GH3 shipment date (and new hands-on video)

October 24, 2012
news
23 Comments

GH3 hands-on video by Whatdigitalcamera

BHphoto (Click here) now postponed the GH3 release from November to December. And so Panasonic store (Click here ->now Nov 30th). Le’ts hope this is not the beginning of a long series of small delays!

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Akira Watanabe interview: “New system cameras coming in the short term!” -> High End model!

October 24, 2012
news, Rumors
92 Comments

Two days ago I told you that I am getting new rumors about two possible Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras. It may be a good time to remind you some statements made by Akira Watanabe at Amateur Photographer. Here are some of the key info he unveiled:

– The Canon EOS-M is “not a big challenge”
– About the Olympus fee scandal: “It is, at the moment, a management issue and there is no negative or positive impact on development or planning – no impact.”
– About future products: “new system camera technology, to be rolled out in the ‘short term’, would be ‘trickled’ down to future ‘high-end compact cameras”
– And “Basic technology development-wise, we will focus on high-end models and mainly compact system cameras”
– “very big jump’ in the performance of electronic viewfinders” and “At a certain point most people will be satisfied with replacing their optical finder with an EVF”
– “Olympus will ‘accelerate development of high-grade lenses for MFT systems’.”

The key words here are “short term” – “High End models” and “Electronic Viewfinders”. That sums it up what we will see soon (early 2013). What I didn’t hear yet is if Olympus will make some High Grade zooms like the Olympus [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses. From what I heard prime lenses are priority.

Updated image circle lens test by Diglloyd.

October 23, 2012
news
90 Comments

Image courtesy: Diglloyd.com

Lloyd Chambers created a sort of a camera obscura to make a more accurate measure of the image circle of FT and MFT lenses. As you may know Four Thirds sensor have a diagonal of 21,6mm while APS-C sensors have a diagonal of 28,2mm. The question is if current FT and MFT lenses would cover a larger than FT sensor. He first tested the superb [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 FT[/shoplink] zoom lens. Wide open the lens has a circle of 26mm which increases up to 32mm on the tele end.

He also tested some MFT lenses:
Panasonic 25/1.4 has a 27mm image circle
Panasonic 45/2.8 macro has a 25mm image circle
Olympus 45/1.8 ED has a 31mm image circle
Olympus 75/1.8 ED has a 29mm image circle

In theory the two Olympus MFT prime lenses would cover the full APS-C sensor. Doens’t necessarily mean Olympus did it intentionally. But it’s interesting to know!

Olympus Tilt Lens patent.

October 22, 2012
news
27 Comments

Egami (translation here) patented the Till Lens design you can see here on top. As usual with patents we will not know yet if such a lens will ever be produced for the mass market or not. And I don’t know if such a lens is really needed for the MFT system (what do you think?).

Reminder: The German company BIG has shown the BIG Shift Lens 4,5 / 15 mm MFT lens at Photokina. A lens that is directly based on the [shoplink 33839 ebay]Voigtlander Heliar 15mm f/4.5 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] design. On sale next year for 999 Euro.

Interview with Sebastian Drawert (Panasonic).

October 22, 2012
news
67 Comments

Megapixel posted this videointerview with Sebastian Drawert from Panasonic. These are the key info from the interview collected by Megapixel:

The huge success of the GH2 as a video camera was a surprise to Panasonic.
The development of the GH3 was at least in part the result of a great deal of feedback from pro videographers.
The GH3 abandons the multi aspect ratio sensor used in the GH2 in order to improve image quality according to Mr. Drawert .
While the GH2 was a 60% video and 40% stills camera the GH3 is more of a 50%-50% according to Mr. Drawert.
The GH3 we saw in photokina didn’t have focus peeking – this is not a hardware issue and might be added later on in firmware (although nothing is set at this point).
Although Panasonic did not announce a sound grip (like Sony did with the A99) this is an option Panasonic will definitely look into.
Panasonic showcased two new prototype lenses in photokina 2012 – a 150mm f2.8 (300mm in 35mm equivalent) and a 42.5mm f/1.2 (a 85mm in 35mm equivalent). Both lenses should be available next year.
Panasonic developed applications for the GH3 for both android and iOS based devices including ones which uses the cellular device’ GPS (so no internal GPS is required by the camera) as well as a remote etc.
It is possible to view images on the computer from the camera in “real-time” however bandwidth limitations meas that RAW image will still take 20-30 seconds to transfer.
Panasonic currently doesn’t have plans to allow developers to create apps for its cameras but it doesn’t rule anything for the future and will continue to evaluate the development of the connected camera market.

Thanks Megapixel for sharing the interview!

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Lloyd Chambers proves that FT lenses can’t cover a larger image cicle.

October 20, 2012
news
103 Comments

[shoplink 25320 ebay][/shoplink] Image on top: The [shoplink 25320 ebay]Four Thirds Olympus 12-35mm f/2.0 lens[/shoplink].

Many times we read on forums and websites about the possibility that Olympus may use larger sensors on future Four Thirds cameras. But would current FT lenses cover a larger circle?

Lloyd Chambers (Click here) tested the [shoplink 25320 ebay]Olympus SHG 14-35mm f/2 ED[/shoplink] on the Nikon D800 and proved that the image circle is 23mm while the MFT diagonal 21.3mm. SO no, there is no chance FT lenses would work on larger sensor cameras. Lloyd seems to be surprised because he speculated that the image circle would be much larger: “based on the fact that the performance of the SHG lenses is so outstanding, even compared to Leica M glass.”

I bet many here would love to get some of these super FT lenses in a more smaller and native MFT package!

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14-35mm f/2.0 on [shoplink 25320 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] 35-100mm f/2.0 on [shoplink 25119 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].