Olympus (Click here) announced that the new Olympus E-M5 worldwide shipment will start on March 31st. As usual Asian countries should receive the first stock first with Amazon Japan (Click here) saying that the camera will ship on the same day. But unlike Panasonic Olympus does a pretty good job with worldwide shipments and we should expect the E-M5 to be available in USA stores around mid April. BHphoto (Click here) says they will have it on April the 10th. In Europe Amazon UK (Click here) says that the camera will arrive on April the 1st.
What a timing! Both m43 partners announced a new CEO and President.
Olympus named Hiroyuki Sasa (medical equipment marketing) as president and Yasuyuki Kimoto (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.) is the new chairman. Sasa said: “My duty is to win back as soon as possible the trust from everyone and repair this damaged brand.” (Source: Engadget)
Panasonic named Kazuhiro Tsuga new CEO of the company. He was the one guy pushing Panasonic to support Blue-ray in the famous HD-DVD versus Blue-ray battle. You know who won :) So this may be a good sign for his talent. (Source: Engadget)
Anyway, hope both companies can recover from their recent financial (and not only) issues.
I am in terrible stupid troubles :) Should I get the Black or the Silver E-M5? The Silver probably looks better with silver lenses and reminds me more of the [shoplink 28222 ebay]OM film camera tradition[/shoplink]. But the all black version looks very sexy and less….”old”. Looking at Amazon US ranking (Click here) buyers seems to like both equally. So I ask you, which one (and with or without lens) did you preorder?
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If you ask me why I still haven’t preordered the camera yet the answer is easy…I haven’t found any preorder option in Belgium yet.
Ten days ago we collected your questions to Olympus. And Emanuele from nexthardware brought your list to Amsterdam and interviewed MR. Terada from Olympus with…your questions! The video on top shows the full interview (the audi quality isn’t that good). Enjoy! And Thanks Emanuele!
UPDATE: I really noticed how “hungry” you are to get in contact with Olympus with your questions. If you want I can try to ask Olympus if they are interested to make a special session Q&A with you readers. Don’t know if they will do it, but I can ask :)
At Personal View (Click here) you can find the new PTool v3.64d available for download. And for the first time you can hack your [shoplink 17361]Panasonic GF2[/shoplink] too! Here is the enw features list:
GH2:
Support for v1.11 firmware
Added many AVCHD related patches
Some patches improved
GF2:
Initial release with features identical to GH2, except 24p support
General:
Import/export patches possible to plain ini files, not archives only.
Few fixes
The german website Photoscala (Click here) posted a short preview of the E-M5 camera. They liked the electronic viewfinder and particularly the „high response“ mode which reduces the resolution but allows a double speed (240 B/sec instead of 120 B/sec).
Also Quesabesde (Click here) likes the electronic viewfinder performance. But the autofocus performance wasn’t that stellar as promised by Olympus. In low light conditions and with moving objects there were some focusing errors. As Photoscala writes, the ultra fast Autofocus works best on non moving objects. The very good news is that Quesabesde has been positively surprised by the image quality of the “new” 16 megapixel sensor. And there are new image samples at ePhotozine (Click here) and Four Thirds User (Click here) if you need to check for yourself.
Haruo Ogawa, Manager of Marketing Division, talked about the new E-M5 on the Olympus OM-D facebook page: “The OM-D development began with a strategic aim to create an entirely new market. In 2007, we conducted a survey among camera (or SLR users – need to define the “users”) users and were able to identify the needs and wants of a camera system that were not being met with existing products. The PEN (E-P1), released two and a half years ago, was developed according to the results of this study. At the time we received the results of the user survey, we had also identified a different audience from the one targeted by the PEN. This was identified as “serious photographers with creative attitude”. With this information, the idea for the OM-D was born. The OM-D is a product for camera-loving photographers, and is also a great choice for Four Thirds users. We will continue to further the OM-D system development and the Four Thirds system as well.”
Former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and six more people have been arrested in Japan. You can read more about that story at Bloomberg (Click here).
I have not a lot to say, it’s a quite long and complicated story. The real important news will arrive at the emergency shareholder meeting on April 20 at which investors will vote on a new management. And soon we will also know who will become the new partner from Olympus. Sony, Samsung, Fuji or Panasonic are particularly interested in the medical business from Olympus. Effects on the camera business will probably be very marginal.
Reminder: First Voigtländer Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 preorders in Europe at [shoplink 29193 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
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