The french company MicroOLED announced a new impressive Oled viewfinder technology (Source: Imaging Resource). It has 5.4 million pixel density and a 0.61 inch diagonal. Imaging Resource says that this resolution should surpass the human eye! It has a High contrast (maximum 100,000:1) and high uniformity (96 per cent). And there is a monochrome version too! Would be nice if the Olympus OM-D could be the first camera to use this but I guess that will remain a dream for now because the french company clearly said that this is aimed for the high end market (camcorders but also military stuff).
Meanwhile there is one more Fuji-Olympus partnerhsip rumor…yes..again! Here on Reuters.
Andrew Reid (Click here) compared the Panasonic Gh2 and RED video quality: “Straight off the camera the GH2 can look great, but the Scarlet holds up far better in post, where you are able to change pretty much any aspect of the image to a massive extent. This simply isn’t possible with DSLR footage.”
Tyson Robichaud (Click here) dared to make a comparison between the Panasonic G3 and Canon 5DII: “I am very impressed with the G3 files when seeing them side by side. Noisier, yes, but they do a good job at retaining definition and color.”
Olympus 12-50mm lens tested at Digitalcamerareview (Click here): “Pretty impressive when you realize this lens basically fits in the palm of your hand.”
Image on top: The 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor from Aptina.
The only thing we now about the new Olympus OM-D sensor is that it has 16 megapixel, an increased dynamic range compared to the previous cameras and superb video quality. But the big question is …who made the sensor? I am having hard times to think that this is a Panasonic sensor. Panasonic wouldn’t give the newest sensor to Olympus before to use it on their own cameras. It could be Fuji but I don’t know if they want to cannibalize their newly launch X PRO 1. It could be a Sony, but again why ship sensors to a direct competitor? It could be Samsung that we know proposed their sensor tech to Oly. And it could be Aptina that is already selling their sensors for Nikon. Just for fun, I want you to place your bet:
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My bet goes to Aptina. It’s just my “feeling”, not a rumor :(
The 4K camera from Astrodesign with the [shoplink 14802]Panasonic 14-140mm lens[/shoplink].
Olympus Global (Click here) announced that Astrodesign, Kenko and Tamron joined the Micro Four Thirds group! Here is the company description:
ASTRODESIGN, Inc.
A Japanese company established in 1977 that designs and develops professional video equipment and measurement/analysis-related equipment. Well known for developing the world’s first programmable signal generator and the Ultra HDTV image processor devices used at Expo 2005 Aichi, Japan.
ASTRODESIGN, Inc. Website http://www.astrodesign.co.jp/english/ Editor’s note: It’s the very first time I hear about that company. And I am really wondering what kind of m43 related product they could release!!!
Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd.
A Japanese company established in 1957 that designs and develops a wide variety of photographic supplies and optical products. It is Japan’s largest manufacturer/seller of lens filters.
Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. Website http://www.kenkoglobal.com/ Editor’s note: Kenko has experience in camera and lens manufacturing. They made the [shoplink 28545 ebay]KF-1N (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink] which is F-mount camera. And they make well known [shoplink 28546 ebay]adapters and extensions tube[/shoplink] (mostly for Canon and Nikon).
Tamron Co., Ltd.
A Japanese company established in 1950 that designs and develops interchangeable SLR camera lenses, lens units for surveillance, as well as ultra-precision optical components based on the integration of advanced optical, electronic and precision machinery engineering technologies.
Tamron Co., Ltd. Website http://www.tamron.co.jp/en/
Editor’s note: That’s certainly the biggest new entry. And it’s interesting to notice that they already did lenses for the OM system in the past ([shoplink 28547 ebay]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]).
Plenty of good news for Olympus! First we have that nice OM announcement. Second Olympus is (slowly) getting out of the financial troubles. And today we have a third good news!
BCNawards (Click here) reports that Olympus had a mirrorless camera share of 36,6% in 2012. That’s a 7,5% gain over the last year (see screenshot on top). Panasonic lost around 9%. I don’t have the data of the overall digital camera market share but as you know in Japan mirrorless cameras are now selling almost as good as DSLR cameras. You can see the full ranking list for each category here at BCN. A reason for the Olympus success could be the triple PEN introduction back in June while Panasonic did wait until November to announce the nice [shoplink 26836]Panasonic GX1[/shoplink]. I am surprised to see that Sony felt back despite the NEX-5n and NEX-7 camera release! Of course they got hit by the Thai flood but my guess is that their unappealing and lacking lens offering could be a reason for the share drop.
There is no such nice ranking in other countries. As you know I rely on the very imprecise Amazon ranking listing to check if a camera is popular or not. But we know that in Europe and USA the mirrorless market isn’t growing as fast as in Asia. But I guess it’s only a matter of time until Mirrorless will surpass the DSLR market.
Some reader keeps sending me link to OM-D images that are actually rendering based on rumors and NOT real leaks! Both, Tecnofotografia (Click here to see their OM-D) and Livedoor (Click here) are well known for creating super nice designs but they are in no way related to the real products! P.S.: Special greetings to the Livedoor guys!
Sony sensor rumors: Many are asking me if Olympus will use a new Sony RGBW sensor for their new OM camera. It looks like other websites are speculating about this because of the two recent news: 1) Next week Sony could announce a new partnership with Olympus (Source: diamond.jp). 2) Sony today announced a new RGBW sensor great High Dynamic Range (Source: Sony.jp)
I cannot confirm or deny the rumor yet, but I have many doubts that this is going to happen. Sony’s press release text clearly says that they will produce the sensor for smart phones or compact cameras with small sensor size. But again, I have no info yet so we will have to wait until trusted sources can tell me more about it! One more info: A top source told me the grip of the OM-D camera is NOT removable.
Good news for the Olympus company: Tokyo exchange were extremely “gentle” with the company. Olympus has to pay a penalty of $129,800 only to remain listed on the Tokyo Exchange. Electronista reports: “The light penalty was based on the belief that just a handful of staffers had been responsible for hiding Olympus’ losses and that the core of the company was safe.”
Meanwhile Reuters reports that Sony is on pole position for an Olympus tie. -> every week someone else is in “pole position” :)
And Olympus announced a new firmware upgrade for PEN cameras. It adds compatibility with the new [shoplink 27977]12-50mm[/shoplink] power zoom lens. To upgrade follow those instructions:
Simply launch the included Olympus camera software and connect the camera via USB cable to an Internet connected computer. Choose the Update function from the Camera menu in the software to apply available updates for camera bodies, lenses and accessories.
The french company MicroOLED announced a new impressive Oled viewfinder technology (Source: Imaging Resource). It has 5.4 million pixel density and a 0.61 inch diagonal. Imaging Resource says that this resolution should surpass the human eye! It has a High contrast (maximum 100,000:1) and high uniformity (96 per cent). And there is a monochrome version too! Would be nice if the Olympus OM-D could be the first camera to use this but I guess that will remain a dream for now because the french company clearly said that this is aimed for the high end market (camcorders but also military stuff).
Image on top: The 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor from Aptina.
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The 4K camera from Astrodesign with the [shoplink 14802]Panasonic 14-140mm lens[/shoplink].
