Nikon just announced the new J1 and V1 mirrorless cameras with new 2,7 crop sensor. You can read the full news coverage at MirrorlessRumors.com. Nikon doesn’t offer a small normal kit lens like the [shoplink 25104]Panasonic 14-42mm X lens[/shoplink]. And the pancake is small yes, but neither fast (f/2.8) nor smaller than the [shoplink 16258]14mm f/2.5 lens[/shoplink]. If the purpose of Nikon was to use a smaller sensor to have smaller lenses than at first quick look I can say they completely failed. Of course the Nikon strengths  the huge advertising power and retailer network. Maybe they will sell well anyway. But there is nothing from that systems that makes me say….”WOW”! Also the price (599 for the J1 and 869 for the V1) is very high!

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Image courtesy: Quesabesde.

Quesabesde (Click here) posted a Panasonic X lens hands-on: “the new 14-42 mm zoom has managed to surprise us”

More pictures of the upcoming 12-35mm and 35-100mm Panasosnic X lenses at Focus Numerique (Click here).

Panasonic 14-42mm X preorder search links at [shopcountry 25104].
Panasonic 45-175mm X preorder search links at [shopcountry 25103].

After the Olympus PEN and Panasonic GF3 announcement in back in June we had three new mirrorless cameras from the competition.
I am now curious to hear which one caught your attention, which one is a camera you would love to see with a Micro Four Thirds mount! I added the Fuji X10 camera as option on the poll. It has a fixed lens but it’s certainly an interesting mirrorless camera!

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There are some interesting positive aspects on almost any I mentioned here: The [shoplink 25421]Fuji X10[/shoplink] controls, the [shoplink 25396]NEX-7[/shoplink] built-in OLED viewfinder, the Sony [shoplink 25423]NEX-5n[/shoplink] sensors. I left out the [shoplink 25424]NX200[/shoplink] because I really don’t know what to like about that camera!

P.S.: On Wednesday Nikon will announce their new mirrorless system!

“The US$399 DSLR” from Thom Hogan (Click here): “Olympus made no in-roads to beating the Canon/Nikon duopoly with their 4/3 DSLRs and about three years ago put their eggs instead into the m4/3 basket. Every now and again we see older m4/3 cameras on clearance hitting the US$399 kit price, but interestingly, even at that price those cameras don’t climb to the top of the interchangeable camera sales list. What sits up there? The low-end Nikon and Canon models most of the time. Even in mirrorless-happy Japan that’s the case.”

Thom analyzes the price war between DSLR and Mirrorless and explains why the DSLR price didn’t drop at all. The only ongoing change is that you have more margins on Mirrorless cameras than you have on DSLR’s: “So prepare for more mirrorless cameras. As I’ve noted previously, it’s been a mirrorless summer already (Olympus with three, Panasonic with two, Sony with three, Samsung with one new model announced and/or shipping). But don’t prepare for the US$399 interchangeable lens camera. The camera makers haven’t been pressured to get there yet. The price of entry is pretty much US$599, same as it ever was.”

I am sure the future is “Mirrorless” but it will probably be a slow change at least in “western” countries. There is no single m43 camera that are inside the top 40 of the Amazon rankings :(
Click here for the US ranking.
Click here for the UK ranking.
Click here for the DE ranking.
Click here for the FR ranking.

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Micro 4/3 vs High-end Compact (Panasonic GF3 vs LX-5)

Panasonic GF1 review at Wetakepictures: “I have been very happy with the Panasonic as my main (only!) digital camera, it is very capable, and is a good companion to my medium format camera when i am setting out to take pictures, and great on it’s own as well. For me, I don’t especially like SLR cameras, and find the handling and style of the Panasonic a lot nicer to use. It does almost everything that I want a digital camera to do.”

Street Photography with Olympus 17mm and Optical Viewfinder (TheDigitalStory).

Richard Franiec says E-PL3 accessory grip also suitable for PEN Mini (Dpreview).

Enthusiast camera review by C.Garrad (with the E-P3 and E-PL3).

Today it’s firmware update party! Also Olympus announced a new [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] firmware: “Firmware version 1.2 ensures the movement of the dial on the optional HLD-4 battery grip matches the movement of the selected AF point.“. You need the Olympus Digital Camera Updater software to upgrade the E-5: http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_downloads_updater.asp

It is not a Micro Four Thirds camera but many on 43rumors do own it and the news is worthy to be posted :)
Panasonic released a major firmware upgrade for the [shoplink 21136 ebay]Panasonic LX5[/shoplink] high end compact camera. You can download it here: http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/LX5/index.html

The main changes are:
Auto Focus speed-up.
[HIGH ISO NR] has been added to the [REC] menu.
Improved auto white balance performance.
[ACTIVE MODE] has been added to the [MOTION PICTURE] menu.
The AF/AE Lock operated by half-pressing the shutter button has been improved.
When [MF] is set, you can make fine adjustments to the focus using a simpler operation than before.
The position and size of the AF area you have set are now stored.
The upper limit of the shutter speed in Manual Exposure Mode has been raised. (Max 250 seconds approximately)
[MINIATURE EFFECT] has been added to My Colour Mode.
[MONITOR] / [VIEWFINDER] has been added to the [SETUP] menu.

And those are the direct LX5 search links at [shopcountry 21136].

Panasonic Japan announced a new firmware upgrde for the following lenses:
LUMIX G VARIO 7-14mm / F4.0 ASPH. (H-F007014)
LUMIX G FISHEYE 8mm / F3.5 (H-F008)
LUMIX G 14mm / F2.5 ASPH. (H-H014)
LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH. / MEGA O.I.S. (H-FS014042)
LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH. / MEGA O.I.S. (H-FS014045)
LUMIX G VARIO 45-200mm / F4.0-5.6 / MEGA O.I.S. (H-FS045200)
LUMIX G VARIO 100-300mm / F4.0-5.6 / MEGA O.I.S. (H-FS100300)

The update improves the tracking focusing for video recording, the silent auto focus, and the exposure control. The stability of the optical image stabilizer is also enhanced for video recording.

Doanload the firmare at http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/index.html (via Slashgear).