The E-M1 sensor (Image courtesy: Chipworks).

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As you know the Olympus E-M5 had a Sony sensor (Code IMX109). But Chipworks dismantled the new E-m1 camera and discovered that the newer OMD uses a Panasonic sensor (Code: MN34231). Quite a surprise because everyone was expecting Olympus to continue to use Sony sensors also because of their recently disclosed partnership.

Reminder: You can get stackable rebates with all OMD cameras (E-M5, E-M1 and new E-M10) at GetOlympus (Click here) and Amazon (Click here)!

All current US deals:
E-M5, 45mm lens and flash special box at Amazon (Click here) and Adorama (Click here)
Save $200 on Select Panasonic Lenses with the Purchase of a Qualifying Panasonic Cameras at Amazon (Click here).
$50 off on the Panasonic GM1 (Black or Orange kit) at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Olympus XZ-2 for $299 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), GetOlympus (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Olympus XZ-10 for $199 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), GetOlympus (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Full deal page overview at Amazon and GetOlympus.

I was wondering how the E-M1 would affect the financial results from Olympus. There must be some good news hidden under the fact that the E-M1 is constantly on top of the most popular mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon (full list here).

Well, Olympus just issued their latest financial report (full pdf download here). And Olympus confirms the E-M1 sales helped them to increase by 19% their mirrorless camera sales! This helped to cut its imaging business losses by 60%. AP reports:

While Olympus is still not back to making profits again from its camera business, this is still pretty amazing because when you think about it, it’s really one single camera that proved so profitable for the company that its imaging division was able to reduce its operating losses from JPY4.3 billion (US$41.9 million) to JPY1.7 billion (US$16.6 million).

Forecast:
Olympus plans to focus on lens release and OMD line development. The PEN series is not doing well and it’s not clear how they will continue to develop the PEN line.

Summary in short: The OMD saved Olympus ass :)

E-M1 Store Links:
Olympus E-M1 body at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto, Amazon DE (via DL), Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL), WexUK, Topshot FI, CameraWorldUK.
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonDE (viaDL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK and CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50mm Lens kit at Amazon DE (via DL), WexUK, CameraWorldUK, Amazon UK (via DL), Amazon ES (via DL).
Olympus EP-13 Eyecup for E-M1 at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus HLD-7 Battery Grip for E-M1 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LC-62D Metal Front Lens Cap for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.
Olympus LH-66 Lens Hood for 12-40mm at Adorama and BHphoto.

We will have to wait more than one month to know price and place our preorders on the new GH4. Amazon US (Click here) reports that “we will begin accepting pre-orders on March 17, 2014“.

Meantime the readers reaction the GH4 is very positive according to our POLL. I hope Panasonic will not change our mood after the final price announcement :)

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And here is the GH4 Shooting Impression by Daniel Berehulak:

GH4 specs, price and preorder notifications:
Panasonic GH4 body at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).
DMW-YAGH interface unit at Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Panasonic US (Click here).
DMW-FL580L Flash at Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).

Previews, tests and image samples:
Hands-on at EosHD, Quick summary at Dpreview, Hands-on at Pocket Lint, First impressions at Trustedreviews, Hands-on pics at Cnet, First impression at ThePhoBlographer, First impressions at Quesabesde (Spanish), First imrpession at Cmaeras.Reviewed, Hands-on at Hybridcams, First Impression at Imaging Resource.

Videos:
“Light of the Yucatan” in 4K by Bryan Harvey (youtube), Shooting Impression by Bryan Harvey (youtube), GH4 Shooting Impression by Bence Máté (youtube), GH4 Shooting Impression by Takehito Miyatake (youtube), Panasonic GH4 commercial (youtube), Shooting Impression by Daniel Berehulak (youtube), Gh4 at Videoaktiv (German), First look by Wex (youtube), GH4 hands on by PMA (Italian), Video at Park Cameras (youtube).

Hot Notes:
1) Pricing will be announced in mid March only! (Camera will cost less than $2000 or 2000 Euro).
2) This is the world’s first mirrorless interchangeable lens mount camera recording 4K
3) The external XLR / HD-SDI add-on for this camera allows for uncompressed 10bit 4K output over 3G HD-SDI – the kind of spec Canon currently charges $25,000 fo (EosHD).
4) DFD (Depth-of-Defocus) autofocus works like this: During live view (before a half-press of the shutter button), the camera will occasionally make a tiny adjustment to focus, to check whether subjects in the frame are in front of or behind the current focus point. In addition to this information, the camera judges how far out-of-focus objects in the scene are, based on how blurred they are, assessed using a profile detailing the blur behavior of the lens at its current aperture. Although this combination of data itself doesn’t give the GH4 enough information to achieve precise focus, it does give it a clear idea of where it should start using conventional contrast detection AF process to achieve fine focus. (Dpreview).
5) Recording 4K will crop your image by an ulterior 1,125x (Cinema 4K) or 1,2x (Cinema) factor (Personal View).
6) The new sensor seems to be able to get more detail out of the highlights than the sensor in the Olympus EM1 (ThePhoBlographer).

Press release:
Dpreview, Panasonic, 43rumors, SystemKameraForum (German), Pocket Lint, Engadget, Photographyblog, Photoscala (German), DSLRmagazine (Spanish), Panasonic (Japanese),

Poll:

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Click on the images to see a large size version:

One Week with SLR Magic anamorphot (OM-D & Sony A7) from Seb Farges on Vimeo.

E-M1 video quality test at EosHD.
Camera Duel: Sony RX100 Mk II vs Panasonic Lumix GM1 at Digitalversus.
Firmware updated for the G6 (page here) and GF6 (page here).
SLRMagic 17mm T1.6 review at ThePhoBlographer.
Panasonic at The Photography Show (Photographyblog).
Perspective Warp in Photoshop CC 14.2 (Outbackphoto).
First refurbished [shoplink 44499 ebay]Olympus E-M1[/shoplink] and first refurbished [shoplink 44500 ebay]12-40mm lens[/shoplink] on sale at [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink].

John: “and… here’s a five-minute video I made with the GM1 and 12-35mm f/2.8 lens during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFT9pmIyR_g&feature=youtu.be“

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Panasonic issued their latest financial report (PDF download here). And the good news is that “Operating Profit Increased Significantly”.  Bloomberg reports:

Net income rose 20 percent to 73.7 billion yen ($730 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, the Osaka-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. That beat the 44 billion-yen average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The reason why Panasonic did so well is because they did cut investments in unprofitable businesses (like Plasma TV) and started a huge restructuring program. Panasonic is particularly doing well in the car supplying industry. There is no info in their report about the camera business. The only major camera related news is that Panasonic announced the reorganization of the Semiconductor Business and Transfer of Shares of Subsidiaries regarding Overseas Factories (PDF here).

Good news for the company while it remains a bit of a mystery what will happen with the camera business. Panasonic said many times they now want to focus on the more professional market. And the G4K is exactly going into that direction.

Vitaly from Personal View made this nice graph based on the shipped camera data shared by japanese companies. The graph on top shows how mirrorless system camera shipments are constantly growing in Asia while they remain weak in EU and North America. And the graph below shows how compact camera shipments are always on the same level. The truth is system cameras shipment decreased over the last two years.

And as you can see mirrorless system cameras do sell well in Asia:

I will leave any comment up to the experts visiting this site :)