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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 :)

SLR Magic 1.33x Anamorphic – Sunset BMCC RAW

GM1 review at AdmiringLight.
12-32mm review at AdmiringLight.
TexBlend 1.1 released (Outbackphoto).
GX7 owner assessment at Soundimagesplus.
Nocticron 42,5mm lens test at Kasyapa, Yaotomi and Yodobashi (Japanese text and wonderful images).
Olympus Stylus 1 test at Trustedreviews.
E-M1 review at Buchangrant.com.
E-M1 vs D800 at Qamera.com.
Comparison between E-M5’s 5 axis stabilisation and E-M10’s 3 axis stabilisation at Bestmirrorlesscamerareviews.
E-M10 with 25mm lens at Bestmirrorlesscamerareviews.
LCD Loupe for the GM1 at r73.
E-M10 vs E-M5 by Jamie on Youtube.
Shooting Spiders with Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro (Facebook).
E-M1 and 300mm F2.8 in the wild at Fullcirclepix.
A closer look at the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (Engadget).

Guillermo: I just calculated the precise ‘ISO LOW’ in the Olympus E-M5 firmware 2.0 update: it is an ISO160, not ISO100. But it is real, it affects RAW data so good news for RAW shooters. Perhaps you like to comment: http://www.guillermoluijk.com/article/em5isolow/”

Lacza: “I have written a post about street shooting with Thomas Leuthard – when he was using 2 EM-1 bodies. https://medium.com/street-photos/a0f8f2053b87”

Ioup: “I wanted to share this with your readers, I shot this short movie with a GH3, and I guess it shows well what you can achieve with this camera! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyR2Ze7C-EE”

Joe: “My friend Mark Toal and I just started (1/1/14) a new blog called Mirrorless Photo Tips (http://www.mirrorlessphototips.com).”

Mike: Just in case there’s some interest, this is a video link to a report I posted in my day job as a Voice of America correspondent, on some women photographers, interviewed at last weekend’s photo show Photo LA — http://www.voanews.com/content/photos-as-windows-on-the-world/1836538.html”

David: “It is a field test of Olympus’ older, 4/3rds, 50-200 f2.8-3.5 SWD lens (and it’s matching 1.4x converter) and the E-M1. I used the combination to shoot the crazies who race motocross bikes across frozen lakes, at -20C! You can find it, along with my other Olympus reviews, here: http://www.furnfeather.net/Reviews/ReviewIndex.html”

Robin: “Actually it’s no rumor I’d like to share, but my E-M1 review. I tried to sign up for the page, but it wasn’t working. Hope it’s ok I use the ‘share news and rumors’ box. My review is available in english and german and it contains tons of real word images, taken on the streets in asia. If you like my review, I would be happy if you could share it with the community. :)
english version:
http://www.fotodesign-rs.de/olympus-om-d-em-1-review/
german version:
http://www.fotodesign-rs.de/olympus-om-d-em-1-review/“

ON top you can watch the unboxing video of the $1,600 Nocticron lens. By the way, the lens can now be preordered in Germany too at Redcoon (Click here). Price? 1499 Euro!

Short break from MFT news to talk about a curious new Olympus camera: The probably most innovative new product announced yesterday is the Olympus SP-100 (spec and price here at Amazon). And what’s so special with it? It has a 50x zoom (24-1200mm) and it also has a never seen Eagle-Eye gun sight feature! Just check the video below to learn more about it:

Quite cool!

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Preorder links for all new Olympus Stuff:
Special page with all new products at Amazon.
E-M10 Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 with 14-42mm lens Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama , GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 with 14-42mm lens Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
25mm f/1.8 Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
25mm f/1.8 Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
14-42mm Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
14-42mm Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
Olympus SP-100 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
Olympus TG-850 iHS at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
Olympus ECG-1 Black Camera Grip for E-M10 at Amazon, Adorama.
Olympus 9mm f8.0 Fisheye Body Cap Lens at Adorama, GetOlympus. In EU at Wex Uk.
Olympus V321200BW000 Macro Converter MCON-P02 (Black) at Amazon,

Cameras Reviewed reports:

E-M5 owners should note that Olympus tells us a firmware update is on the way to enable focus peaking, bringing the original OM-D more in line with its new baby brother.

UPDATE: TJ Donegan from Camera.reviewed updated their statement:

Just to be clear, we were told this specifically during our briefing at CES on the E-M10. We asked them twice and they confirmed that it was coming. In the normal reporting process we go through while reviewing the E-M10 we reached out to Olympus reps to double-check this fact and were told that it will not be in the next update, but that it could still be included in future updates We’ve updated the review accordingly.

As a side note I can tell you that an anonymous source told me that Sony first didn’t allow Olympus to use peaking mode on their sensor. Now that Olympus and Sony are official partners this has changed. I don’t know if what the anonymous source told me here is correct. But we can expect some great thing from the partnership anyway ;)

Reminder: Panasonic G 4K announcement next week on Friday 5-6am London time (Feb 7).

Today there are also two major news related to the E-M5:

1) New E-M5 firmware update to version 2.0 (Source: Olympus Japan). This firmware adds:

• Small AF target () was added to the AF target settings.
• ISO LOW (100 equivalent) was expanded on the low sensitivity side.

Quite nice to have ISO 100!!!

2) Olympus also launched the special E-M5 kit with 12-40mm f/2.8 lens, new leatherette body, refined dials. There is no price info but the kit will be released in March (Source: Olympus Japan).

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Reminder: New Preorders:
Special page with all new products at Amazon.
E-M10 Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 with 14-42mm lens Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
E-M10 with 14-42mm lens Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
25mm f/1.8 Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
25mm f/1.8 Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
14-42mm Black at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
14-42mm Silver at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. In EU at Wex UK, Amazon Germany.
Olympus SP-100 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
Olympus TG-850 iHS at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
Olympus ECG-1 Black Camera Grip for E-M10 at Amazon, Adorama.
Olympus 9mm f8.0 Fisheye Body Cap Lens at Adorama. In EU at Wex Uk.
Olympus V321200BW000 Macro Converter MCON-P02 (Black) at Amazon,
All new Olympus preorders In Finland at Topshot.