The next bunch of MFT cameras is expected to be announced in August-September. But we already had four new cameras in this year. You know the specs and you read reviews and previews. So let us know….

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Curious to see what you vote :)

Full new MFT stuff preorder list:
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema at Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and in Europe at Technikdirekt.
Panasonic GF6 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Technikdirekt, Wex UK,
Panasonic G6 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and at Wex UK (Click here).
Panasonic 14-140mm lens at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and at Wex UK (Click here).
Panasonic LF1 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and at WexUK (Click here).
E-P5 Black at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 White at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 Silver at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 Black with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon UK.
E-P5 Silver with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon UK.
E-P5 White with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon UK.
E-P5 Black with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and Wex UK.
E-P5 White with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany and Amazon UK.
E-P5 Silver with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
17mm f/1.8 Black at Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.
45mm f/1.8 Black at Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany.
75mm f/1.8 Black at Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.
VF-4 viewfinder at Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.

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Vitaly from Personal View (Click here) analyzed the CIPA data (pdf here). He highlighted in red where the sales shrinked and in green where there was a growth. As you can see oversea sales (means outside Japan) shrinked in all camera segments (from compact camera to DSLR to mirrorless). And mirrorless sales are doing worse than DSLR.

Europe: Almost half of cameras were sold compared to the previous period. While the DSLR sales had a minus 10% only.
USA:  Around 30% less mirrorless cameras sold while DSLR had a negligible 3-4% loss only.

Question: Is the mirrorless hype over? What has to be done to bring mirrorless cameras back to success?

As you know the future of photography is changing. Smartphones and soon Google Glass, Watches and other uncommon devices will be the main tool for our daily photography. And what’s Panasonic vision of future cameras? A camera-ball :)
I don’t know why Panasonic is doing this, the patent is written in Japanese (Click here to download the PDF). Below you can the the section of the camera-ball. Would you walk around with a ball on your chest?

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Olympus patented a new MFT lens. It’s a 40-200mm lens with constant f/4.0 aperture (Source: Egami).

A Carnival of Colour from James Norden on Vimeo.

The Panasonic warranty on G cameras now runs for 5 instead of 2 years in Germany (Photoscala).
Panasonic LF1 review at Photographyblog.
Olympus Corp. no longer on Tokyo Stock Exchange alert list (Dpnow).
Olympus Though review at ePhotozine.

Farrukh: “Hello, I attended the La Cambre fashion show where instead of having a steady stream of light on the catwalk they used flashing lights throughout. It’s reasons like this that I look forward to the dynamic range offered by the upcoming Black Magic Pocket Camera. Have a look and what I managed to get on the EP3:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152858225725328”

James: “http://vimeo.com/68034816 I Used the GH3 and SLR Magic 25mm 0.95 lens at a colourful carnival on Saturday. Try focusing on a moving float and people when it is that shallow… Steep learning curve but lots of fun!
Technical details: 50MB/s 1920×1080 50FPS MOV recording format. ISO 200. 1/100 Shutter speed. Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. Graded with Magic Bullet Looks.”

Lior: “I wanted to share with you a video clip I shot with the GH3. The video shows the beauty of north Israel. I almost got killed by a cow while shooting… its in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgDqNwUOfo“

The newly published US Patent Application 20130141632 (Click here) discloses a Panasonic adapter with built-in mirror. The main goal is to have phase detection autofocus system. I don’t know if Panasonic is really going to realize and produce this.

For Europeans: Check out [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket (Click here)[/shoplink]. They again listed a very large new stock of refurbished Olympus cameras and lenses. Including some nice lenses like the [shoplink 39504 ebay]75mm f/1.8 (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39501 ebay]45mm f/1.8 (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39502 ebay]60mm macro (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 39503 ebay]9-18mm zoom (Click here)[/shoplink],

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Olympus released the new OMD and PEN firmware updated (Click here to download them). The only new added “feature” for the E-M5 and new PEN’s is the support for the new VF-4 view finder. Some PEN cameras also got a fix: “Stability of touch panel operation during playback was improved.”

The new Panasonic-Fuji organic sensor has a theoretical dynamic range of 88dB (29.2 EV!). The current best DSLR the Nikon D800E has a measured dynamic range of 46dB (15.3 EV) (Source: Adorama via PetaPixel). If the next Panasonic and Fuji cameras can really achieve such an impressive Dynamic than these will be a huge step forward! It will not only close the gap to FF sensors but on paper even “beat” them. Of course, it has to be seen that how long it will take until the new sensor can find his way in real mass production cameras. And of course the competition is certainly working on similar sensors too!

UPDATE: There seems to be a big confusion on the conversion between “dB” and “stops (EV)” A 43rumors reader shared that table:
46 dB = 4.6 B –> 10^4.6 = 2^15.3 –> 15.3 EV (Nikon D800E)
88 dB = 8.8 B –> 10^8.8 = 2^29.2 –> 29.2 EV (New Organic sensor from Panasonic-Fuji)
10 dB = 3.32 EV = log 10 / log 2
(see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel)

P.S.: Short focus on real existing cameras: ….Adorama (Click here) published the full list of 115 newly discounted Olympus cameras and lenses. The same list but separated can be seen at Amazon (here at the cameras and here are the lenses).