During the latest episode of CameraDiner a Panasonic UK manager unveiled some info about the GH3. Just watch the video on top from minute 21. Some of the highlights:
– The GH3 will start shipping at the end of November.
– Rear display and touch focus shown in use.
– The AA filter in pre-production cameras sent out for review is not the final version.
– No focus peaking for now, but it’s not ruled out for the future.
– Exclusive offer for viewers in the UK from Wilkinson Camera.  Buy the GH3 and get a second battery and 32 GB SD card free with special code.
– HDMI output shown in use (briefly)

GH3 preorders at Amazon , Adorama, Bhphoto, Panasonic US, Samys and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.

Reminder: Panasonic price on the GX1 kit and 45-175mm X lens.

Let’s catch up with some financial news:

Wall Street Journal reports that “Olympus President Hiroyuki Sasa indicated Monday that the company might need further collaboration with Sony to turn around Olympus’s unprofitable compact-camera business.” And Panasonic said that “it will axe another 10,000 jobs” (Source: Reuters).

Overall by reading their reports you will notice that both companies are slowly recovering from the crisis and the forecast is positive. And coming back to Sony’s and Olympus compact-camera strategy…does it make sense to keep their foot in such dying business? The only kind of compact camera that still can stand up against the cameraphones may be the Sony RX100. P.S.: The XZ-1 sells fine (ranking here) but Olympus had to cut the price down to $199 and I doubt they will have some margin on this.

But again, I am not an expert in these kind of analysis. May you can add some more value to that discussion by commenting this post!

And here it is the new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens! This page will be continually updated with new info:

Preorders:
BHphoto for $499 (Click here).

Reviews and Image samples:
Street Shooting Review by Robin Wong. You can download his full size JPEG samples at Mediafire. He says:
– Bokeh is very smooth, creamy and pleasing to look at.
– autofocus performance of the 17mm F1.8 lens, used on the E-PL5, is exceptionally good
– no ghosting, no flare, no distortion and only very low CA.
– the level of fine details captured is very impressive.
Full test by Pekka Potka. Some of his interesting findings:
– Compared to the Panasonic 20mm lens the new 17mm lens shows practically no fringing. The Lumix shows more resolution but has also weaker (micro) contrast.
– Price and quality goes hand in hand. If you feel this is expensive, you will also find this lens being very good.
More image samples at Pen And Tell (German) and Petapixel.
The French website OpenPN posted the official Len MTF chart:

Press release:
Dpreview, ThePhoBlographer, DSLRmagazine (Spanish), Neocamera, Lepidi (French), Photoscala (German), Olympus (Japanese), OpenPN (French), Focus Numerique (French), Quesabesde (Spanish), Imaging Resource, Pixiq, SystemKameraForum (German).

European price: Some website write that the price is 499 Euro and some others write that the price is 499 Euro.

Poll:

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DSLRgearnoidea posted these funny video promoting Mirrorless cameras against the DSLR “bigger is better” culture. You really have to watch this!

UPDATE: The video has been relaized by Sony Australia. Great to see they didn’t just do it to put a big Sony NEX logo at the end. Kudo!

Apefoscope Anamorphic Adapter Project from apefos on Vimeo. More info on Personal View.

For EU readers: a list of eight(!) refurbished E-M5 camera is available on [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket (Click here)[/shoplink]. But please be ware that the lowest price for the new E-M5 is 879 Euro (Here on Slidoo eBay).

New reviews and news:
A Tale Of Three G5 Cameras at Brianbyrdsphotos.
The 28th of October E-Pl1 report on Greekdiaries.
Olympus XZ-2 Review at Photographyblog.
Olympus E-PL5 test at Photogenic Weekend.
Things move on – Olympus E10 (Soundimagesplus).
Tokina Reflex 300mm MF Macro Lens Review at ePhotozine.
Panasonic GX1 – why don’t I like using it? (Soundimagesplus).
Smart Lens cap for the LX7 at DC.watch.
60mm macro review by Smallcamerabigpicture.
Olympus body cap lens test by Fotosidan.
Panasonic 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens for Micro 4/3 review by Steve Huff.

Readers mail:
Markus: “I am afraid I don’t have any rumors but if you need a link for your next “readers roundup” it would be an honour to be mentioned with my blog www.rkushanselmann.de I am especially interested in macros. After having used  an E-510 the ZD40-150mm and a Raynox (amazing what this combination is capable of doing!) for years I now use the E-M5 (most times with the adapted ZD50mm). Lately I have done some zoo test shooting with the E-M5 and the Panasonic 100-300mm (great combination as well).”
Tan: “I’m an avid user of Olympus cameras and I love reading your rumours on the development of 4/3 and m4/3 systems. I’m afraid I do not have any rumours to share but I have a blog/gallery at http://worldwitholympus.designbykl.com/ shot with different models of Olympus camera to share. It consist of some oldies from C8080 and C7070 too.”
Plochmann: “I just finished a blog about using the GH2 for a videography camera.   I compare it to the FS100, its stiff competition, and I also mention things in light of the GH3s immediate release.  I haven’t read anything thorough on using the GH2 for event video work, so I thought it would be worth sharing.  http://www.production1studio.com/2012/09/29/880/”
Twills: “Here is a set of highlights from a local BMX competition that I filmed with my GH2 + 35-100mm F2.8 @ F2.8 and my new GoPro 3 Black mounted to the hot shoe. The clicking noise in some of the clips is the GH2 taking stills while the GoPro Recorded video. I know the editing is poor in this video. I shot WAY TOO MANY things this weekend and just didn’t have time to do the editing justice. Take it for what it is. Just a bunch of samples from both cameras. I tried editing the colors on the first few clips but after that I just didn’t have time. I shot in 720p  60 FPS and F2.8 for the GH2 shots(Can you tell which one those are?). And I shot at 720p @ 120 FPS Narrow angle non-Protune, 720p @ 120 FPS Wide angle Pro-tune, 1080p @ 60 FPS Medium Angle Pro-tune, and 2.7K @ 30 FPS Pro-tune for the Go-Pro 3. Can you tell which clips are what resolution and frame rates for the GoPro? Hint, several of the clips having very bad aliasing in the fence in the background. That is eliminated by using a narrower field of view. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqNIOm3CY0“.
Horacio “Fellow photographer, If you are about to travel to Argentina, I’m willing to pay you for your used equipment -if it is in good condition- the same price you would paid back home for new gear.
I apologize if its not the place to say this.  horaciux.43@gmail.com“

By mistake Dpreview today announced that Zeiss would release the Zeiss 135mm and in MFT mount. They confused the M42 screw mount with the MFT (Micro Four Thirds) mount. Dpreview quickly removed the post but some of our readers still think that this was a correct news. That’s why I am reporting this.

The only Zeiss lenses we can use on our MFT cameras are the superb [shoplink 24401 ebay]Zeiss ZM lenses (her eon eBay)[/shoplink]. You have to use a M to MFT mount adapter for them. My favorite ZM lens is the Zeiss Planar 50mm (here on Slidoo eBay). But of course you don’t have electronic communication between these kind of lenses and your MFT camera. I can live with that.

The well known US store BHphoto just marked most of the E-P3 kits as being “discontinued” (Click here to see the list). This doesn’t necessarily mean that the successor is coming but it matches the rumor we posted two weeks ago saying that new Olympus cameras are going to be announced within the next 2-3 months. Question is what’s coming?

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Meantime, the E-PL5 is in Stock at Amazon and BHphoto. And so the E-Pm2 (Amazon and BHphoto). But the most sold camera at Amazon is the Panasonic GF3 (ranking here).