The new SLRmagic 25mm f/0.95 lens is in the middle between the Voigtlander and the Leica.

So here we are with the next super fast f/0.95 lens! After the Hyperprime 50mm and the two Voigtlander 25mm and 17.5mm SLR magic will develop another 25mm f/0.95 lens! It will very likely arrive on market by end of the year and have an extimated price similar of the [shoplink 25691 ebay]Hyperprime 50mm lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

They also send me some image samples which they told “are representative of 70% of what our final lens can produce. We noticed some purple fringing and we will try to address that issue before the production model“. They will show that lens at Photokina in September (Hall 3.1 at booth B059).

Below you can find an f/0.95 image comparison (Click on them to enlarge). On the left the SLRmagic and on the right the Voigtlander. The SLR Magic lens has thinner DOF. It is because it is a T0.95 lens and not a f/0.95 lens. Images may look blurry in some comparison photos but it is just because of thinner DOF. You can see the thin plane of focus is actually quite sharp. The ISO was 200 and shutter speed was 1/15 on a manfrotto portable tripod with WB at 3000K.

Comparison at f/0.95

Comparison at f/1.4

The advantage of the SLRmagic lens over the Voigtlander is the smooth aperture ring (perfect for cinematographers), it’s sharper wide open, and less purple fringing.

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This would become the fourth m43 lens with f/0.95 aperture. The other three are the:
[shoplink 15659 ebay]Nokton 25mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 30452 ebay]Nokton 17.5mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 25691 ebay]Noktor SLRmagic 50mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink]

Olympus (Click here) just announced the new Tough camera. Camera specs and preorders are available at Amazon USA (Click here). UPDATE: And indeed the teaser was for the new camera: http://getolympus.com/worldsfirst/.
Now let’s see what’s coming next from the lens and PEN front!

The video on top has been made by Seb Farges. He used the GH2 with the super new (and not on market) SLR CINE lens 50mm T 0.95. The anamorphic shots were made with this lens and the baby [shoplink 25880 ebay]Berthiot Hypergonard 1.75X (here on eBay)[/shoplink] fix on it.

A first review of the new Lumix converters at Mynichi (Click here).

The movie “Serbuan Maut” has been entirely shot with the AG-AF100

The new GF5 star filter in use at DSLRmagazine (Click here for the translation).

Olympus converters tested at DC.watch (Click here for the translation).

A new case for the GX1 at DC.watch (Click here for the translation).

Readers mail: “Hi admin, this is not a rumpr but check out this trailer to an upcoming feature film that was shot on the GH2.
http://vimeo.com/40268487
You can read about it on this thread over at dvx user. The cinematographer said a lot of times it was just him and the sound mixer in terms of crew.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?279919-Feature-shot-on-hacked-GH2

Nik: “For your readers roundup, here is another video that I photographed with the GH2 and Olympus Zuiko 50 f2: https://vimeo.com/40191194”

Patrick: “Another GH2 macro video! This time with a 20mm f1.7 and a reverse mount adapter from ebay. https://vimeo.com/40166049“

You may know from our past posts on 43rumors that one of the future key technologies will be the “liquid lens”. This allows lenses to be super compact, super fast AF with zero noise and other great features. My friend Frank from CanonWatch (Click here) found that cool video you see on top of this post. It explains well how the principle works. If you don’t have time to watch it all go on minute 7:40 of the video. I bet that after seeing this you will run to your tap to test that for yourself :)

Tokina (Click here) published more info about the upcoming new 300mm f/6.3 lens. One of my japanese readers translated the text (Thanks!):

The good: Still looks good and under 300grams.
The bad: Still a month away.
The ugly: 40000YEN (370 Euro/$490)!!!! WTF. I have a [shoplink 30536 ebay]500mm T-Mount from Bower[/shoplink] for 120usd.

Yep, it looks good and it performs good but if you don’t care about using big lenses and adapters you have plenty of other options: [shoplink 30536 ebay]Bower mirror (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 30537 ebay]Minolta mirror (here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 30538 ebay]Centon Mirror (here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 30541 ebay]Spiratone Mirror (here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 30542 ebay]Opteka Mirror (here on eBay)[/shoplink]….

Below you can see the MTF chart of the Tokina

After the Panasonic GH2, G2, GF2 and GF3 also the GX1 and G3 could be hacked soon! All Vitaly need is some little help from you to buy the two cameras (Click here to donate). It’s so great to know we can count on him to improve the camera performance! I wish he (or someone else) could hack the Olympus cameras too!

P.S: It is also great to know the price of the current Panasonic cameras is falling down (great that we have some presure from Sony and Nikon!).
The GH2 is now for sale at $849 (with lens) at Amazon (Click here).
Panasonic GF3 with 14mm pancake for $414 at Amazon (Click here).
Panasonic GF2 with kit lens for $399 at Amazon (Click here).
The Panasonic GX1 body sells for $549 again at Amazon (Click here).

As you may know there was an important Olympus shareholders meeting. Mr. Huasa is now officially the new CEO of Olympus. And as he told many times during the last weeks he will now simplify the digital camera business and focus even more on the Micro Four Thirds system (that’s good news!).

And now some news about the Olympus “fee scandal”. Mr. Woodford attempt to get Japanese shareholders on his side failed. TheOnlinePhotographer (Click here) reports that “Despite the highly unusual tenor of the meeting, described by one newspaper as “raucous,” Olympus shares rose 6.4% in the aftermath.“. And the Japanese watchdog agency wants to fine Olympus for $2.5 million only (Engadget). It sound almost like Olympus saved his ass out from the situation and all what remains is the book Woodford wrote about the Olympus scandal (Amateur Photographer) :)

Question now is, will Fuji or Sony partner with Olympus or will Olympus manage to get forward alone? The last scenario would be my prefered! :)