Nice to wake-up in the morning and see that there are a dozen of new Panasonic/Olympus camera reviews. It will take a couple of hours to read them all :)

Panasonic GF2

Digitalcamerainfo (Click here) posted a 21 page long Panasonic GF2: “With a simplified design, touchscreen operation, emphasis on its Intelligent Auto mode and—perhaps biggest of all—a debut price that is $300 cheaper than the GF1, the GF2 is aimed squarely at those consumers looking to step up from a point-and-shoot without losing portability.”
Camerguide (Click here) also posted a new GF2 review: “Smaller, lighter, and now touchscreen friendly, Panasonic has done its best to introduce a wider range of photographers to its “GF-series”. There’s no question that the changes do make the GF2 more appealing to photographers with less advanced skills, and nobody can fault Panasonic for trying to make the camera smaller, the question perhaps should be whether the touchscreen adds to the experience of using the GF2 for either set of photographers, be they more or less skilled.”
GF1 vs GF2 comparison at Mobile01 (Click here).
GF2 direct links to [shopcountry 17361].

Olympus E-PL2

Pdnonline (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2: “Though it may not be the prettiest PEN camera in Olympus’ line-up, the E-PL2 has so many picture-taking improvements from previous iterations, it’s clearly the best.”
Popphoto (Click here) tested the E-PL2: “In our opinion, the E-PL2 is one of the better ILCs on the market. It takes advantage of the now-wide array of lenses available for the Micro Four Thirds system while offering a compact and powerful body with the best features that Olympus has developed for this still-young format. ”
ThePhoBlographer (Click here) made a E-PL2 RAW File Test.
Focus Numerique (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2.
BHphoto (Click here) explains how it is using the Olympus EPL-2’s Art Filters To Shoot a Concert.
E-PL2 direct links to [shopcountry 18844].

More reviews

There is a short Olympus E-5 review at Dpexpert (Click here): “Professionals who are satisfied with nothing less than a full frame sensor may not buy what is, in effect, a half-frame camera. But consider this: in terms of body integrity and features the E-5 at $2200 will stand comparison with a Nikon or Canon costing many thousands more. And Olympus lenses are superb.”
Panasonic GH2 tested at Optyczne (Click here).
Neocamera (Click here) posted an Olympus XZ-1 review: “The Olympus XZ-1 is a compelling entry into the advanced compact category with a rich feature set. The ultra-bright F/1.8 wide-angle lens combined with a relatively large CCD sensor lets this model produce some of the best images to come out of a compact digital camera for a given scene. Dual control-dials enable efficient use of manual controls which include manual focus, manual exposure, spot metering, bracketing, custom white-balance and white-balance fine-tuning. The dual-port hot-shoe supports an optional tiltable EVF to provide eye-level and waist-level shooting, as well as supporting external lighting.”
XZ-1 direct links to [shopcountry 19904].

That’s it!

Click those links to check the Olympus 17mm price at [shopcountry 14798].

It looks like the most popular Olympus camera is not a PEN and not a the E-5 but the [shoplink 19904]Olympus XZ-1[/shoplink]. As you know it features also a PEN-type accessory port that can use PEN system accessories, including the clip-on VF2 EVF or the FL-14 and FL-36R flash guns and the external stereo microphone adapter kit (SEMA-1): “Image files from the review camera were a cut above those from most other digicams we’ve reviewed, including those from Olympus. Files were clean and not over-processed and colour saturation was restrained for a small-sensor camera. Autofocusing was comparatively fast for a contrast-based TTL system and when face detection was engaged, the camera was able to pick up and track human faces almost instantaneously.”. The only real drawback is the video quality.
The camera gets an oveall score of 8.8/10 which is pretty high!

You can get the camera in Black or White at [shopcountry 19904] (Clcik on shop name to directly visit the XZ-1 product page).

M43photo made a very interesting Tele Converter test on the GH2 and 14-42mm lens. The ETC mode gives a tele conversion of 2.6x when recording 1080 lines in and 3.9x in 720 lines (Video mode).

As you can see from the image samples on the website: “It appears that the video stream recorded using ETC has worse image quality than the normal stream, at all ISO values. There is some lack of sharpness and contrast, and more noise in the ETC video streams.”

M43photo explains the (little) quality loss with the fact that ETC recording doesn’t have the option of scaling down from a larger number of pixels (in normal recording mode the whole sensor area is used and scaled down).

I suggest you to make your own tests. Let us know if you can confirm the conclusions from m43photo! Thanks!

P:S.: GH2 direct links to [shopcountry 16254].

UPDATE: A good friend of us (and very good tester) said:
The extender 2,6 function depends on the optic that is used. The [shoplink 14794]Leica 45mm Macro[/shoplink][/shoplink] gives the same frame quality in extender mode as a HI Q optics. The same for [shoplink 14822] 7- 14 mm. Both tested result! The 14- 42 is the weakest lenses in the Panasonic lens set. So the result can be right but the result is not easy to apply on other optics“

Olympus and Panasonic are not only partners inside the Micro Four Thirds world but also very strong competitors. So let’s compare some of their camera and lenses. Today you have to chose between the Olympus 75-300mm and the Panasonic 100-300mm lenses. There are not many reviews out there and I can give you only a few useful links:

Olympus 75-300mm

Photographyblog (Click here)
Diwa labs
Image samples at Olympus website
Customers reviews at Amazon US (There are no user reviews in European Amazon stores).
Price and availability checks at [shopcountry 15861].

Panasonic 100-300mm

Diwa labs
Outback Photo.
Image samples at Panasonic website.
Customers reviews at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK.
Price and availability checks at [shopcountry 16261].

And now the big question:

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If you own one of those lenses feel free to add your personal rating at:
43rumors Olympus 75-300mm rating
43rumors Panasonic 100-300mm rating
Reminder: You have to be a registered 43rumors member to add your rating. If you have any registration problems contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com.

The GF2 vs E-PL2 review battle keeps going and going. Almost everyday you can find new tests about both cameras! Before to start reading the reviews a quick reminder for our US readers (they are the last to get the GF2): The Black GF2+14mm is in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). And today also the body only Black GF2 is in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).

Panasonic GF2

Panasonic GF2 review at CNET: “Though we still really like Panasonic’s GF series, there are several trade-offs to take into account before you buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2. Its raw-format images look extremely good, but JPEG shooters looking for best-possible photo quality may get frustrated by image artifacts. And while lots of photographers will appreciate its relatively compact but functional design and zippy performance–though still not for action shooting–there’s nothing special about its feature set, including underpowered video capture.”
The polish website Fotopolis tested the GF2: “In terms of picture quality Panasonic GF2 is very good, always at the forefront. In terms of noise and detail reproduction, we can safely shoot up to ISO 800 without too much concern about the quality of images. ”
Panasonic GF2 review at EosHD: “The GF2 is an ambitious exercise in miniaturisation which satisfies consumer demand for Canon DSLR quality in a Panasonic compact body. Something still not offered by Canon despite the hints from the market that people want it, i.e. a 10% reduction in Canon’s sales!!”
Check the GF2 price at [shopcountry 17361].

Olympus E-PL2

Imaging Resource (Click here) posted the Olympus E-PL2 review: “With the 12.3MP Olympus Pen E-PL2, the company has gone a long way to correcting many of the problems that have plagued this line in the past. In particular, the Olympus E-PL2 is a faster and more enjoyable camera to use all around; starting up quicker, focusing quicker, and capturing images quicker“.
Gsnowdon posted a E-PL2 hands-on review.
Check the E-PL2 price at [shopcountry 18844].

Do you still have troubles and you don’t know if you should pickup the E-PL2 or the GF2? I checked all the reviews we posted on 43rumors and made a list for all pixel-peepers (chronological order, latest review on top). Check out the table and read the 43rumors readers reviews too! Let me know if I missed to add some interesting review.

A quick reminder for US readers: The Black GF2+14mm is in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). And today also the body only Black GF2 is in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).

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