Hirano San: Shot on Panasonic AF101 from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Philip Bloom flew to Japan to test the new Micro Four Thirds [shoplink 16841]Panasonic AG-AF100/101[/shoplink] camcorder. And he became a big fan of the camera! “I saw no moiré on any shots. Check out the artist in the park at around 1:40 or so, look at his jacket. That would moiré on my Canons, not here. A joy! I also saw no sign of aliasing. Rolling shutter issues as expected were still present but way less pronounced that DSLRs. I did shoot out the side of the bus whilst moving and there was still some skew, enough for me not to use it but a lot better than what I have become used to.“

I really do believe that this camera will cement the Micro Four Thirds success. I am a filmmaker for myself and I not a few of my collueges already have preordered that camera. And I bet they are now playing with the idea to buy a Micro Four Thirds photocamera too!

Reminder: You can preorder the [shoplink 16841]Panasonic AG-AF100/101 at BHphoto (Click here)[/shoplink]. Even if you are european feelf ree to buy at BHphoto. They calculate shipping and tax costs for your country!

Mike Kobal posted that nice Panasonic GH1 + [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink] test. One more video from Mike is available here: http://www.mikekobal.com/blog/?p=926

And finally Soundimagesplus posted the full [shoplink 15659]Nokton[/shoplink] review (part1 – part2 – part3). Those are some of the most interetsing statements:
– “there is some vignetting at f/0.95”
– “CA and fringing is present, but its much better than on many lenses I have.”
– “Wide open its very good, and moving through f/1.4 and f/2 the sharpness improves. I really wouldn’t have any problem using it at any aperture.”
– “I’m very happy with the colour rendition of the lens also and the contrast, all of which combine to produce nice punchy pictures”
– “Is it sharper than the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 [/shoplink] pancake? My gut reaction says it is”

I would say buy that lens if you can live with manual focus! There are three [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lens for sale on eBay (worldwide shipment)[/shoplink]

I do totally agree with his prime lens philosophie: “By using a prime, you train both your brain and your eyes to think in their space. A zoom lens allows you to shift the lens-space to your brain-space. But with primes you’re stuck in their world. You become intimate with life within their frame until composition becomes second nature.”

And what does he say about the lens? “It’s a lovely, sharp, whisper quiet, quick to focus, unbelievably tiny, beautiful little prime lens. I highly recommend it.”

I soo enjoyed it to read that article. Thanks Craig for your awesome work. We want to see more of it ;)

You want to order the lens? Here you have a few direct links:
Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon Deutschland, Amazon UK

Dpreview just posted the new Canon 60D review. The good news is that they compared the noise perofrmance with “our” new Panasonic GH2: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos60d/page11.asp. It’s doing pretty well! Maybe we should not pay to much attention at what DxOmark says :)

For out japanese readers: Ascii.jp posted a GH2 review!

Panasonic GH2 price and availability check:
Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and [shoplink 17526]eBay[/shoplink].

M43blogspot tested the new [shoplink 14820]Panasonic 8mm[/shoplink] fisheye lens!

Mike Kobal posted a new set of image samples taken at f/0.95 aperture only! (http://www.mikekobal.com/blog/?p=869). Those are very nice and sharp images! It has much better results than my [shoplink 15629]Noktor 50mm f/0.95[/shoplink] :)

Soundimageplus posted the first part of his [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink] review and those are some of their key findings:
– I was concerned that I may have problems focusing at f/0.95 but these fears proved unfounded.
– This lens focuses to just over 6″ or 17 CM. This is INCREDIBLY useful.
– The Bokeh is “Incredible“.
– I’ve detected very little CA and fringing

I just checked eBay again and there are [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 [/shoplink]three shops from Hong Kong and Germany selling the lens (Click here)[/shoplink]. Worldwide shipment!