Meanwhile ePhotozine (Click here) posted a new Panasonic GH2 review: “Someone looking for a more compact Digital SLR should look very seriously at the Panasonic Lumix GH2, as the size is great. The camera makes photography a lot of fun, and the system is arguably one of the best mirrorless cameras available with excellent usability. On top of this, image quality is very good, and the camera has the best HD video quality of any current camera. What more could you want? Highly Recommended!”

Sadly the Panasonic GH2 is again out of Stock in US stores: Amazon, Adorama, B&H and J&R.

Maybe should took a look on the GH1 deals instead:
1) Panasonic GH1 with 14mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $364. and if you would buy it separately with the GH1 it would cost you a total of $764. With that deal you save $64!
2) Panasonic GH1 with 20mm lens for $699 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $399. You save $99!
3) Panasonic GH1 with 45-200mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $349. You save $100!
4) Panasonic GH1 with 14-45mm lens for $649 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $359. You save $90!
5) Panasonic GH1 with 14-42mm lens for $499 at Amazon (Click here). The lens alone costs $199. You save $100!
6) Panasonic GH1 body only costs $399 at Amazon (Click here).

It’s always interesting to see how C-mount lenses do work on the Panasonic GH2 with 1:1 crop mode. Seb Farges tested three lenses:
“This is a movie shot with three lenses, from 6mm to 3.5mm, which is 15mm to 9mm for micro 4/3 sensor (24X36 : 31mm to 18mm). 1st part with the 6mm (more info: vimeo.com/​20766631), some shot with polaroid variable ND filter. Second part, same lens but with a Pixco 0.45X lens converter, found for 16€ on ebay, it’s 40.5mm screw mount filter size lens is perfect for the Pentax. The third part is shot with a new lens I’ve found on Ebay for 46€, a C-mount Rainbow 3.5mm 1.6, perfect for the crop function ! It’s very wide, little fish eye effect, but I have a little focus problem with my copy, so I have to closed the aperture, but not too much because it seems I have problem of intern dirts, that can be viewed in more closed apertures.
I like this [shoplink 21738 ebay]3.5mm Rainbow C-mount[/shoplink] lens, it’s fun and very wide. I hope you’ll enjoy the shots.”

Links
C-mount Pentax 6mm 1.2 on [shoplink 21691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
C-mount Rainbow 3.5mm 1.6 on [shoplink 21737 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Pixco wide angle lens converter 0.45X on [shoplink 21738 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

A few days ago ex Olympus chief Mr. Watanabe reassured that there will be new Four Thirds products coming soon. Today Biofos (Click here) posted a very detailed Olympus E-5 review you might want to read. And he starts with the following (to much pessimistic?) statement “Here we really see history repeating itself. [shoplink 21716 ebay]Pen F (half-frame SLR)[/shoplink] was launched in February 1963 and ceased in April 1971, a period of 8 years. Pen F was judged to be a commercial failure due to lack of acceptance by film processing manufacturers. FourThirds (quarter-frame DSLR) was released in October 2003 with the E-1 and remains in production with the E-5 today but I suspect the last batch of E-5’s will be made sometime in 2011 – another period of eight years! FourThirds has also been a commercial failure due, basically, to a lack of acceptance by the DSLR buying masses. Whereas Pen F was a derivative of the popular viewfinder Pen series, MicroFourThirds is a derivative of 4/3rds. The original viewfinder Pen cameras remained in production until the mid 80’s with an overall production life of 25 years; let’s hope the m4/3rds machines achieve half of that!”

and after the long E-5 testing he writes: “Am I disappointed with the E-5 – in short no but there are things that Olympus could have done better – but we must remember this is the 4/3rds swan song so it is not brimming with technology or a great deal of thought either. I just get the feeling that the Olympus did not want to make the E-5, they did so purely as a sop to E-System users on the cessation of the rest of the system. It follows that not a great deal of enterprise or original thought has been levered into the camera and I suspect most of the technology comes from m4/3rds offerings anyway.”

and he doesn’t stop here: “Personally, I think Olympus have lost their way. How can micro-fourthirds be their future when it too is dependent on a non-standard sensor size which still has innate problems with noise and DR. This is the same set of problems that beset 4/3rds. Perhaps Olympus think that m4/3rds users will not be as critical or demanding. Maybe they are right, I hope so. But as all the other manufacturers introduce their own mirrorless versions Olympus and Panasonic will be back to square one. Either that or mirrorless cameras will prove to be a short lived fad and simply disappear. I genuinely fear for the camera divisions future. And that’s a great pity as in 2019 the company celebrates its centenary.”

Read the full article at Biofos (Click here) and feel free to discuss his very (provocative?) statements on 43rumors with reasonable and respectful argumentations ok?

Check out the E-5 price, availability and specs at [shopcountry 17163] (Click on shop names to visit the E-5 product page).
For your curiosity: Link to the [shoplink 21716 ebay]Pen F on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Photographyblog (Click here) tested the cheapest of all Micro Four Thirds zoom lenses, the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6: “The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 is a tiny, lightweight and attractively priced telezoom lens that delivers a much better optical performance than its all-plastic exterior and wallet-friendly price tag would suggest.”
To see the price of the lens click those links: [shopcountry 15864].

Pixiq (Click here) made an Olympus E-PL2 vs. Lumix DMC-GF2 Shootout: “There’s no obvious “winner” in this shootout since both cameras have their own pros and cons. The one that’s likely to be right for you depends on your experience level and the types of subjects you often shoot. I preferred the Olympus camera’s controls/operation and its high ISO quality but found that the Lumix contender was faster and provided more pleasing JPEGs without overrides.”
The 43rumors readers already expressed their vote on which of the two cameras is better. The E-PL2 won!
Check the E-PL2 price: [shopcountry 18844].
Check the GF2 price: [shopcountry 17361].

It’s still quite difficult to find the [shoplink 15659 ebay]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink] lens in Stock. Request have been much higher than Cosina expected and there are still consistent supply shortages. Also eBay resellers do often sell the lens without having them in Stock (and when they are in Stock they are usually very expensive). But there are two exceptions:
The german shop [shoplink 21676 ebay]Deutscher Digitalhandel is selling five Nokton lenses (Click here)[/shoplink] for the normal European price (899 Euro). They are all in Stock (“sofort lieferbar”). They ship worldwide.
The less known thai shop Rangefinder2008 (from where the picture on top comes from) is selling [shoplink 21679 ebay]four Nokton lenses for the same price as the German shop (Click here)[/shoplink].

We posted many Nokton reviews on 43rumors but today we can add a new one, the first Spanish review made by DSLRmagazine (Click here to read the google english translation). They posted many graphs showing the Center and Border Resolution, Vignetting, Chromatic Aberration and Distortion. The conclusions is not different from the one made by other reviewers: “it is one of the best options in this range, especially if we consider the peculiar aesthetics of the image – more than interesting for pure photographic purpose – or their value standard for video and optical for its luminosity and comprehensive manual focus.”

Imaging Resource (Click here) tested the Olympus XZ-1: “Olympus has entered the flagship digicam fight with a winner. It’s learned from its competitors, avoiding the brick in favor of an almost too svelte box, adding a manual control with the lens ring, including a pop-up flash and a hot shoe, avoiding the noise of a 14-megapixel sensor for the sanity of a 10-megapixel sensor, delivering a versatile zoom range that starts wide enough, and concentrating on optical performance.”
Also the polish website Optyczne (Click here to read the google english translation) posted an XZ-1 review
ThePhoBlographer (Click here) is continuing the Olympus XZ-1 field review: “The camera’s focus never failed at all, which leads me to conclude that even in the normal focusing mode, it will be able to capture most things that users will want to take photos of. ”
Check price and availability of the XZ-1 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 19904].

Photoreview Australia (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2: “Overall performance for the review camera was similar to the E-PL1 we reviewed just over a year ago. The review camera’s metering was still biased to favour shadows over highlights. Highlight clipping wasn’t as bad as we found with the E-PL1, although it was quite important to meter on a mid-tone area in subjects to avoid over- or under-exposure.”
Check price and availability of the E-PL2 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 18844].

Blog.Paran (Click here) compared the Panasonic GF2 and Samsung NX100 image quality.
Check price and availability of the GF2 by clicking those direct links: [shopcountry 17361].

Techradar (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL2: “The E-PL2’s Live Guide also doesn’t explain how the camera settings are changed, it merely indicates their impact. This means that novices photographers aren’t encouraged to progress on to more advanced shooting mode such as aperture or shutter priority and to explore more of the control available to them. This is a shame as the E-PL2 provides plenty of control and opportunity for customisation. While it cannot quite match the image quality from an APS-C format DSLR all round, the E-PL2 produces high quality images. The level of detail present in low sensitivity images is high and noise control at the higher settings is impressive.”

Also Photoreview Australia (Click here) posted an E-PL2 review: “Overall performance for the review camera was similar to the E-PL1 we reviewed just over a year ago. The review camera’s metering was still biased to favour shadows over highlights. Highlight clipping wasn’t as bad as we found with the E-PL1, although it was quite important to meter on a mid-tone area in subjects to avoid over- or under-exposure. Autofocusing was noticeably faster than we found with the E-PL1 and accurate in most conditions, although it slowed markedly in very low light levels.”
Check out the E-PL1 price at [shopcountry 18844].