There is a new Voigtländer Nokton review written by Lenstip (Click here to read it). It’s a very detailed and accurate test (Good job!): “If you ever held any of Voigtlander lenses in your hand, you won’t be disappointed by the Nokton 0.95/25. Its build quality is really beyond reproach – we deal here with metal and glass, nothing more.”

At f/0.95 resolution is very low, it has high coma and vignetting(-2.08 EV). The good news is that “the image doesn’t feature any out-of-focus colour cast which means the longitudinal aberration is corrected splendidly” and there is a negligible level of chromatic aberration. Stopped down the lens performance is very high (from f/1.4 upwards) with sensational image quality in the frame centre.

The real problem of that lens is that it is sold out! There is only one single lens in auction on [shoplink 15659]eBay (via german reseller)[/shoplink]. Camerquest announced that they have no camera left. And my second request goes directly to Voigtländer. Please make more MFT lenses like the [shoplink 15738]35mm and 40mm fast pancakes[/shoplink] :)

Photographyblog posted their Panasonic GH2 review. And the conclusions is: “The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 offers a winning combination of high-quality stills and video, proven handling and design, and a more affordable price-tag – it’s simply the most complete interchangeable lens camera currently available for people who want to shoot in both formats.”

And it’s the first time I see such an amazing rating by Photographyblog… 24/25 points! The camera gains an “Essential” recommendation!!! Only the Nikon D3s and the Nikon D3x do have the same “Essential” rating (but they also do cost over $5.000!).

GH2 preorders in US

Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto (notify only)

GH2 Europe (in Stock)

Amazon.de, Pixmania.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Pixmania.it, Pixmania.pl, Pixmania.es.

The next [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] review has been published by Neocamera. It turns out that also in that case the reviewer is positively impressed by the camera: “This Olympus E-5 turns out to be an excellent DSLR. It has all the makings of a refined product and an advanced feature set which makes it suitable for all types of photography. There are very few cameras which include all the E-5’s important features and it even has some unique capabilities.”

One more news: Olympus E-5 manuals available now in “all” languages, on:
http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/208_manuals.cfm?prodID=MN4279292
via http://www.forum-olympus-france.com.

I guess not many of you knew that there is a new adapter ([shoplink 18298 ebay]made and sold by a taiwanese company on eBay[/shoplink]) which enables the use Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX cameras. Woodent (a dpreview forum user) tested the Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95 on the Sony NEX-5. Click here to see the camera+lens combo on Flickr. There are also a few image samples (again on Flickr). The lens has a lot of vignetting at f/0.95 aperture. The focal lenght on the Sony corrisponds to 37.5mm (fullframe). That’t definitely not an ideal combination, but the Sony NEX system currently offers only three lenses so you have to be inventive :)

P.S.: There are only a few [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lenses in Stock in Europe (via eBay and Europe shipment only)[/shoplink]. And the US store Cameraquest has already sold out the 2nd factory shipment of 25/.95 lenses expected by late December.

Two days ago we posted the Olympus E-5 review from the german magazine colorfoto.de (click here to read the google english translation). There were a lot of discussions because the E-5 had a better performance than the Nikon D7000 and the Canon 60D. I learned the measuring was done by one of (if not the) the most renowned laboratories in Germany: Image engineneering. They are engaged in DIN an ISO-Standards and do of lots of testing for manufacturers with pre-production-samples, too. See: http://www.image-engineering.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=102

You can see the the detailed results on the screenshot on top. Interesting, at 100 ISO the [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] has more resolution than the Nikon D7000 and Pentax K-5.

Image Courtesy: 3Dkraft.de

As you know Adobe announced the new Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. Support for the [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink],  [shoplink 17361]Panasonic DMC-GF2[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 16254]Panasonic DMC-GH2[/shoplink] has been added. 3DKraft.de (Click here) tested the new Camera RAW with the Panasonic GH2. The Silkypix DS 3.1 software doesn’t retain the same detail as Camera Raw can do: “The guys at Adobe are master of their trade whereas the software engineers of Panasonic’s JPEG engine and SilkyPix’ raw processor still may have some homework left for my taste!”

One more news for us europeans. Pixmania will have the GH2 in Stock by next week! You can preorder now:
Pixmania.de (should be on list in a few hours). Is in Stock at Amazon.de!
Pixmania.fr
Pixmania.uk (should be on list in a few hours). Is in Stock at Amazon.co.uk!
Pixmania.it
Pixmania.pl
Pixmania.es
Pixmania.at (should be on list in a few hours)
Pixmania.be (should be on list in a few hours)
Pixmania.nl (should be on list in a few hours)

Our friend and 43rumors reader Thom Hogan posted an article sharing his “Short opinions about the current m4/3 lenses“.

Lenses that are highly recommended:
[shoplink 14822]Panasonic 7-14mm f/4[/shoplink] -> “Expensive. But it performs quite well in almost every situation I’ve used it in.”
[shoplink 14792]Panasonic 45-200mm f/4-5.6[/shoplink] -> “This lens was the biggest surprise of the bunch for me. Optically it delivers very good performance for a low-cost telephoto.”

Lenses that are recommended:
[shoplink 14818]Olympus 9-18mm f4/-5.6[/shoplink] -> “As it turns out, the 9-18mm spends a lot of time on my m4/3 bodies.”
[shoplink 14816]Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “Optically very good, and a good match for most users.”
[shoplink 14796]Panasonic 20mm f/1.7[/shoplink] -> “Thus, this lens really starts to shine when you’re shooting in low light, as it slows you from bumping the ISO on the body too much.”

Lenses that are qualified recommended:
[shoplink 14814]Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “it’s a modestly specified lens.”
[shoplink 14802]Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “The lens’ mediocre aperture specs do hurt low light use of the m4/3 bodies.”

Lenses that are not recommended:
[shoplink 14798]Olympus 17mm f/2.8[/shoplink] -> “All you get is a smaller, less flexible lens over the kit lens, and it doesn’t really seem like that’s worth the money.”
[shoplink 14794]Panasonic-Leica 45mm f/2.8 macro[/shoplink] -> “The question becomes one of price versus expected performance, and I think this current iteration fails.”

Read the full opinions at http://bythom.com/m43lenses.htm