I am still (very busy) working on the next bunch of GX and OMD rumors. I got a small detail from a source about the name of the new Panasonic camera. It is the “Panasonic DMC-GX7“. The rumors till has not been confirmed by my trusted sources but I “believe” it’s the correct final name. Bloggers and forum owners and ebay sellers can now start to create their GX7 forums. Meantime I made a GX7 group on Facebook and a Google+ page :)

All specs got confirmed, the camera is bigger than previous models and design reminds the [shoplink 36080 ebay]Four Thirds L1 camera (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. It has a new 18MP sensor but I don’t yet if that is multiaspect or the new color splitter sensor. It has the built-in image stabilization which is not the same and not as advanced as the one from Olympus. It has a built-in viewfinder that you can tilt up.

I found it quite funny that a terrific good source told me that Panasonic made the camera for me :)  Thanks you Panasonic engineers!

You haven’t forgotten that Kodak is about to market a new MFT camera…don’t you? DC.fever (google translated) posted new images and some info about the new Kodak S1 MFT camera. First of all Kodak said they will make two MFT zooms. It is not clear form the article if these will be rebadged Olympus zooms or real new lenses. The camera will have built-in WiFi and an own APP for remote control. A tilt LCD, hot shoe, a recording button, FN1 and FN2 customizable buttons. More can be seen on these images (Click on it to see a full size version).

The new Leica Mini M (with behind the existing X2)

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Sometimes we are very harsh in criticizing Panasonic and Olympus new cameras. Now imagine they would do this: Launch a fixed lens APS-C camera with slow 28-70mm f/3.5-6.4 zoom for 2450€! You would say no company would ever do this….but indeed there is one…Leica! I published specs and images here: http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/first-image-of-the-leica-m-mini/.

I post this because some websites speculated that this camera could have been made in collaboration with Panasonic. And indeed the Leica Digilux series (here at Amazon) is based on Panasonic camera design and tech. But that new Digilux Mini M camera is a Leica own designed camera…and they did a pretty bad job :)

Olympus manager Hiroyuki Sasa has been interviewed at Toyokeizai (Google translation here). And there are quite some interesting infos! I ask my Japanese readers to correct me if there are some errors. The Google English translation tool doens’t really make a very good job. Anyway, here are the hottest news:
1) Olympus will reduce investment in the compact digital camera business and focus on niche products with clear identity (example Tough series).
2) Mirrorless is doing well in Asia (Japan, Singapore and Thailand for example). Still not so good in Europe and USA.
3) We will supply our tech to Sony (example lens design knowledge)
4) We will use more Sony sensors in future.
5) We plan to launch new DSLR cameras in future.
6) We do not plan to quite the digital camera business even if it it not profitable yet. Because it drives the technology development that is helpful for our medical business too!

Great news! It confirms what we posted the last few weeks. Olympus is helping SOny in their 400mm f/4.0 A-mount lens design and the soon to come new OMD camera(s) will feature a brand new Sony sensor with phase detection pixel on sensor.

The [shoplink 39058 ebay]Ikon Contax[/shoplink] also had a hybrid mount solution

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The new GX camera rumors really has stolen the show from Olympus. But trust me, that’s going to be a strong and intriguing rumor battle! In these last few days I got two rumors from sources I know from a long time. Both told me that they got hints about a new high end Olympus camera that will be announced in September. And it’s going to be a camera much larger than the current E-M5 that has a mount that allows to take both Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds lenses without the use of any adapter!

How this could work I don’t know. There are two examples from the filmcamera history but I don’t know if Olympus will pickup one of the two ideas (or both together):
1) [shoplink 39057 ebay]Contax AX camera (here one Bay)[/shoplink]: The camera had a moving film plane inside the camera.
2) [shoplink 39058 ebay]Zeiss Ikon Contax (here one Bay)[/shoplink]: The original Contax rangefinder made from the 1930ies to the 50ies had two bayonets! Camerapedia explains how this works: “This mount is in fact the combination of two bayonets. There is a focusing helical built in the body and the standard lenses mount directly in that focusing ramp via an internal bayonet. So the standard lenses have no focusing ring of their own. The other lenses mount on an external bayonet and have their own focusing ring, only the rangefinder coupling is done via the body’s focusing ramp.” A nice image of the mount can be seen at Fotocommunity.

I hope some of our sources can me soon explain how this works for real (if the rumor is true). This is going to be a really exciting time, GX successor sounds amazing and that Olympus high tech may turn out to be a really nice (and useful) camera too!

Stay tuned on 43rumors! (and if you have some time help us to test our new beta deals site project: DealsRunner.com).

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For sources: Sources can send me anonymous info at 43rumors@gmail.com (create a fake gmail account) or via contact form you see on the right sidebar. Thanks!
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Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

This is the first image of the soon to be announced Samyang 16mm f/2.0 UMC CS lens. It will be made for both, Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds mounts. The lens has a 77mm filter size, price is yet unknown. P.S.: Save this search on Slidoo to get notified when the Samyang lens will be available one Bay.

This is the second native Micro Four Thirds lens after the fisheye lens:
In USA it’s named Rokinon 7.5mm and you find it on [shoplink 29105 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
In Europe it’s named Samyang 7.5mm and you find it on [shoplink 29106 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Amazon (Click here).
In UK it’s named Walimex and you find it on [shoplink 29109 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Amazon UK (Click here).

eBay links on all Olympus Four Thirds lenses:
[shoplink 20647 ebay]Samyang [/shoplink], [shoplink 20684 ebay]Walimex [/shoplink], [shoplink 20649 ebay]Rokinon [/shoplink], [shoplink 20650 ebay]Opteka [/shoplink], [shoplink 20651 ebay]Falcon [/shoplink], [shoplink 20653 ebay]Vivitar [/shoplink] and[shoplink 20652 ebay]Bower [/shoplink].

[shoplink 38940 ebay][/shoplink]

So it’s real! Mitakon is now selling their first Lens Turbo Adapter with 0.72x Focal Reduce. It works exactly like the Speed Booster adapter from metabones but it costs a lot less. Plenty of [shoplink 38940 ebay]Lens Turbo auctions for NEX can be found here on eBay[/shoplink]. The official press release can be read at Mitakon’s website.

I asked Mitakon if and when they will make adapters for the MFT system. They told me they will release them the second half of this year! I still have no info about the supported lens mounts. But it’s great to have different options and a cheaper alternative.

P.S.: To automatically get notified when new Lens Turbo will be for sale on eBay just save this search in your Slidoo account.