The 75mm f/1.8 lens should hit the stores in June/July!

I know you guys are already impatiently waiting for the next rumor period. You really will not have to wait a lot. My sources confirmed to me that both Panasonic and Olympus will have new product announcements in June/July. I will soon write a post with the stuff that we might could see in June.

Under the category “dream” or “speculation” I have to remind you that:
1) Olympus officially said that they are considering a PEN with built-in EVF (Source: here at 43rumors)
2) Panasonic also filled some patent with an [shoplink 23692 ebay]L1 styled GF camera[/shoplink] (could be the “GL1”).

Let me dream! Are you dreaming something else? :)

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P.S.:
The Sony NEX-7 (Click here) and the Fuji X PRO 1 (Click here) on top of Amazon ranking (Click here).
The [shoplink 23692 ebay]DMC-L1 eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The [shoplink 26385 ebay]DMC-LC1 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Panasonic released a new pdf document (Click here to download it) that includes the presentation of a Micro Four Thirds sensor. As our readers pointed out this could be the description of the current GH2 sensor. It has:

• 4:3 aspect ratio (diagonal: 21.9 mm optical format) with 17.78 million pixels.
• Effective pixels: 5,054 (H) × 3,518 (V) = 17,779,972
• 3.80 μm square pixels
• Capable of full-HD video at 59.94 frames/sec (pixel addition mode)

It’s a bi weird that the [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] image-sensor’s pixel size is 3.63 Microns and the [shoplink 26836]G3/GX1[/shoplink] image-sensor’s pixel size is 3.75 Microns. So is this really the GH2 sensor description? What’s also interesting is that Panasonic is using a new term I never heard before… “Micromachined cell technology” that delivers high resolution performance! It has a 12 bit ADC with high Singal to Noise ratio.

And there is also one more graph showing the new Imaging Processor:

Would love to hear your thoughts on that. And maybe our more expert readers can find out more?

As you may know Polaroid announce an Android powered camera. And Barney Sykes from Panasonic told TechRadar (Click here), “We had a little bit of a discussion around having Android as the operating system. One of the issues is that we have so much optical technology in the cameras, even in compacts, we have Leica lenses. When you download something, it’s got to be able to work with the optics of the camera. But it is very interesting, in particular when you look at some of the apps you can download, the filters, the effects you can make, it’s an interesting step. It’s always good to see innovation.”

I think Panasonic and Olympus will sooner or later have to open their software for third party applications. The advantages are so great that it’s worth to “take the risk”. And if they are going to use the Android platform they would have an immense access to photography apps. I believe this IS the future! I am pretty sure Samsung will do it the Japanese companies will be “forced” to follow soon after!

The image you see here on top is a drawing from a Panasonic in body stabilization patent. That alone is an interesting news and I would be happy to see Panasonic offering such a solution. But what’s even more intriguing is that the same patent actually shows the camera that could use the system and it looks like a sort of Sony NEX-7 competitor with build-in viewfinder in the corner. Check out the pic:

“Point 60” shows what looks like a viewfinder that can be tilted up to 90 degrees! I already saw a patent like this two years ago (that’s why I know it can tilt). You can look through the EVF from top to bottom. Yeah like in old days with the [shoplink 30387 ebay]Rollei or Yashica twin lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

As usual with patents they are no prov at all that this could become a real product. But It’s nice to see that Panasonic is “thinking” on a camera like that :)

You readers already expressed your opinion about a sort of “rangefinder styled” Micro Four Thirds version of the[shoplink 23692 ebay]Lumix DMC-L1 camera[/shoplink]:

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P.S.:
The Sony NEX-7 (Click here) and the Fuji X PRO 1 (Click here) are selling very well according to Amazon ranking (Click here).
The [shoplink 23692 ebay]DMC-L1 eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The [shoplink 26385 ebay]DMC-LC1 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Valentin Sama (Click here) which has a good track of rumors just wrote that a Panasonic source said that it’s not sure the lens will have a f/2.8 aperture. The aperture will be fast and constant but it may not be f/2.8! I would be tremendously surprised to see that Panasonic did “fool” us. Although I would be happy if they do it in exchange of a constant f/2.5 or f/2.0 aperture :)

Anyway, as usual take this statements with a grain of salt. But Valentin already good some crazy rumors right in the past and let’s see if he is right that time too!

Reminder: The lenses are weather sealed, coming in by end of June, rumored price around $1,000-$1,300 which is the half of the Olympus [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses.

So pity! KTF-Turbo which is right now testing the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 m43 prototype lens just informed me that for now they decided to not go into mass production with the lens. He couldn’t unveil me the reason for that decision. I hope Mr. Miyazaki who is designer of the lens will rethink is decision. I like the design lens a lot and I think quite a great group of current m43 owners would have considered to purchase the lens.

Bye the way, the Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1 for Q mount already did it into mass production and is in Stock on [shoplink 30286 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

As you know a couple of days ago I posted a FT3 rumor (50% chance the rumor is correct) to say that there could be a new Panasonic camcorder announcement. Panasonic advertised the event as “camcorder presentation” but in fact it turned out to be more  “a look into the future discussion” than a real product announcement. Here are the news:

1) AVC-Ultra compression scheme. Panaosnic said: “So we have AVC-Intra Class 200, AVC-Intra Class 4:4:4, up to 2K and 4K resolution, and we also have a technology called AVC-LongG, which can get down to 25 Mbps. All of these are recordable on a Panasonic P2 media card.”
2) Panasonic will introduce new cameras at NAB that can be upgraded to AVC-Ultra in 2013. There are not many details about the products that will be shown at the NABshow.

Source: Tvtechnology