In an extraordinary press release Personal View (Click here) informs that Vitaly and his hacker team finally signed an agreement with Panasonic! Vitaly writes: “Since today we are going to directly participate in design and development of system cameras firmware for selected cameras produced by Panasonic Corporation, and DSC Business unit specifically.”

That’s an extraordinary news you have literally mark on your calendar as remembering for the time being! I repeat, mark it! :)

UPDATE: What a good day today! You can even win an E-M5 at E-P1.net (Click here) …LOL!

Egami (Click here) found the next Olympus patent describing a sensor with integrated pixel dedicated for phase detection auto focusing and increased dynamic range performance. What I don’t know if a sensor with integrated phase auto focusing will really make it into a real Olympus camera. The current [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] is already super fast and I guess it will be improved further in other model. There may be no need anymore to work on such a technology.

Speaking of the E-M5, Epson just issued a new press release (Click here) explaining the electronic viewfinder technology used for the camera. The EVF has been optimized to help photographers to shoot fast moving images without the color breakup experienced using other formats (The phenomenon by which a transient image appears when photographers move the camera rapidly or shoot fast-moving subjects).

Sounds great! Now let’s see if Panasonic will do it even better on the GH3 :)

E-M5 Preorders: Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

a photoshopped 45-300mm lens

Aleo Veuliah had a talk with an anonymous guy from Panasonic Portugal and reported the content on dpreview forum. Aleo posted some correct rumors i the pat so there might be some truth behind the info he got. First he says the GH3 is coming at Photokina and that it will be similar to the GH2. He also said that: “Photokina this year will be important to Panasonic more than 2010 was, and that we might see besides the 12-35mm and 35-100mm f/2.8, another new zoom, he talked about a 45-300mm”

I really do hope that when the Panasonic employee says Photokina will be important more than ever that there will be more lenses than the 45-300mm and long awaited X zooms. By the way, it’s so pity that my trusted sources confirmed that the two X zoom lenses are coming after June only :(

P.S.: Message for Olympus. About time to make a Micro Four Thirds version of the current Olympus [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses!

Our friends over at Digicaminfo (Click here) do report that the GF5 will be announced in Japan on April 5 and start shipping on April 26. There will be four different colors. ON the other side the new G5 will not be announced the same day of the GF5. It will arrive later (very likely in May).

As usual please be aware that this is a rumor from an external source. I will soon give you info from my sources. One thing is sure, there is a lot of new stuff coming from Panasonic! If you have some info about the upcoming announcement and you want to share them sue the contact form on the right sidebar. You can avoid to send me your name and email address. Just send the message anonymously…Thanks!

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My two cent. If you need a GF camera you may go for the current GF2 and GF3 cameras. There are many deals in many countries on the two cameras. Plus the GF2 is hackable and the GF3 will be hackable soon!
Panasonic GF3 search links: [shopcountry 23109].
Panasonic GF2 search links: [shopcountry 17361].

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

The GF5 will soon be announced and the good news is that it unlike so many times before we will not have to wait a long time until it ships out from the fab. Trusted sources told me that it will be delivered to Asian stores in late April and in European and US stores a couple of weeks later.

I am still not sure when the other new m43 camera will ship, the G5. But all I have been told by other good sources is that the other G5 picture is definitely real:

75mm f/1.8 and 60mm f/2.8 macro lenses.

Like Panasonic also Olympus is showing new m43 prototype lenses without to share an exact information about their release. Good that we have our own sources saying that both lenses, the 75mm f/1.8 and the weather sealed 60mm f/2.8 macro will start to be sold in early Summer. That’s about the same time when the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 X and 35-100mm f/2.8 X lenses will be finally start to be sold too!

Other new Panasonic and Olympus m43 lenses will be announced at Photokina. And I don’t know if you still remember this but also Schneider promised to announce their first Micro Four Thirds lenses at Photokina. They have a long history of C-mount, FD, SL and M42 mount lenses. Here are some of them:
[shoplink 27395 ebay]Xenon 16mm f/1.2 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27387 ebay]Xenon 25mm f/0.95 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27389 ebay]Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27391 ebay]Componon 50mm f/1.4 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27390 ebay]Xenon 50mm f/1.9 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27394 ebay]Xenar 50mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27388 ebay]Xenar 75mm f/3.5 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27392 ebay]Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27393 ebay]Xenar 180mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].

Nice lenses I would like to see for m43 mount too!