For seven months now we are waiting for Panasonic’s official 12-35mm X lens release. We only saw prototype versions during the latest shows. Today a mysterious forum user from Mobile01 (Click here) posted a picture of a dissembled 12-35mm X lens. He didn’t unveil any info about the price and official release of the lens. All we know is that it has a constant f/2.8 aperture, a 0,25m close focus distance, Power O.I.S. and weather sealing. Panasonic didn’t go for a constant f/2.0 aperture because they wanted to keep a reasonable size. The [shoplink 25320 ebay]Olympus 14-35mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] is indeed quite a big bigger.

And here is a mysterious part of the story: The same guy posted also the logo of Konica Minolta and said “it connects to the X lens picture“. Have no idea what he is referring to! Maybe some special feature of Konica is coming with the Panasonic lens? Do you have an idea what it could be?

Anyway, my guess (and hope) is that the lens will be officially announced right before the NAB show in April.

Image courtesy Photozone.

Samyang is one of this small companies that does an incredible good job with lenses. Most of the times their lenses have the right specs for what they need to do. They are also cheap (in terms of price) and absolute of good quality. As you know the first lens they released for the m43 system is the [shoplink 29106 ebay]Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink]. The lens is pretty compact and Klaus from Photozone (Click here) said the lens is Highly Recommended! And Klaus is really severe in his Judgement! I am eagerly waiting to see what’s coming next from them. Samyang confirmed at Techradar that “more Micro Four Thirds lenses were planned“. There are no specs yet about the possible next lenses but I hope it will be some kind of fast prime and pancake lens. Something in the category of the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink] would be my choice :)

One more thing: Samyang is the only company the made lenses for the Four Thirds system during the last three years! The amazing [shoplink 29677 ebay]Samyang/Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink] is an example!

On left the current [shoplink 23109]GF3[/shoplink] and on right the new GF5!

With yesterdays GF5 and G5 leak we have a pretty good picture of the products that will be announced and/or shipped within the next two-three months. Here is a short summary and a poll:

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Reminders:
Sigma Japan confirmed the shipment date of March 16th for the 19mm f/2.8 lens.
The Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95 is available for preorder at German ebay stores at [shoplink 29368 ebay]Digitalhandel (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 29367 ebay]Bayern Fotoversand (Click here)[/shoplink]. Both for 1.299 Euro.

The Friday, March 9 issue from the Singapore magazine “TODAY” posted the [shoplink 29545 ebay]Canon G1 X[/shoplink] advertising you can see here on top. It shows a completely false sensor size comparison made up to clearly discredit the Micro Four Thirds system. The right size comparison should look like this:

Now, in defense of Canon I know well that very often the Marketing Campaigns are created by local advertising companies and probably the head of the Canon Marketing department doesn’t even know that this is going on. But in the era of Internet such fake way to do advertising will have a viral and negative effect for them. UPDATE: As noted by many readers the sensor size corresponds to that from the [shoplink 25767 ebay]Nikon 1 system[/shoplink]. So maybe the Canon marketing guys confused the Micro Four Thirds sensor with the Nikon 1 sensor? But than again how can Canon do a mistake like that???

At least this proves that for Canon Micro Four Thirds is the main and strongest competitor :)

And click here to see the full page of the Canon page on the magazine. It was our reader Ben to find this…Thanks!

P:S.: Frank reported this on CanonWatch.

On left the current [shoplink 23109]GF3[/shoplink] and on right the new GF5!

A post at Nphoto unveils what appears to be the first picture of the GF5 (on the right!). The poster says the GF5 will use a 12 Megapixel sensor with an improved SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). THE SNR is as good as the one on the [shoplink 22077 ebay]Panasonic G3[/shoplink]. It goes up to ISO 12.800, super fast AF of 0,09seconds and a new 920k dots touch screen LCD. The touch screen interface has been revised. Sounds liek a nice evolution but it will be hard to beat the real big deal of the moment…the cheap and hackeable GF2!

And there is a second surprise. Also the Panasonic G5 will be announced soon and use the same [shoplink 22077 ebay]G3[/shoplink] 16 Megapixel sensor. What will change is the shape of the camera.

After two months of [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] rumors and news we can finally start to talk about Panasonic again! ;)  The rumor has a FT4 value because other sources confirmed that the camera is coming. I am also in touch with the person that leaked this and hopefully we will get some more pics soon!

Links to the current two Panasonic models:
Panasonic G3 at [shopcountry 22077].
Panasonic GF3 at [shopcountry 23109].
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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

While the GF3 might not be the sexiest camera I really like it because of one main reason….the size! The GF3+14-42mm X lens (Click here) is probably the best compact camera with zoom lens you can carry with you all the time. Canon is the only one offering something similar, the [shoplink 29545 ebay]G1 X (Click here)[/shoplink]. But it is bigger, uglier, more expensive and has a fixed zoom lens only. Wondering if someone will spend $800 for this…

One more thing: The next Panasonic announcement will be made in early/mid April. The new m43 camcorder will be announced and hopefully the two new X zoom lenses too. I don’t know (yet) if there will be something else too.

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Shop search links to the three hackable Panasonic cameras:
Panasonic GH2 at [shopcountry 16254].
Panasonic GF3 at [shopcountry 23109].
Panasonic GF2 at [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

Olympus and Panasonic do often explain the advantages of a Four Thirds sized sensor over the classic APS-C format. But it’s nice to hear that Canon is on the same wavelength! As you know Canon is using a Four Thirds ratio sensor (just a tiny bit bigger than “our” m43 sensors) for their just launched Canon G1X (CLick here to see tha cams pecs). David Parry, from Canon UK explained at Techradar (Click here) why they didn’t opt for the APS-C sensor: “We managed to create a four times zoom in a very compact body, and really it has the biggest sensor that we could use and also get decent coverage from the lens. If you made the sensor any bigger, the lens would have to be a lot bigger and it would be much more difficult and expensive to produce.”

Sounds almost like Canon wants to join the Micro Four Thirds system :)   Hey it’s a joke and not a rumor! ….at least for now :)