A video from the Tatsuno plant.

Our Japanese friends from Digicam-info (Click here) contacted us to share a rumor they received from a reliable source. According to that source Olympus is already producing the 12mm f/2.0 lens for Micro Four Thirds. Production began in April and the lens will be announced in June. The lens production is in Tatsuno (where Oly’s high level lenses are made) and you can expect a top of the notch image quality. This is the very first Pro lens for Micro Four Thirds! It’s also one of my favorite focal lengths! So how will this lens be compared to other lenses?

1) The closest lens we can compare with is the upcoming Olympus Zuiko is the [shoplink 16258]Panasonic 14mm f/2.5[/shoplink]. The Zuiko will very likely be more expensive, bigger in size, but also be a bit faster, have a better build-quality and hopefully deliver a huge step forward in image quality. See the review of the Panasonic lens at Photozone, and check price at [shopcountry 16258].

2) The two Micro Four Thirds lenses that do cover the 12mm focal length are the [shoplink 14822]Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 14818]Olympus 9-18mm[/shoplink] lenses. But I expect the new Oly prime to be less big and to deliver a higher image quality. I do hope it will also be cheaper than the Panasonic zoom. See the review of the Panasonic lens at Photozone, and check price at [shopcountry 14822].

3) An extravagant comparison can be made with the Pentax 12mm f/1.4 C-mount lens. Unlike the Pentax lens the Zuiko lens has autofocus and much better image quality. The only advantage of the Pentax lens is the price. The Pentax sells for around $20 on [shoplink 21589 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Our sources told us that this is not the only lens Olympus will announce in June. The second lens is a portrait lens and I hope to get the specs very very very soon! Also that lens is a high quality lens. Finally Olympus!!! June will be full of new Micro Four Thirds stuff announcements (because new products are coming from Panasonic too!).

P.S.: The video on top shows the Tatsuno plant and one of the lenses made there: The Olympus 300mm f/2.8. it’s the most expensive lens ever made by Olympus. Check the scary price at [shopcountry 22138] (if you find them in Stock). There is an article about the Tatsuno plant here at Olympus Website.

One more thing: I am working on many new rumors, I am very busy with it. Sorry if in those days I missed to answer some of your emails. Please email me again if I forgot something ok? Thanks for your understanding.

Reminder -> 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

I guess that after the Megapixel race we are going to see a completely new kind of competition…the “who makes the smallest camera” fight! I just got this image from a source. It is a size comparison made between the current [shoplink 17361]Panasonic GF2[/shoplink], [shoplink 18844]Olympus E-PL2[/shoplink] and the upcoming Sony NEX-C3.

I kindly invite you my other second website MirrorlessRumors.com to learn more about the NEX-C3. I just published the NEX-C3 specs and flash and lens details (Click here to read them).

I guess it’s not hard to predict that even Panasonic and Olympus will soon try to develop smaller cameras. But does it really matter for you?

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Suprise! Last week Noktor announced that they went out of business. But today they sent a new twitter message. Also their website is back online. My speculation is that SLRmagic will take over the Noktor business. And one more news. You can now find one Noktor lens (Number 0026) on [shoplink 22105 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Who is SLRmagic? A chinese company (Hong Kong) that currently offers manual, cheap and not high quality lenses. They have the (only) advantage that you can use them without the use of any adapter:
35mm f/1.7 [shoplink 20923 ebay](Click here to see that lens on eBay)[/shoplink].
26mm f/1.4 [shoplink 20919 ebay](Click here to see that lens on eBay)[/shoplink].

Photographyblog posted a very long and very interesting Interview with Panasonic (Click here). And Panasonic confirmed the 25mm f/1.4 lens is coming, but there is a surprise. It will be Leica branded!!! So we will finally have an exact m43 version of the current [shoplink 16340 ebay]Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 Four Thirds lens (Click here to see that on eBay)[/shoplink]!

“Question: And there’s a new lens to go with the G3 isn’t there?

JM: “Yes, here’s the first working sample of the 25mm f/1.4; really eagerly anticipated and not planned for launch until the second half of this year. It will be Leica approved and branded. For those looking for more affordable alternatives of course Sigma has recently announced that it’s going to start making Micro Four Thirds lenses. We’ve got a large following of consumers who are going to be looking for that affordability, and also the enthusiasts who want everything to be the highest quality. The factory is committed to three to four lenses every year so this won’t be the only product we’ll be showing you this year.”

Click here:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 14-42mm Lens Kit at Bhphoto (Click here)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 Camera Body at Bhphoto (Click here)

Right before the G3 announcement Panasonic announced a new 14 Megapixel sensor that will be sold in December 2011!!!

PRESS RELEASE:

“Current high-sensitivity MOS image sensors suppress unevenness in brightness. CCDs have low color-mixing characteristics that suppress color unevenness. The rapidly expanding market for digital cameras with higher image quality and a slimmer body has resulted in greater demand for a stable supply of image sensors that offer both high sensitivity and uniform picture quality.

Panasonic has achieved both MOS image sensor’s high sensitivity and uniform picture quality using the new MOS image sensor technologies, enabling digital cameras and camcorders as well as cameras incorporated in smartphones and other mobile terminals to be slimmer with higher sensitivity and improved picture quality.

The new MOS image sensor has the following features: