Nikon said that mirrorless cameras are competing against the compact camera market and not taking away any shares from the DSLR market (via Mirrorlessrumors). Is Nikon talking nonsense or not? We have one of the largets “mirrorless” readers community and it’s about time to ask you if your Micro Four Thirds camera did replace your compact camera or DSLR camera. Let’s see if Nikon is telling us the truth ;)

 Loading ...

P.S.: Nikon announced another DSLR, the Nikon D5100. No sign of mirrorless cameras yet…

A short lens rumor update. Another trusted source confirmed that Olympus is about to release a lens that is wider than the current [shoplink 16258]Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens[/shoplink]. I hope we can soon get some info about the real lens specs.

Last week a new sources told us that Olympus should launch a 12mm lens which is faster than the Panasonic lens.

A question. The picture on top shows one of the upcoming Olympus prime lenses (Could be the rumored 12mm or the 50mm or another lens). Olympus didn’t unveil any detail about the focal length and aperture. I am curious to know what you think about it:

 Loading ...

Take that Nikon and Sony! Canon just announced that they will join the Micro Four Thirds coalition! Canon Uruguay just released an official press release: “Canon confirms that mirrorless has no reason at all to exist. In our opinion it’s a waste of time to develop our own CSC-ILC-Mirrorless-EVIL system. But during a latino party we had yesterday our southamerican manager told us that every second camera sold in Japan, every fourth camera sold in Europe and every fifth camera sold in US are mirrorless. So we quickly decided to join the Micro Four Thirds coalition. We still had no time to send a text message to Panasonic and Olympus to share our decision. So please guys don’t tell them anything until we made them a call.”

In a second statement Canon Japan stated that the “first camera to be announced will be the [shoplink 21245 ebay]Canononet analogue camera[/shoplink] which will have a MFT logo on it and a built-in MFT adapter. That was the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to release a camera“.

P.S.: I don’t remember, what day is today? :)

The image on top shows the Olympus lens mockup

We know from trusted sources that Olympus is going to announce new m43 lenses in May/June. Tonight a new anonymous source sent me a “rumor” claiming to know that Olympus will announce a 50mm f/1.4 and a fast 12mm wide angle Micro Four Thirds lens by end of May. I repeat, that info is from a new and anonymous source…take it with a grain of salt!

If that rumor turns out to be true than both lenses will be faster than the [shoplink 14794]Panasonic 45mm f/2.8[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 16258]Panasonic 14mm f/2.5[/shoplink] lenses.
I hope some of my trusted sources can confirm or deny the rumor during the next hours. Thanks!

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

A few readers sent me the link to CNET Asia. There is an article about General Electrics who said that “GE is looking to introduce its first Micro Four Thirds-like camera before the end of 2011“. This doesn’t mean they will join the m43 group. They will make a mirrorless camera and stop. By the end of the year 2011 almost every big company will have their own mirrorless camera and we will finally know if some of them will join m43. Those are the companies that still have to decide what to do:
– Sigma
– Fuji
– Canon
– Epson
– Cosina/Voigtländer (already in with lenses, but no details about cameras yet)

Interesting to know that Epson already made a digital mirrorless (or better “rangefinder”) camera, the [shoplink 21218 ebay]Epson RD-1[/shoplink] and Cosina is well known for their analogue [shoplink 21219 ebay]BESSA[/shoplink] cameras. Both companies are using the Leica M-mount. Sigma and Fuji officially expressed their intention to make a mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. But we have no details about their strategy. I do believe that Leica, Nikon and Pentax will make their own systems and not join m43. What about Canon? They said they don’t need to develop a mirrorless camera (and they don’t think the Fuji X100 will sell well-> Source Quesabesde).

On MirrorlessRumors.com you can see and read the specs of the new Pentax NC-1 system. The NC-1 features a 1:2.33 small sensor. If you wonder about the design of the camera it is based on the popular [shoplink 110]Pentax Auto 110 system (Click here to see camera and lenses on eBay)[/shoplink]. Not a big deal in my opinion but I have been told that Pentax will also launch a second mirrorless system with APS-C sensor. If that rumor is true than we can exclude Pentax joining the Micro Four Thirds group. Bad news :(

Who remains that could now join the m43 world as a camera maker? Come on Fuji! The [shoplink 19929]X100[/shoplink] is selling like hotcakes and we want a m43 version of it! By the way, Fuji resumed the X100 production (preorders on [shopcountry 19929])

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

According to PhotoRadar “Olympus plans to release a high-performance PEN camera with touchscreen technology – possibly the PEN Pro reported earlier this month – as well as a mid-range PEN camera with a tilt screen and a PEN camera with flash in the original [shoplink 16885]PEN EP-1 design[/shoplink].” and they “were told we can expect an announcement of the mid-range PEN camera possibly as soon as April.”

You already know that our sources told us there will be no(!) new PEN camera in April. We expect an Olympus announcement by end of May/early June. We are sure there will be new m43 lenses and there is also a fair chance to see he new [shoplink 14830]E-P2 successor[/shoplink]. That’s why I post the rumor with a low FT2 value. Be warned!

I got some rumors about the future cameras and lenses and I am working on it. What I can say now is that there will be many new interesting Olympus products. More about that soon on 43rumors!

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