(FT3) Olympus patent rumors: adapter with integrated wide lens and adapter with SWD auto focus.


Just received an interesting email:

Got this first from omuser.com and they linked to http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=249&t=1417073&last=17479202 which has another link of the original Japanese post. It is about 2 new Olympus patents, it included the patent numbers but don’t know the validity.

1st patent is an M43 adapter that have an internal wide angle lens which can do the following:
it will half the original focal length of the legacy lens, then when used on M43 for the 2x focal length, the result will be exactly 1x the original legacy lens focal length.

2nd patent is to add an electronic contect to the adapter above which will somehow uses the SWD to control auto focus.

I don’t know much of the details, as the original Chinese translation of the Japan original is very weak as well. I am just translating what I know.

Editors note: If Olympus really patented it this doesn’t mean that they will bring it on market. But we can say there is a fair chance that will happen.

P.S.: Thanks A.!

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Message to rumors sources + example of an unconfirmed rumor

In this weeks I am receiving many rumors. If I do not post them it is only because I need to check them with other sources.
Message to our rumors sender -> Thanks, and sorry if I am waiting to post your rumors but you will agree with me that I can’t post everything I receive without a little bit of control. I also advice you to create a fake gmail account to contact me…at least I can answer you!
Contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com (P.S.: Only I do have access to that account).

Dear readers, I expect soon to publish some of them. So stay tuned on 43rumors.
Here an example of a nice rumor I received yesterday but I didn’t post it because it is unclear if the camera is from Panasonic or Olympus or Samsung or Canon or Nikon or Sony :)

Last weekend I´ve been in Santa Ana, California to visit my cousin who is an enthousiastic professional photographer. In Portola Park we saw a japanese guy taking pictures with a very small digital cam with exchangeable lenses. It looked a little bit like the Panasonic GF1 but it was smaller, had no logo on the body and the body was covered with a tape. The guy continuously touched the display – as to change settings or the like.
After observing him for a while we went to ask him what kind of cam he was using, but when asked he smiled and seemed to be a little bit embarrassed. Then he quit the scene. Do you know anything about an EVIL with touchscreen?

Now dear readers…you can start to speculate :)

(FT5) More sources do confirm -> The Panasonic G2 and Panasonic G10 are going to be unveiled in March!


I just received confirmation from other trusted sources that Panasonic is going to unveil two MicroFourThirds cameras.
The rumors has a FT5 value (90% the rumor can become truth) becuase five(!) of my best sources confirmed it!

One source told me the G10 will be the lower grade camera and the G2 the higher grade camera. One of the two cameras has one important function that no other Micro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four ThirdsMicro Four Thirds System camera has.

I hope someone can tell me more about it soon!


Many US deals today!
Amazon: Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 Lens in Stock
BHphoto: Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 in Stock!
Amazon: Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 in Stock
Adorama: E-PL1 waterhousing in Stock!
Adorama: Black E-PL1 (Body Only) in Stock!

a little bit of everything…


Little video from the Panasonic PMA stand

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DCwatchImpress has some photos of the Olympus PMA stand
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Nissin announces Nissin Di466 for Four Thirds (Source: FourThirds user.com found via 1001noisycamera)
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The polish website with the unpronounceable name www.optyczne.pl tested the Olympus Zuiko Digital 35-100 mm f/2.0 Lens.
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Olympus Named A “Most Innovative Company” By Fast Company Magazine (Imaging Insider)
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Olympus Teams With Harley-Davidson (Imaging Insider)
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Philip Bloom will test thw new Noktor 50mm f/0.95!

(FT4) CORRECTED-> Olympus to go completely mirrorless!

Amateur Photographer drops the BOMB!

The Olympus E system of Four Thirds cameras is likely to be completely mirrorless in two years time, according to Olympus America’s DSLR product manager.

and

Soon the AF system in the Pen cameras will be as fast as that in the E system DSLRs so there it will be possible to get just as good AF performance without the mirror system.

We did receive similar rumors during the past weeks but we thought it would be better to not post it until we have something more concrete in our hands. Now the Olympus US product manager says that the E-System will become mirrorless. I guess that confirms the rumors we received!

KEY POINTS:
1) The E-System will be completely mirrorless in two years time.
2) Fully electronic shutter could be introduced that would make extremely high frames rates such as 20fps possible
3) AF system in the Pen cameras will be as fast as that in the E system DSLRs
4) The FourThirds lenses will be used on smaller and lighter more modern bodies
5) 14 million pixels are more than enough

UPDATE: And now Olympus says “that 14 million pixels are more than enough for a consumer level camera” -> That confirms that the next sensor will have 14MPX. Anyway strange… one year ago they said 12MPX would be enough…now 14 MPX is enough…

[Thanks Jean-Pierre]

P.S.: The Olympus E-PL1 is in Stock at BHphoto!

(FT5) Sony disappoints. Only mockups of mirrorless cameras at PMA!


SonyAlphaRumors just found the official Sony press release.

Here the important part of the text:

“New concept α products being shown include an ultra compact model with interchangeable lenses”.

Very disappointing for Sony customers…and very good news for Panasonic and Olympus market shares!

UPDATE:
– Body price under 1000 USD
– 18-200mm Lens about 900-1000 USD (very expensive but similar price of 14-140mm Panasonic)
– 16mm f/2.8 (confirmed)
– Mirrorless cameras do have in LENS Super SteadyShot!

a little bit of everything…

Travis sent me the video and wrote the following text:
Here is a video showing the issue with the Auto and Intelligent ISO settings in the GF1. The issue is that those settings will use ISO 100 unless the shutter speed is 1/30 of a second or less in Picture priority, Aperture Priority, and Full manual modes.

The only mode that Auto ISO works in is the shutter priority mode which is not available with manual focus lenses.

The interesting thing is that the “Sports Scene” mode uses Intelligent ISO and it works perfectly. It doesn’t start using ISO 100 until the shutter speed is faster than at least 1/100 of a second. It works with MF lenses. However, it does not offer the some other settings that the P.A.S.M modes do.

Hopefully, Panasonic will issue firmware to correct this problem for the GF1.
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Four nice MicroFourThirds and third-party lenses:
1) On dpreview Brian Mosley posted some nice pictures of the E-P2 + Hexanon 57mm f/1.2.
2) E-P2, E-PL1, GF-1 body comparison (dpreview forum)
3) Pen And Carl Zeiss 50mm Pancolar (M42) (dpreview forum)
4) Barrett Brown posted some nice E-P1 + Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5images. (dpreview forum)
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Do you need a 196 Megapixels? (Photographyblog)
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Focus Numerique Über-comparison (E-P2 vs NX10 vs D90 vx K7 vs X1 vs DP2)
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