top – 43 Rumors

OM says it is planning to continue the development of the PEN line!

April 8, 2024
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Dpreview had a chat with Kazuhiro Togashi, OM System’s VP for Brand Strategy and Product Planning. The most important news is that OM System says it’s focusing on outdoor photographers but hinted that the PEN series could yet return to the North American market. As you know the PEN E-P7 is still being produced and sold for the Asian market but it’s no more sold in Europe and America. When asked about the development of new PEN cameras the manager said:

The E-P7 is small, with compact bright lenses, making it highly advantageous for travel photography. Therefore, we’ll reinforce such products in our lineup in the future.

What that “reinforce” means is a bit unclear. There might be an E-P8 for the Asian market only…or they might be seriously considering the return of PEN sales on all worldwide markets. The other statements are repetition of what we heard in the past:

The focus is on higher end products
The focus is on creating products for outdoor photographers.
AI will find it’s way in cameras (like for example AI noise reduction applications)

As you know, I a am a big fan of the idea to make a new PEN-FII…let’s see if my dreams will come true !

Four new Four Thirds sensor for smartphones…that might be used on MFT cameras too?

March 25, 2024
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So far MFT sensor development has been quite small. But there is more and more interest in developing new Four Thirds sensor that can be used inside smartphones. Can OM Digital and Panasonic benefit from that? Sony, Samsung and Omnivision are rumored to be working on new High Megapixel FT sensors. Check out the video to hear about that!

Panasonic officially registered three new cameras in China: Is one of them the GH7?

March 11, 2024
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AI generated impression of the GH7 …yep…fail :)

E8M on Weibo spotted two more new camera registrations from Panasonic (we now have a total of three registered cameras). Usually this means that Panasonic will announce those cameras within 2-3 months. All three cameras do support dual band Wifi (5.1 and 2.4 GHz). The dual band support usually is a sign for a mid to high end level camera.

Camera 1: Panasonic S1RII

I am certain one of the cameras is the new Full Frame S1R camera. I told you that my trusted source told me that Panasonic and Leica co-developed the just announced SL3. And the agreements says that Panasonic will announce their High res camera only a couple of months after this camera…with same sensor and similar specs. The S1RII will have better video tough.

Camera 2: new compact FF L-mount camera?

I am uncertain what we can expect from the second model. Panasonic openly confessed they are thinking about a more compact L-mount Full Frame camera. So this could be an option.

Camera 3: GH7 MFT camera?

I hope at least one of the three is a MFT camera. It’s clear that we are in dire need of a new GH7…so my fingers are crossed for this one!

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Hopefully my sources can soon tell me more about both cameras! If you know anything about those cameras drop me an anonymous message using this contact box (kindly use a nickname to recognize you in future). Or contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com.

Images below show the official camera registration in China:

OM ambassador teases “One Big announcement” on March 4th

February 20, 2024
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Emielie Talpin posted this video and writes:

Join us live on March 4th, at 5PM EST for a very special announcement. We will all be taking live questions too. Don’t miss it. Add it to your calendar now!

Now, two things seem odd to me:

that OM Digital would announce a new product right AFTER the CP+ show
that this teaser is coming from an OM Ambassador and not from OM Digitial.

So this maybe some kind of non-product related announcement? Something like a special action from OM Ambassador or so. I would not get hyped about this…

Jordan Drake: Most of the new OM-1II features are possible thanks to the new updated RAM

February 1, 2024
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Preorders:
OM-1II at Amazon US&CA&EU, BHphoto, Adorama, Om Digital,
FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK. OM Germany, OM UK, OM, Italy, OM France.
150-600mm at Amazon US&CA&EU, BHphoto, Adorama, Om Digital,
FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK. OM Germany, OM UK, OM, Italy, OM France.
9-18mm at Amazon US&CA&EU, BHphoto, Adorama, Om Digital,
FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK. OM Germany, OM UK, OM, Italy, OM France.

There are many that do claim that the OM-1II is basically a OM-1 with a major firmware update. So let’s hear two of those comments:

ThePhoBlographer has been quite harsh on the OM-1Ii and wrote:

The new OM System OM1 Mk II is more or less the same camera that the orignal was. Ergonomically speaking, a few of the buttons where shifted around. The company also rubberized the dials to make them easier to turn and manipulate when you’re in the cold or rougher conditions. Aside from that, OM System packed a few new updates to the camera on the inside. Quite honestly though, these updates sound like they could’ve been firmware updates. And that’s why we’re saying that the OM System OM1 Mk II is the world’s most expensive firmware update.

It’s time that we as a photo community mourn the loss, remember it, and move on.

German Pen And Tell writes:

Apart from the larger buffer (hence the 128 ND filter) and the rubberized dials, all the “features” [of the OM-1 Mark II] could of course also be added to the OM-1 via a firmware update. According to my information, this FW update is also available, they just prefer to sell the OM-1 II. There will only be a firmware upgrade for the OM-1 if the shitstorm from long-time users gets too big, otherwise it will remain stowed in a drawer.

But now let’s come to the official OM Digital explanation that Jordan shared in this video you can watch from minute 13:40. Basically he says that most of the new features are only possible thank to the new RAM module. So these software updates could not be added on the OM-1 anyway:

It’s a bit hard for me to ascertain what’s the truth. Of course it sounds reasonable that more RAM will allow you to deal with more data. And maybe that was a bottleneck on the OM-1 to improve autofocus, add complex AI features, improve the stabilization and add video features.

But I guess we will never REALLY now for sure what’s the final truth behind all of this…