Olympus interview at Phototrend: More MFT cameras will be announced in 2019!

The French website Phototrend interviewed a bunch of Olympus managers. Here a couple of takeaways:

– In 2018 Olympus did not announce new MFT products because of the move of the factory from China to Vietnam
– In 2019 Olympus plans to release more new MFT cameras
– We do not want to go to the full format and want to stay focused on what we can do because we want to offer compact and lightweight products
– The MFT system has a unique advantage over the competition which is size and portability.
– E-M1II sales did growth after Olympus announcement that they will stick to MFT only.

There is also a lot of talk about the new E-M1X features. But nothing new to report here :)

New Olympus president Yasuo Takeuchi says they will surely NOT sell the camera business

From April 1st Yasuo Takeuchi is becoming the new Olympus president. And in an interview released at Sankeibiz he directly debunked the rumors saying that shareholder ValueAct Capital asked to get rid of the camera business.

Yasuo Takeuchi once more confirmed how vital the camera business is for their much bigger medical business. They will never get rid of their camera business period :)

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found via Digicameinfo

(FT5) Panasonic G85 successor rumored to be announced in early April

A source heard that Panasonic might announce the new G85 successor in early April. I am trying to get some specs…

UPDATE: I upgraded this rumor from FT3 to FT5 because other sources confirmed this rumor!

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First Panasonic 10-25mm f/1.7 hands-on images!

ePhotozine spotted the Panasonic 10-25mm f/1.7 lens at the Photography Show 2019 in Birmingham.

The lens extends slightly when you zoom to 25mm, and the closest focusing distance is 28cm. The lens on display is a working pre-production sample, so we were unable to take sample photo using the lens, however we can tell you that the lens works very well on a Panasonic Lumix G9, and focus was rapid. The aperture ring on the lens we used is clickless, which means it’s silent and can be smoothly adjusted, perhaps indicating that the lens is specifically suited (or rather designed) with video work in mind. The lens zooms smoothly through the zoom range, and has a 77mm filter thread.

Here are a few more images with courtesy of ePhotozine:

 

UPDATE: Also Photographyblog posted a set of hands-on images. Check it out!

Olympus says that you should expect an E-M5 update soon

Imaging Resource interviewed Mr. Terada and Sugimoto from Olympus. Here are few hot info:

New PRO lenses: There will be pro lenses released before the 150-400mm pro launch in 2020
New E-M5II successor: We can reassure you that we plan to introduce a successor model.
Core focus: core strengths of Olympus brand are compact and lightweight, high-resolution lenses, and strong image stabilization
Reason for the E-M5III launch delay: The move of the factory from China and Vietnam had a double impact on the financial results and an impact on product release timing.

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