Panasonic interview at Dpreview: “For the future we will focus on high end mirrorless cameras”

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Dpreview talked to the Director of Panasonic’s imaging business Yosuke Yamane. And he gave quite a few insights on Panasonic future focus:

GH5 fimware update coming:
it will improve the smoothness of DFD for video

About on sensor phase detection:
On-sensor phase detection doesn’t work any darker than F8, [which can be a problem in video]. It’s not necessarily true that phase detection is better than DFD plus contrast detection. We think our DFD is going to be better than [the best phase-based AF]. That’s our target and we want to realize that accurate autofocus

Goal on the US market:
For Lumix, the United States is a very strategic market. Our target is to double the business volume by 2020. For the future, to double the business, we’re going to focus on high end product: mirrorless cameras and high-end compacts. We expect a decent increase of the compact market to be sustainable.

LX100 successor:
As the customer expects LX200 we will also strengthen the successor of LX100. How will we answer to the passionate customers of the LX100? We will study how we’re going to answer these customers.

Trickle down tech:
we would like to expand the [GH5’s] technology to other models

8k:
In 2020, when the [Olympics] are in Tokyo, the era of 8K will start: we will develop the hardware to develop the 8K picture

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New Olympus rebates: $200 off on the PEN-F and on the E-M10II

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Olympus US launched new savings:
Save $200 on the Olympus PEN-F at Bhphoto, Amazon, Adorama, GetOlympus.
Save $200 on the Olympus E-M10II double lens kit at Bhphoto, Amazon, Adorama.

Rokinon MFT deals:
For the next two days you save $$$ on these Rokinon lenses:
$30 off on the Black 12mm f/2.0 MFT lens at Adorama.
$30 off on the Silver 12mm f/2.0 MFT lens at Adorama.
$150 off on the 50mm T/1.5 MFT Cine lens at Adorama.

All Panasonic deals:
$500 off on the GH4 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
$300 off on the G7 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
$200 off on the GX8 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
New superdeal: GX85 with two MFT lenses and a free $100 gift card for $697 at BHphoto (Click here).
$150 off on the 30-100mm lens at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.

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2016 financial report: After 7 years Olympus registered first profit in the camera division

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Olympus released their full 2016 financial year report. And in the imaging division we got quite some good news:

Full-year operating income achieved for 1st time in 7 years due to benefits of new products and exhaustive cost controlling
Olympus had a profit of 0,5 billion YEN. And the forecast for the year 2017 is an increase of the profit to 1 billion YEN despite declining sales:
Profitability to be sustained, despite decrease in sales, through further business streamlining and exhaustive cost controlling
The key word used by Olympus is “exhaustive cost controlling”.
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Weekly 43rumors readers pictures roundup…

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Hardy-Bernd Wagner‎
Fly on Ice
PEN-F,M.60mm F2.8 Macro
F3.2, 1/13s, ISO 80, Stack
http://hwhw.de

1) You can share your pics by using posting on our 43rumors Facebook page (Click here).
2) All 43rumors readers pictures can be seen here: facebook.com/43rumors/photos. Like the pictures you like and chat with the authors if you want to know how they took the shot!
3) The most liked pictures and some pics selected by myself will be posted weekly on 43rumors

This is the weekly selection:

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Free Brunch if you buy the E-PL8

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In USA if you buy the E-PL8 you get a free brunch for two. Full info at GetOlympus.

Rokinon MFT deals:
For the next two days you save $$$ on these Rokinon lenses:
$30 off on the Black 12mm f/2.0 MFT lens at Adorama.
$30 off on the Silver 12mm f/2.0 MFT lens at Adorama.
$150 off on the 50mm T/1.5 MFT Cine lens at Adorama.

All Panasonic deals:
$500 off on the GH4 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
$300 off on the G7 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
$200 off on the GX8 at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.
New superdeal: GX85 with two MFT lenses and a free $100 gift card for $697 at BHphoto (Click here).
$150 off on the 30-100mm lens at Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon.

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(FT5) New E-M1II, E-M5II and 300mm firmwares will be released on Monday (read the improvements list)

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The German Forum oly-forum.com spilled out the details about a new E-M1II, E-M5II and 300mm PRO firmware that will be available on Monday:

E-M1II Version: 1.2
Verbesserte Farbwiedergabe des Elektronischen Suchers.
Das Problem, dass Blitzgeräte anderer Anbieter bei hochaufgelösten Aufnahmen/Fokus-Belichtungsreihe/Focus Stacking keinen Blitz emittieren, wurde behoben.
Das Problem, dass der rückseitige Monitor die Aufnahmeansicht nicht anzeigt, wenn der elektronische Sucher zum Aufnehmen von Fotos verwendet wird, wurde behoben.
Das Problem, dass die voreingestellte Position des AF-Ziels bei Ausschalten des Geräts nicht beibehalten wird, wurde behoben.
Verbesserte (Stabilität der) Kapazitätsanzeige des Batteriestatus.
Verbesserte Rauschminderung von Serienaufnahmen bei eingeschalteter Bildstabilisation des Objektivs.
Von Profoto hergestellte Blitzsteuergeräte werden unterstützt.

300mm PRO Version: 1.2
Verbesserte Rauschminderung von Serienaufnahmen bei eingeschaltetem Bildstabilisator des Objektivs und Verwendung einer E-M1 Mark II.”

EM5II Version: 2.4
Von Profoto hergestellte Blitzsteuergeräte werden unterstützt.
Die Sicherung der Kameraeinstellungen ist möglich.
Kompensation für mittlere Gradation bei Verwendung der Gradationskurven-Korrektur ist möglich.

Die Position des AF-Ziels und der Bereich der Spotmessung können verknüpft werden.

The Google translated text is:

E-M1II Version: 1.2
Improved color reproduction of the electronic viewfinder.
The problem that flash devices from other vendors emit no flash during high-resolution exposures / focus stacking / focus stacking has been fixed.
The problem that the back monitor does not display the shooting view when the electronic viewfinder is used to take photos has been fixed.
The problem that the preset position of the AF target is not retained when the unit is turned off has been fixed.
Improved (stability of) capacity indicator of the battery status.
Improved noise reduction of serial shots when the lens is stabilized.
Profoto-manufactured flash controllers are supported.

300mm PRO version: 1.2
Improved noise reduction of serial shots with the image stabilizer on and the use of an E-M1 Mark II.

EM5II Version: 2.4
Profoto-manufactured flash controllers are supported.
The camera settings can be saved.
Compensation for medium gradation when using gradation curve correction is possible.
The position of the AF target and the range of spot measurement can be linked.

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