A brand new Olympus patent discloses a small surprise. Olympus designed a 12-150mm f/4-6.3 Micro Four Thirds lens with in lens stabilization! It’s likely that Olympus plans to release this as a perfect Powerzoom lens dedicated for video that could work fine on both Olympus and Panasonic cameras.

Source: Egami.

Olympus disclosed the full financial report for the year 2013. You can find plenty of documents here: http://www.olympus-global.com/en/ir/. The most important file is that pdf (download here).

While the good news is that the company as a whole is doing just fine the main problem is their Imaging Business. They failed to achieve their goals and showed a new loss in 2013. Furthermore Olympus now expects a loss for 2014 too. A great analysis has also been posted by Thom Hogan at Sansmirror. Here are a couple of key points:

– Olympus main loss is due the decreasing compact camera market. Also mirrorless system camera sales weren’t as high as expected.
– Olympus plans to reduce investment in the compact camera business (V-line is dead for example). They will focus on high-end mirrorless system cameras.
– Focus is on OMD models rather than PEN
– Olympus expects a small growth in mirrorless camera sales this year.
– Good news: Olympus didn’t make major cuts in Research and Development. It means they keep pushing MFT! Olympus also says that resources from the compact camera division will be used for the MFT system development.
– Olympus wants to streamline their sales line too (more direct sales and focus on cities).

So it’s not a surprise that we will get one new PEN “Only” (the E-Pl7). And I expect some high end MFT products at Photokina.

Here is the full report:

AF during video comparison, GH4 vs GH3

Interview by David Lebovitz of food photographer Michael Lamotte, who uses a GX7 (Davidlebovitz).
Shooting 4K for 2K on the Panasonic GH4 plus my pre-review short film (EosHD).
GH4 review at Sherifmokbel.
Video performance analysis of the GH4 at Cameras.Reviewed.
Olympus SH-1 Sample Images (Photographyblog).
Pictorial 75 f/1.8 long term review at Betterfamiliyphotos.
E-PL6 double kit announcement at Olympus Japan.
Review: Panasonic DMC-GH4 Micro Four Thirds HD/4K Camera (Dvinfo).
40-150 to 35-100 comparision on Youtube.

Adam: “I would be grateful if you checked out some of my latest black and white work! http://www.adamthirtle.com/tagged/bwpage”

Ben: “I mentioned that I’m running a 2-day workshop for photographers to try out all the latest Olympus OM-D gear, in West Cork, Ireland. It runs during the weekend of the Baltimore Wooden Boat and Seafood festivals, May 24-25.
Following a request, I’m now offering a one-day option now as well. People may come for the Saturday only and the fee is £90.
I’ll have OM-D E-M1s, E-M10s and E-M5s, and all the top Olympus primes and zooms, also Sigma m4/3 lenses and a couple of the new Manfrotto tripods. The program includes a boat trip, to photograph boats under sail and the coastal landscape and sea-life; a pass for the castle, whose roof terrace gives the best view across the harbour; a hosted visit to an exhibition of superb local photography; and plenty of time for photography and to enjoy the bustle of the festival. It promises to be a great weekend.
The cost for the two-day workshop is €215, and Olympus are giving everyone a €60 cash-back voucher for OM-D/PEN camera or lens purchases.
Links:
http://www.olympus-imagespace.co.uk/index.php/whats-on/venue/94
https://www.facebook.com/events/580452062052221/”

свадьбография.рф: “new hacked GH2 work on vimeo“.

Joe: “This is Joe Farace from MirrorlessPhotoTips.com: Many of our readers liked our post about making a 60-inch wide print from a frame grab from 4K video from a Lumix GH4. Maybe your readers will find it interesting too. Here is the link:
http://bit.ly/1gv8qpc“