Olympus France about the new High End camera: “will have the most advanced digital technology on the market.”

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OpenPN got in touch with Olympus France and they confirmed that:
–           By end of 2013, Olympus will unveil a new camera that will fully exploit the exceptional performance of optical 4/3.
–           This new camera will have the most advanced digital technology on the market.
–           Olympus will continue to expand its range optical mount Micro 4/3.

When Olympus says “most advanced technology” than this is what I hope they are talking about:
– Use of a new 3 layer sensor like (and better) the Sigma Foveon (The new DP series is amazing at Low ISO). And Sony patented many sensors with similar tech.
– hybrid Optical and electronic viewfinder tech.
– Full electronic shutter (no shutter delay, no noise).

Ok, that’s just my personal wishlist and I guess I am asking too much :)

Reminder: The upcoming CES announcements will not bring us any new MFT camera, just a bunch of new compact cameras. I expect new MFT camera and lenses to be annoucned by end of January!

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The 2013 rumor/speculation roundup!

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Image source: Engadget

Olympus MFT cameras:
I expect a new kind of PEN camera to be announced soon (late January-early February). Same E-M5 sensor and likely with integrated EVF. On the OMD front there will be a new camera in Store by the second half of the year. And it may be a hybrid MFT and FT camera capable of fully support both lens systems. That may will be the hottest new Olympus camera coming in 2013.
The E-PL and E-PM series may be updated in 2014.

Panasonic MFT cameras:
The next two new MFT cameras will be the G7 and and GF7. Both should hit stores in Spring 2013. It remains a mystery why Panasonic hasn’t updated the GX series in late 2012. They may want to radically change the GX features and that could be the reason why it’s coming in 2013 only. Some rumors said it will be announced in Spring and some other said in late 2013. So no solid time frame yet.

New MFT Lenses:
Panasonic already announced the new 42.5mm f/1.2 and 150mm f/2.8 MFT lenses but they said they will be available in 2014 only. My guess is that they may still announce the final specs and price in late 2013 with early shipments around December 2013-January 2014. Does it mean there will be no other new MFT lenses from Panasonic? Definitely not. But they may be cheap slow zooms only.
Olympus next lens should be announced in late January. No specs have been unveiled yet. The only sure thing is that Olympus said that they want to focus on the development and release of new prime lenses. No word about fast zooms yet.
Schneider will release the 14mm f/2.0, 30mm f/1.4 and 60mm f/2.4 macro AF lenses.
Also Tokina, SLRmagic and Sigma will release new MFT lenses. Not so Zeiss.

Surprises:
Yep, a trusted source told me about a new kind of camera coming from Panasonic. But I hope to get some details about it soon before to spread the news…

Some 43rumors-Mirrorlessrumors and Slidoo development news for 2013:
Mirrorlessrumors: I am working to realize one of my long term “dreams” on MirrorlessRumors. I want to create a platform where yu can get all the best news about Mirrorless stuff but also create a Window for photographers that want to share their stories shot on Mirrorless cameras. The new website is scheduled to go online by March. It will have basic functionalities that I will extend step by step with your help and suggestions.
Slidoo: The new easy search and notification website will have full Amazon database access and be online by early February. If you are a heavy eBayer (and Amazon user) I suggest you to create an account and try out the features (Go here Slidoo.com). I hope you will find it useful to get notified when the things you look for are in Stock and/or available for the price you want to pay for it.
43rumors: The iPhone version has been released in late December. And I am still working to tweak all the functionalities.

Thanks!!!

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Tanaka is sure recent MFT models have no AA filter.

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As you know recently Olympus France first confirmed than denied the fact that the latest MFT models may have no AA filter. So is the story over? Nope! Well connected Olympus photographer Tanaka now says (via Twitter) that his sources told him that “recent Olympus cameras” have no AA filter.

Confusions is back!

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E-M5 camera of the year at Dpreview…

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Image: Dpreview

The worldwide largest forum community at Dpreview picked up the Olympus E-m5 as the camera of the year 2012. I think back 1-2 years when many blogger and experts forecast a decline of the Olympus camera system. Nevertheless Olympus was able with their limited resources but very creative engineers to develop and launch an extraordinary camera. I hope both Panasonic and Olympus will continue to create useful and well made cameras like this. 2013 should be the year of the new advanced PEN, OMD and GX models. This is going to be (again) and intriguing year!

Two unusued E-M5 for $879 on eBay US (via Slidoo). 829 for the refurbished E-M5 at Cametaauctions (via Slidoo). 899 Euro is what you pay for the OMD in Europe (via Slidoo). E-M5 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

E-M5 Case:
There is the official [shoplink 31898 ebay]CS-36FBC Olympus case[/shoplink]. A [shoplink 31899 ebay]leather half case from Hong Kong[/shoplink]. A full [shoplink 31900 ebay]leather case with strap from Cina[/shoplink]. Than we have half cases from two well known producers, [shoplink 31901 ebay]Zelenpol[/shoplink], [shoplink 31906 ebay]Kaza[/shoplink] and [shoplink 31902 ebay]Gariz[/shoplink].

E-M5 Batteries, and other things:
The [shoplink 31905 ebay]Olympus GS-4 strap[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 31903 ebay]DSTE E-M5 batteries[/shoplink] you have to use with an extra charger. There is an [shoplink 31903 ebay]E-M5 car charger[/shoplink] a [shoplink 31908 ebay]new E-M5 LCD screen[/shoplink] and a [shoplink 31909 ebay]Front Cover+ Top Panel[/shoplink].

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Happy New Year!!!

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Dear readers!

Now it’s 2013 and I wish you all the best for the coming year! I am sure we are going to see some exciting rumor time too. And you will not have to wait that long. New MFT stuff are scheduled for a late January announcement. Stay tuned ;)

 

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Cheap MFT cameras are the most sold in Japan.

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Image source: BCNranking.

BCNranking disclosed the full camera sales rankings in Japan from January 1st til the December 24th. By watching the ranking there are multiple surprises. Of course, the first one is seeing that the Nikon J1 is actually on top of the ranking. As you see a good marketing sometimes works better than the camera “WOW” factor.  The bets selling Olympus and Panasonic MFT cameras are right behind the Nikon and these are all GF and E-PL entry level cameras. The more advanced E-M5 and GX1 models lag behind them and are even behind the Pentax Q! Hands-up if you ever thought the tiny Pentax would outsell the E-M5!

Of course the Japanese market is quite different from EU and US markets. But outside Japan we usually don’t get these kind of exact camera sales numbers. You only get purely unscientific rankings from Amazon. But they change hourly and often reflect current deals status:
US ranking (Click here).
DE ranking (Click here).
UK ranking (Click here).
FR ranking (Click here).

Anyway, this year is now over and 2013 will quite an important year for all camera makers. There is a complicated economic situation that will force plenty of companies (and I mean all worldwide companies) to take some drastic if not dramatic decisions. I hope we can recover from the troubling times we are having now.

I Wish You a Happy New Year!

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Panasonic doesn’t deny the possibility of a “big sensor” system. Would require to plan 5 years ahead.

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BCNranking (translation here) interviewed MR. Yoshiyuki Inoue from Panasonic. He didn’t deny that Panasonic is considering to create a camera system with larger sensors (no word if this would be APS-C or Full Frame). But to do this they would need to plan a lens road map at least five years ahead.

It’s not the first time Panasonic talks about the possibility of using bigger sensors. But this may be just simple talk and not a hint about a real plan…

 

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