The Olympus 75-300mm just got marked as “discontinued” at BHphoto (Click here). And the Black version is completely gone from Amazon too (Click here). The next MFT related announcement from Olympus is scheduled for late January and there may be a new version of the lens coming soon?

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!

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…

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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!!!

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!