There is a $250 price drop on the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 X lens at Amazon (Click here) and JR (Click here). That’s today’s third Panasonic price drop after the GX1 kit deal and 45-175mm X lens deal.
It’s hard to imagine that there is will be no GX2 launch soon when watching these continuous price drops on the GX1. It now sell with kit lens for $449 at Amazon (Click here). I think this is the fourth or fifth small price drop in two months. And the Silver GX1 with 14-42mm X pancake zoom sells for $549 on [shoplink 34830 ebay]Kenmore eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
More deals:
The 45-175mm X zoom got a huge $70 price drop at Amazon (Click here).There is also a Gold Box deal on a Panasonic compact camera on Amazon. And here some GF3 and PEN deals:
Panasonic GF3:
Red body with 14mm pancake for $319 at [shoplink 34941 ebay]Samys eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Black body with 14mm pancake for $329 at [shoplink 34942 ebay]Samys eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
via Slidoo.
Olympus E-PM1:
Brown E-PM1 with 14-42mm lens for $299 at [shoplink 34943 ebay]Lawrence eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
White E-PM1 with 14-42mm lens for $299 at [shoplink 34944 ebay]Lawrence eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
via Slidoo.
Olympus E-PM5:
Silver refurbished E-M5 for $849 at [shoplink 34945 ebay]Cameta eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
via Slidoo.
Our readers following Damian McGillicuddy tweets noticed that message between Damian and Olympus UK manager Mark Thackara. They chat about the “new zoom”. Easy to guess that this may be the 40-150mm f/2.8 lens. I am not 100% sure yet but I heard the lens will be on sale for January. This will be the first fast Olympus zoom lens and I expect it to be as good as the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0[/shoplink] but hopefully a lot cheaper :)
In the meantime new 17mmf /1.8 image samples can be found at Lenstip and Sulanto. The lens can now be preordered at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). Let me know if you can find mroe preorder options. Thanks!
DxOmark (Click here) just posted the full E-PL5 sensor test. And as you can imagine the E-PL5 is as good as the [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] with even a slightly better score at High ISO performance. DxO writes: “The Pen E-PL5 changes the game by reducing the image quality gap between the micro 4:3 and the NEX APS-C formats. For color depth, the Sony cameras retain an advantage of 1 bit, more or less — fairly hard to detect on a photo. For dynamic range, the Pen E-PL5 is outdistanced by the NEX-5N by one full stop in terms of exposure latitude — ultimately not very much, given that the NEX-5N is a champion in this area. But compared to the NEX-7, with its score of 12.7EV, the Olympus is pretty much in the same league in this category with a score of 12.3EV.”
That sounds very good! Can’t wait to see the Olympus version of the Sony NEX-7! My [shoplink 34932 ebay]Olympus 35 Sp[/shoplink] dream is coming true?
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Price check:
E-PL5 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France and eBay (via Slidoo).
E-PM2 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France and eBay (via Slidoo).
Gariz case:
[shoplink 34731 ebay]Black E-PL5 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34730 ebay]Brown E-PL5 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34733 ebay]Black E-PM2 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34732 ebay]Brown E-PM2 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
Image courtesy: DSLRmagazine
Let’s catch up with some PEN related news:
The Dutch website Pixelmania (translation here) posted the full E-Pl5 review. Also Frankfurter Allgemeine (translation here) tested the E-PL5. First imrpession at Sgoldswoblog.
E-PM2 test at DC.watch (translation here).
Body cap resolution test at DSLRmagazine (translation here).
E-PM1 in Afghanistan at Pen And Tell.
Michaël: “Maybe it’s too late after the initial release, but I took some shots with my recently acquired E-PL5 and 20mm 1.7, as well as one shot with the Samyang 7.5mm fisheye. They’re on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdstoop/tags/olympuspenepl5/”
For now the only shop accepting preorders on the new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens is BHphoto (Click here).
Another new lens is finally in Stock: The 35-100mm X lens is now in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and at Adorama (Click here).
And let’s hope this is a good sign and there may be no delay at all on the Panasonic GH3. Two readers just got notified with the following messages:
Message by BHphoto:
“Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 Mirrorless Digital Camera (Black) Estimated arrival at B&H is 7-14 business days (subject to availability). You will be charged upon placing your order.
Please click the URL below to view the item:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/sitem/sku=892456&is=REG&bi=E15”
Message by Samys:
“GH3 delivered by December 3rd.” (Click here to see the GH3 at Samys).
Let’s catch up with some financial news:
Wall Street Journal reports that “Olympus President Hiroyuki Sasa indicated Monday that the company might need further collaboration with Sony to turn around Olympus’s unprofitable compact-camera business.” And Panasonic said that “it will axe another 10,000 jobs” (Source: Reuters).
Overall by reading their reports you will notice that both companies are slowly recovering from the crisis and the forecast is positive. And coming back to Sony’s and Olympus compact-camera strategy…does it make sense to keep their foot in such dying business? The only kind of compact camera that still can stand up against the cameraphones may be the Sony RX100. P.S.: The XZ-1 sells fine (ranking here) but Olympus had to cut the price down to $199 and I doubt they will have some margin on this.
But again, I am not an expert in these kind of analysis. May you can add some more value to that discussion by commenting this post!
