43 Rumors – Page 1800 – Panasonic and Olympus Digital Camera News

FIrst E-PM2 test (“should” ship today at BH. GF3 dealbreaker)

October 12, 2012
deals
18 Comments

E-PM2:
According to BH (Click here) the E-PM2 should begin shipping starting from today! This little camera features the same E-M5 sensor and first image samples have been posted by Siamirrorless (Click here). The images you see have been taken with the little 15mm body cap lens.

And here are some new deal reminders:
The GF3 with 14-42mm kit lens sells for $289 at Amazon (Click here). And it rules the whole mirrorless sales ranking (Click here to see).
And the refurbished E-M5 is also back via Cameta:
Silver Olympus E-M5 for $849 at Cameta (Click here).
Black Olympus E-M5 with 12-42mm lens for $949 at [shoplink 34210 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).
Silver Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens for $1149 at [shoplink 34211 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).
Black Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens for $1149 at [shoplink 34211 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).

Yahoo Taiwan lists the new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens. Priced at $550 and coming in November.

October 12, 2012
Rumors
113 Comments

Our reader Francis (Thanks!) found an the price and availability info of the new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens on Yahoo Taiwan. I don’t know yet if the info listed there is correct, But it says that the price will be $16,900 NTD,which is about $565 USD or 435 Euro. And it will be available from mid November.

If the info is correct than this is definitely good news! The lens is supposed to have the same superb build and optical quality of the [shoplink 23576]Olympus 12mm f/2.0[/shoplink] which costs most more! Check out the 12mm price at [shopcountry 23576].

At that price I am certainly going to buy it and you?

Patent: three wide angle fisheye zoom from Olympus (all starting at 8mm)

October 12, 2012
Rumors
56 Comments

Egami (Tranlsation here) spotted a new Olympus patent describing the design of three new wide angle lenses:
8-20mm f/2.8-4
8-35mm f/2.2-4
8-74mm f/2.8-4

From the description you will notice that this are actually Fisheye lenses! Right now only [shoplink 34168 ebay]Canon (with the 8-15mm)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 34169 ebay]Tokina (10-17mm)[/shoplink] have this kind of lenses on market. Is that something we need for the Micro Four Thirds system? Certainly not a priority lens but it’s always nice to expand the lens horizon.

Two new GH3 reporst with firmware 0.5 (EosHD and Slashcam)

October 11, 2012
reviews
25 Comments

European blogs had the chance to play with the GH3 with firmware version 0.5:
EosHD (Click here) reports “First change, I felt that the buttons were more tactile and grippy“.
The German Slashcam (translation here) reports that the Audio Level can be changed while recording.

by reading this reports you get the feeling that there are still many changes to come. Let’s hope there won’t be any delay and the camera ships on November 30th as “promised” by Panasonic US.

—

GH3 Preorders at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.

Olympus E-PL5 review (and shipping in Asia). Plus new lens reviews roundup.

October 11, 2012
reviews
32 Comments

Photoreview Australia posted the Olympus E-PL5 review including a detailed Imatest report: “The review camera’s low-light performance was impressive, with image noise only becoming visible in long exposures at ISO6400 and shots taken at ISO 12800 being printable up to A4 size.” The E-PL5 shipment now started in Asia at Amazon Japan and on [shoplink 33622 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. In US and Europe shipment will start in 1-2 weeks.
E-PL5 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
E-PM2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,

New Lens tests:
Tokina 300mm f6.3 Mirror Lens at ThePhoBlographer: “The focal length is extremely long and not everyone may like the doughnut effect or the slow manual focusing. To really get the most out of the lens, you’ll need to slow down, think, and wait for the right moment.”
Olympus 75mm test at Focus Numerique.
25mm f/0.95 HyperPrime test at ThePhoBlographer: “Even though this being only a prototype, I found it to be very sharp wide open for a lens this fast”
17.5mm Nokton review at ePhotozine: “Sharpness in the centre is impressive for a lens with such a fast maximum aperture and it just gets better as the lens is stopped down. The quailty feel delivered by the materials and workmanship is of a level normally reserved for Leica and Zeiss lenses, which generally cost a fair bit more.”
Kurt Munger tested the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens. Also Camerahoarders posted one.
60mm macro review at Seldomscenephotography.

No joke: SVS-Vistek makes a MFT mount camera with global shutter!

October 11, 2012
news
38 Comments

The German company SVS-Vistek (Seefeld, Germany) is developing a new range of cameras with native Micro Four Thirds mount. These are CCD “Tracer” industrial cameras equipped with sensors made by Truesense Imaging (Rochester, NY). Andreas Schaarschmidt (CEO of SVS-Vistek) said the new cameras will have full electronic zoom and aperture support like zoom and aperture. There will be both a Monochrome and Color version, with Global Shutter, 5.5µm pixels and a resolution of 2,048 x 2,048 and 2,048 x 1,088, respectively.

Source: Vision systems and entner-electronics.

GH3 versus E-M5 at ePhotozine.

October 11, 2012
reviews
54 Comments

a short GH3 low light test

GH3 test after test is being posted on many websites. Now it’s time to see a short and not scientific GH3 versus E-M5 comparison at ePhotozine (Click here). There is also a short video test too. It’s really not possible yet to say what’s the difference between the two cameras. We will have to wait for Dpreview or DxOmark to learn more about it.