43 Rumors – Page 1854 – Panasonic and Olympus Digital Camera News

Olympus working on the E-M5 plus 20mm pancake fix. And says Four Thirds development continues.

June 12, 2012
news
61 Comments

As you know the E-M5 is showing some banding issues when coupled with the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink]. Olympus just issued an official text: “After checking every possible combination of a body and a lens, we found the phenomena only with this combination (OM-D, E-M5 coupled with the Panasonic 20mm pancake lens). We are continuing to study how we can eliminate this and we recommend for our customers using E-M5 with Panasonic 20mm pancake lens to keep a low ISO to avoid this problem for the time being.” (via Dpreview)

And Olympus confirmed once again at DC.watch that the Four Thirds system stays well alive. Not a surprise but we need to see some new camera and lens to believe you Oly :)

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New E-m5 and new lens (pre)orders:
E-M5 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.
Olympus 75mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon Germany and Amazon UK.
Panasonic 12-35mm X lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

(UPDATED) Olympus/Panasonic US deals. Macbook Retina for photographers.

June 12, 2012
deals
44 Comments

My four year old Macbook Pro is pretty much damaged because of the intense traveling and I am happy that Apple announced something “special” for us photographers. The new Macbook Pro with Retina display has the very likely best screen for photographers with a huge 2880 x 1880 Native Resolution. I am used to work on my over 100 Megapixel [shoplink 28309 ebay]Mamiya 7[/shoplink] files so this is still not enough for me :) Anyway, I already preordered mine and you can preorder yours on apple stores or at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and Bhphoto (Click here).

That said here is a list of updated Olympus/Panasonic deals. We are getting closer to the new cameras and lens release in late August and I expect moge and more deals coming soon. All that stuff has the lowest price ever (Click on it to see the product page on Amazon): Olympus E-PL1, Panasonic GH2, Panasonic 45-175mm, Panasonic 14-140mm, Panasonic 14-42mm, Panasonic X 14-42mm, Olympus 14-42mm, Olympus 40-150mm. Full lens rebate page at BHphoto. And Nokton 17.5mm in Stock at Amazon and Bhphoto.

(FT4) New Panasonic G5 announcement in July.

June 12, 2012
Rumors
42 Comments

Sources confirmed to me that Panasonic will have a new announcement in July. I am working to get the details but it looks like Panasonic will finally announce the new G5. I am sure it is not the GH3….that is coming in late August/early September!

Meantime a reminder: The Schneider lens announcement should be made end of next week (or the first days in two weeks). And these are the current Schneider lenses for other mounts. Some of them may come in m43 version:

[shoplink 27395 ebay]Xenon 16mm f/1.2 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27387 ebay]Xenon 25mm f/0.95 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27389 ebay]Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27391 ebay]Componon 50mm f/1.4 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27390 ebay]Xenon 50mm f/1.9 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27394 ebay]Xenar 50mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27388 ebay]Xenar 75mm f/3.5 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27392 ebay]Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27393 ebay]Xenar 180mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].

Reminder -> Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

Photographer Tanake is sure the Four Thirds system continues (E-M5 for $1499)

June 11, 2012
Rumors
89 Comments

Photographer Nozomi Tanaka is well known in Japan and well connected to the Japanese companies. In a tweet (Click here for the translation) he confirmed that Olympus will keep the Four Thirds system well alive. And he hopes the rumors about the end of the Four Thirds system will soon quite down. Rumors about new E-xx or E-X models are spreading the web since a while but I got no confirmation from my sources yet…let’s see!

Meantime the E-5 has a $200 Instant rebate and sells for $1499 at Amazon and Adorama.

E-M5 and 12-35mm X lens review at Luminous Landscape.

June 11, 2012
reviews
41 Comments

The E-m5 with the 12-35mm X lens (Image courtesy: DSLRmagazine).

Luminous Landscape is one of my favorite websites and they just published a long and as usual very well written E-M5 and 12-35mm X lens review (Click here to red the full article!).

E-M5:
It’s a very honest and practically oriented test (which I like a lot). In short LL says that this is the best m43 camera yet: “It is a winner, and has now become my preferred camera for travel and urban walk-around shooting“…”there isn’t a camera with a superior MFT sensor. The OM-D E-M5 is likely the most highly configurable camera ever. Dynamic range looks to be quite close to any other mirrorless system and in terms of colour accuracy the O-MD may be among the best current cameras. Skin tones are particularly pleasing right out of the camera, with JPGs as well as raws in Lightroom 4.1. Video on the OM-D is OK, but not great.” Of course it has flaws and issues like any camera and LL list them all. Most of them can be fixed via further firmware upgrade (which I hope arrives soon).

12-50mm and 12-35mm X lenses:
They are not si impressed by the 12-50mm Olympus kit lens: “In fact it’s a pretty good lens, but it’s not a great lens.” But there is also another critic: “A $500 lens should have a shade included, it’s as simple as that. To not do so is an insult to customers.”
LL also had the new 12-35mm X lens for testing: “Simply put, this is a first rate lens“.

It’s a gold time for Micro Four Thirds and there is a lot of big news coming soon…GH3, new PEN’s a new lenses! Great!

The first Olympus 75mm f/1.8 image samples!

June 11, 2012
reviews
79 Comments

Image credit: Yaotomi.co.jp

FInally we can see the first image samples taken with the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens. At Clubsnap (Click here) and Yaotomi (Click here). As you know Olympus says that this is the Best-in-class Micro Four Thirds lens. And I think they are telling us the truth. Question is, will you pay 899 Dollars/Euro for that lens?

New Oly/Pana Lens Preorders in Europe, USA and Asia:
Olympus 75mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon Germany and Amazon UK.
Panasonic 12-35mm X lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

E-M5 shoots beer (LOL) and a video comparison with the Nikon D800.

June 10, 2012
reviews
58 Comments

If the E-M5 is the hottest mirrorless of the moment the Nikon D800 is certainly the most “discussed” DSLR of the moment. Both are hotsellers at Amazon (here is the mirrorless ranking and here is the DSLR ranking). The video on top compares the video quality of both cameras. Of course you really can’t make any final judgement based on a youtube video and that’s why I leave it up to you to make any conclusion.

Gulio Scorio (Click here) shot his first work with the E-M5 about an organization that creates awareness about craft and artisan beer: “The touch screen and the IBIS really sets this tool apart from anything I owned in the past and the fact that I can shoot some assignments with everything I need in a small bag is just awesome.”

Camerastuffreview (Click here) posted the full E-M5 test: “In many details you will find that Olympus has done it’s best to incorporate all the functionality a real enthusiast photographer wishes for. Buttons and dials are in general well situated, easy to use and also configurable via the menu. The super control panel very effectively minimizes the time you loose searching in camera menus for a specific function. The adjustable warning for underexposure and overexposure is much more intuitively to work with than a histogram. Too bad the camera makes a constant noise and that the play button is hard to reach.”

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name):
Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev. Cheap [shoplink 31278 ebay]third party E-M5 batteries on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. First full leather case bag is now available on [shoplink 31532 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. It is also available in [shoplink 31533 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink].

The E-M5 keeps to be present in the Amazon Bestseller list(changes hourly!):
USA: E-M5 on position 7/10 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 40 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 4/13 (Click here).
France: E-M5 on position 22/23 (Click here).
Japan: E-M5 on position 22/23 (Click here).