Panasonic digital camera sales: not so good as expected.

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Photoscala (Click here) analyzed the latest Panasonic financial report. In summary, Panasonic lost 6% sales in the second fiscal quarter and the division “Digital AVC Networks” (which includes the digital cameras) had a 7% loss compared to last years quarter.
Panasonic also announced a new group organization (Click here to download the pdf).

Editor’s note: Neither Olympus nor Panasonic are doing very well this year. But I also saw that other companies are having problems. Strong YEN, Tsunami, Fukushima and now the Thai flood. There are many reasons why japanese companies are having a bad year!

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The reason why the new LVF2 adapter cannot work on your current GF camera.

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The old beauty: The Panasonic [shoplink 14828 ebay]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]

Our reader TAGO (Thanks!) found the reason why the current GF cameras Panasonic by reading an old article at http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/interview/20090909_314443.html (Sep. 2009).

Here it is: “The External terminal for EVF,it is necessary to run through high-frequency parallel data. In that case, EMI increases and cannot confirm a standard. Therefore, GF1 cannot output data of more than 200,000 pixel to the external terminal.”

So it sounds like it is not a bade joke or marketing trick if the new LVF2 adapter will not work on your GF cameras. The new adapter has 1.44k dot and that’s an amount of data the “old” connections of the GF1/2/3 cannot handle!

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New hacked GH2 Driftwood’s 176mb GOP1 video roundup!

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Intergalactic Planetary from inhousegoods on Vimeo.

There are plenty of videos you can find on Vimeo (Click here to see the latest Driftwood GH2 video list). All GH2 owners can hack the camera by using these instructions: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/332/ptool-3.60d-topic. And to see a list of all patches (including the driftwood) go here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/953/gh2-patch-vault-most-popular-patches-in-one-place

P.S.: GH2 price check at [shopcountry 16254] (Click on shop name to visit the GH2 search page).

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(FT1) Very wild rumors: Samsung wants to buy Olympus shares? (+Olympus apologies).

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Before you read this. The rumor is based on non proved facts. I received that anonymous tip and have no way to double check it. So take it easy! It’s quite “strange” but I post it anyway. Here is the text of the rumor:
“Well, the OlympusDrama is taking a new dimension in Wall Street, here is a strong rumors about a requirement for Samsung Medical Device Development (a Samsung Electronic Division) to an evaluation company about the Olympus Medical Devices unit. Samsung could be looking for the opportunity to buy a good bunch of stocks.”
Just my tow cent on this: Although the rumor is talking about the interest from Samsung about the medical part of Olympus also the camera division could interest them. Samsung is heavily investing in their mirrorless system and an Olympus acquisition would help them to gain lot of technical skills and historical experience.

Back to real news:

Mr. Noda (prime minister of Japan) said that the allegations surrounding Olympus may be taken as indicative of how the whole country operates. And: “What worries me is that it will be a problem if people take the events at this one Japanese company and generalise from that to say Japan is a country that does not follow the rules of capitalism” Source: Techradar.

And the next news is that Olympus president Shuichi Takayama said: “We wish to make a profound apology for all the distress and trouble caused due to the recent series of media reports and fall in stock prices triggered by our recent change in President. The past acquisitions mentioned in the media were handled with the appropriate evaluations and procedures. These transactions were in no way improper and we are setting up an external panel of experts to examine and report on this acquisitions activity…We sincerely hope to conclude this situation as quickly as possible to restore society’s trust in us and to bring reassurance to our customers, business partners, shareholders and employees. Thank you for your continued understanding and support.” (Source: AP).

And MR. Woodford said “Olympus will survive the controversy and is a good business. There’s nothing wrong with the company. So the company will go on“. (Source: AP).

—

A reminder: Months ago a rumor from one of my trusted sources said that Samsung offered Four Thirds sensor for Olympus. I still don’t know yet if Olympus will consider that option.

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

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New SLRmagic Hyperprime 12mm f/1.6 video samples and reviews.

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New Test footage Noktor Hyperprime 12 mm from Hugo Goudswaard on Vimeo.

Don Ravine (Click here) posted a full ( four pages long) SLRmagic Hyperprime 12mm f/1.6 lens review: “Perhaps the single strongest feature of this lens is it’s potential as a very special video lens. I don’t mean point and shoot home movies (many of which are excellent, of course). I mean serious, professional or semi-professional video, planned shots with careful control of all the elements“.

Also Hugo Goudswaard (Click here) posted a first impression: “My first impressions of the lens are great. It feels robust and solid. Focus and aperture ring move as smooth as butter. 12mm looks like a nice wide angle view (like 24mm on 5D Mark II) and you can get nice shallow depth of field. I bett that this will be an awesome lens, especially outside, when stopped down with ND. Lens has 12 aperture blades so nice round bokeh“.

The SLRmagic Hyperprime 12mm lens is yet not available for preorder (but it will be soon).

Other SLRmagic lenses for Micro Four Thirds:
SLR Magic 12-36×50 ED Straight Spotting Scope lens (w/ hand grip) is now available on [shoplink 25887 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens you can preorder on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

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$130 price drop on the GH2 in USA! New GH2 kits coming in January?

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There is a huge price drop from over $100 on the GH2-14-140mm lens kit. It’s ongoing on all major online retailers like Amazon (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here) and J&R (Click here). Where there is smoke there is fire and I guess that Panasonic wants to make some “price-space” for the upcoming new GH2 kits when the 14-35mm and 35-100mm X lenses will be announced in January. Hope Panasonic will not exaggerate with the price again!

UPDATE: Also the Gh2 + 14-42mm lens kit got a $100 price drop. Check at Amazon (Click here).

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(FT3) Next bad news? New Panasonic DMW-LVF2 will not work on current GF cameras.

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[shoplink 26560][/shoplink]This is a rumors website and I there are times I strongly hope my sources are wrong. Like in that case! Because according to an info I got from trustworthy source the new Panasonic DMW-LVF2 viewfinder which will be announced along the Panasonic GX1 on November 8 will not work on all current GF cameras! I have been told the LVF2 has completely different physical connections. This is pity. I don’t know yet if the reason behind that is that the “old” GF connections could not be used to transfer a higher amount of data for the viewfinder or if that is another move from Panasonic to sell more GX1 cameras. I wish Panasonic will explain the reason why the new viewfinder is not compatible with current GF cameras because otherwise people will get upset.

P.S.: The new viewfinder has 1.44k dots and is til-table. I don’t know the price yet. The current Panasonic DMW-LVF2 costs around 150 Euro/Dollars at [shopcountry 26560].

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