Popphoto (Click here) posted the full Panasonic GF3 review: “The Olympus E-PL2, which can still be found at some retailers, matches the GF3’s performance in many ways, but is larger and doesn’t focus quite as fast. In short, the GF3 offers plenty of bang for the buck and is pretty much the camera to beat in this class“.
A second review of the GF3 has been posted by Cameralabs (Click here): “Panasonic’s repositioning of its GF range as ‘consumer’ models aimed at casual photographers looking to upgrade from a point-and-shoot has long been apparent and, in my view, they’ve succeeded admirably“.
The GF3 is in Stock at [shopcountry 23109].

DigitalPhotographySchool (Click here) tested the Panasonic G3: “excellent colour capture with images as sharp as a tack”
The G3 is in Stock at [shopcountry 22077].

The german SystemKameraBlog (Click here) posted a full Olympus 12mm review. You have to be a member to download the review (in german).
Also ePhotozine (Click here) tested the Olympus 12mm lens: “Although this lens comes at a premium price point, you get premium build and premium optical quality. The wide aperture is very useful for taking images in low light conditions and this dinky metal lens makes a perfect companion for street photography due to its compact size and excellent performance at fast apertures.”
Click these shop links to check the price and availability of the Olympus 12mm lens: [shopcountry 23576].

Tsawout Spit – Gh2 Test (driftwood 176mb gop1 hack) from mark wyatt on Vimeo.

Some news are sometimes even better than rumors! Who said you have to buy a new camera to increase the  video quality? With the latest settings from “Driftwood” (check here at personal-view) the GH2 can now record AVCHD Intra at 176Mbit. And plenty of users are now extremely happy with it. According to Perry Wilson (Click here to see his video on vimeo): “”I wish y’all could see the prores 422 HQ file, rivals RED all day long. Believe it or not this looks like crap compared to the prores“. And “This camera is changing my workflow and my company all in positive ways.” More videos have been posted on vimeo by John Justice and Orgie. And Hanadok posted an example video shot with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens. Of course what you see on vimeo/youtube are compressed videos and do not reflect the real quality you can get with the new settings. 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.: As I already told you the GH2 price is dropping slowly in US and Europe. Check at [shopcountry 16254] (Click on shop name to visit the GH2 search page).

Today let’s check how well (or bad) the new [shoplink 25396]NEX-7[/shoplink] and [shoplink 25767]Nikon V1[/shoplink] are competing against our m43 cameras:

Dpreview added the Nikon V1 comparison shots to the dpreview database. m43 still has a visible advantage over the Nikon sensor but I have to admit that the Nikon processor engine does really a good job in both JPEG and RAW. If they would have used a sensor as large as the m43 sensor than they would have probably beaten the current Oly-Panasonic quality.

There is also a new [shoplink 25396]NEX-7[/shoplink], [shoplink 23568]E-P3[/shoplink] and [shoplink 19929]X100[/shoplink] high ISO examples and crops comparison made by Steve Huff (Click here). The difference is easily visible. The Olympus E-P3 has more noise but also a higher per pixel sharpness.

So, what do you think about these tests? M43 has still a huge advantage when you take into consideration the full overall sensor quality + lens size + lens system quantity factors. But a new improved sensors would really bring us a step forward.

P.S.: The NEX-7 is the only non Canon/Nikon camera in Amazon’s top 20 (Click here to see the ranking). I guess I am not the only one waiting for a m43 camera with built-in viewfinder!