43 Rumors – Page 1989 – Panasonic and Olympus Digital Camera News

Europe: All MFT cameras you can get for less than 300 Euro/Pounds.

November 8, 2012
deals
10 Comments

And here is a new roundup of the MFT (MicroFourThirds) cameras you can buy for less than 300 Euro. Sorry if I include eBay stores only but it would take weeks for me to check every single store in every single European country. Take this post as an indication of how much you have to spend on a new MFT camera. If you find other stores having even cheaper offers than drop us a comment! Thanks!

Panasonic GF3:
Body only for 199 at [shoplink 34743 ebay]Digitalcameraprofi DE[/shoplink].
Body with 14-42mm lens for 299 at [shoplink 34746 ebay]Digitalcameraprofi[/shoplink].
Body with 14mm pancake lens for 285 at [shoplink 34745 ebay]Crampton UK[/shoplink].
All GF3 eBay auction for less than 300 Euro/Pounds on Slidoo DE, Slidoo UK (Login to change the country of reference to IT, FR or other EU countries).

Panasonic GF1:
Body only for 275 at [shoplink 34755 ebay]Wichern DE[/shoplink].
All GF3 eBay auction for less than 300 Euro/Pounds on Slidoo DE, Slidoo UK.

Olympus E-PM1:
Body only for 209 at [shoplink 34748 ebay]Digitalcameraprofi DE[/shoplink].
Body with 14-42mm lens for 270 at [shoplink 34749 ebay]Trustmultimedia DE[/shoplink], 275 at [shoplink 34750 ebay]Mobileplanet DE[/shoplink], 280 at [shoplink 34751 ebay]Web FR[/shoplink] and 285 at [shoplink 34747 ebay]Parkcameras UK[/shoplink].
Body with 14mm pancake lens for 285 at [shoplink 34745 ebay]Crampton UK[/shoplink].
All GF3 eBay auction for less than 300 Euro/Pounds on Slidoo DE, Slidoo UK.

Olympus E-P1:
Body only for 279 at [shoplink 34752 ebay]Digitalhandel DE[/shoplink].
All GF3 eBay auction for less than 300 Euro/Pounds on Slidoo DE, Slidoo UK.

Olympus E-PL3:
Body only for 253 at [shoplink 34753 ebay]Topfoto DE[/shoplink].
All GF3 eBay auction for less than 300 Euro/Pounds on Slidoo DE, Slidoo UK.

New lupe alike Kenko filter & E-M5 grip/stay (+ GH3 & E-PL5 tests)

November 7, 2012
reviews
15 Comments

Don’t kow you guys, but I never saw a filter like this! It has been announced by Kenko-Tokina and you may check out their website to learn more about it. Looks abit tricky, don’t knwo if I would carry one of these along my camera…

More news bits:
The US company J.B. Camera Designs made a new E-M5 grip&stay you can already buy on Amazon (Click here).
Frugalfilmmakers posted a short GH3 hands-on report. Full size GH3 image samples by Optyczne.
Mobile01 (translation here) posted the full Olympus E-PL5 review.
Sgoldswoblog posted a short body cap lens test. Bye the way, you can win that lens by participating the latest E-P1.net contest.

(FT4) Christmas present: 17mm f/1.8 to hit stores in December for 550 Euro.

November 7, 2012
Rumors
164 Comments

Few weeks ago we got Yahoo Taiwan listed the new Olympus 17mm f/1.8. And now we got a more specific info confirming that the lens will hit the stores in mid December. The rumored price in Taiwan is $16,900 NTD and in Europe price will be around 550 Euro. Olympus already said that this lens will have the same build quality of the [shoplink 23576]Olympus 12mm f/2.0[/shoplink] lens. I will certainly grab one of these!

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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

New E-PL5/E-PM2 case from Gariz.

November 6, 2012
reviews
13 Comments

[shoplink 34733 ebay]

[/shoplink]

Current and future E-PL5/E-PM2 owners may be glad to know that Gariz just released their new high quality case. And they are already available on eBay:
[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].

There is also another E-PL5 ISO test posted by the Hungarian website Pixinfo. Sadly google translation tool doesn’t work on that website so you can just take a look at the ISO test images.

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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).

Panasonic GH3 test at EosHD (Global shutter GHx in two years?)

November 6, 2012
reviews
32 Comments

Example of moire on the Panasonic GH3 from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

Our friend Andrew from EosHD had the chance to test a pre-production GH3 camera. He met Panasonic manager Uematsu-san and the first interetsing news is that he “hinted at a weaker anti-aliasing filter in our conversations. This results in sharper stills but more aliasing in video mode“. On the other side the weaker AA filter allows to have a “better overall image because of improvements to colour, gradation and the codec“. And the GH3 “resolves as much detail as the $15,000 Canon C300 and at a higher bitrate in 24p.”

A look into the future: Uematsu-san said that Panasonic could bring global shutter to the GH line in 2 years.

If you want to read more about the GH3 I invite you to read the article at Luminous Landscape.

Special GH3 page at Amazon (Click here) and a full Olympus presentation page at Amazon (Click here).
GH3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.

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UPDATE: 60mm macro lens in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).

(FT3) Digicaminfo: Panasonic GX2 to arrive in Fall 2013 only? GF6 and G6 in Spring.

November 6, 2012
Rumors
58 Comments

Yesterday Panasonic announced the new MFT videocamera. So while the rumor about an early November Panasonic announcement were correct we are still missing the release of the new GX2. There is a weird silence around that product. Back in Spring Panasonic itself said that: “We will define more clearly what GH and GX means this year, so consumers have a better idea of what their characteristics are.” (Source: Amateur Photographer). And the GX1 price fell down at the same level of the GF5 (GX1 $460 Amazon and GF5 $449 again at Amazon).

But that weird silence may be a sign that something has changed within the Panasonic roadmap. And indeed Digicaminfo (translation here) got the info that Panasonic decided to release the GX2 in Fall 2013 only! This is not a rumor from their best sources, so it may be not correct. But according to the rumor the Panasonic decided to take time to develop the new GX2 so that it will have some features that “do not exist on current Panasonic MFT cameras“.

What these features could be we don’t know but I already spotted some patents about 1) rangefinder styled GX camera and 2) Built-in sensor stabilization. But we know, patent do not really disclose what’s coming in the near future.

The other info is that the GF6 and G6 will be released in Spring. That is definitely not a surprise. Panasonic is known for releasing the G and GF successors in Spring :)

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The Sony NEX-6/7 (Click here) and the Fuji X cameras (Click here) are for now the only mirrorless cameras with such a rangefinder styled design.
The [shoplink 23692 ebay]DMC-L1 eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The [shoplink 26385 ebay]DMC-LC1 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

A new 35-100mm X lens video user review…

November 6, 2012
reviews
23 Comments

First off….there are now eight(!) refurbished E-M5 auctions on Olympusmarket eBay (Click here to see the list on Slidoo eBay). If you are going to bet on it…Good Luck! :)

Panasonic 35-100mm X: Our reader Twills got his new X lens and posted the video on top. Here is his short review text: “The lens is exceptionally sharp even wide open at F2.8. The 35-100mm has in lens image stabilization that as you can see in the video works extremely well in both stills and video modes. This lens is not that much longer and actually narrower than the 14-140mm. I have not seen in CA(Chromatic Aberrations) or other distortions with this lens. The image quality of it is unmatched by any other m4/3s I have tested. This is expected with a lens this expensive though.
The 35-100mm lens emits very faint whirring and whining noises from the continuous auto focus motors. They are faint but you can hear them if you put your ear up next to the lens. I couldn’t hear the noises in any of the videos I took.
The auto focus with the GH2 + 35-100mm is extremely accurate and it does not hunt at all. However, it can be slow to refocus in very dark situations where the focus point changes very quickly.
I have uploaded the still images from the video at the link below.
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/4222674355/albums/35-100mm-f2-8-samples
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3293287”

One more review: 60mm macro test at Camerastuffreview.