PenAndTell and ThePhoBlographer confirmed that the BIG Shift 15mm f/4.5 MFT lens will not be released. As you know the lens is (now was) based on the [shoplink 33839 ebay]Voigtlander Heliar 15mm f/4.5 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] design. But the manufacturer claimed that “the 15mm Voigtländer didn’t work as expected“. They are now “currently looking for other solutions to make the lens work“.
Photographyblog posted the full GH3 review: “Overall the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 is a fantastic camera in its own right, transcending the boundaries of mirrorless, DSLR, Micro Four Thirds, stills and video. The compelling mix of outstanding image quality, ease-of-use, intuitive design and a rich feature-set makes it very easy for us to highly recommend the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 – only that eye-watering price prevents us from awarding it our highest Essential rating…” GH3 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto, Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.
Superdeal and hotseller reminder: The Black Olympus XZ-1 still sells for $199 only at Amazon (Click here). And it is on top of the rankings for full two days now (Click here to see the list).
Our reader Nicolas made the test video you see on top after watching another youtube video. It shows a “trick” to have a sort of focus peaking mode on the E-M5. From what we see here it looks like Olympus would only have to do a small firmware update to fully support peaking mode!
E-M5 Case:
There is the official [shoplink 31898 ebay]CS-36FBC Olympus case[/shoplink]. A [shoplink 31899 ebay]leather half case from Hong Kong[/shoplink]. A full [shoplink 31900 ebay]leather case with strap from Cina[/shoplink]. Than we have half cases from two well known producers, [shoplink 31901 ebay]Zelenpol[/shoplink], [shoplink 31906 ebay]Kaza[/shoplink] and [shoplink 31902 ebay]Gariz[/shoplink].
E-M5 Batteries, and other things:
The [shoplink 31905 ebay]Olympus GS-4 strap[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 31903 ebay]DSTE E-M5 batteries[/shoplink] you have to use with an extra charger. There is an [shoplink 31903 ebay]E-M5 car charger[/shoplink] a [shoplink 31908 ebay]new E-M5 LCD screen[/shoplink] and a [shoplink 31909 ebay]Front Cover+ Top Panel[/shoplink].
Now it’s official. Panasonic announced the shipment date for the new GH3: December 13th (Source: DC.watch). History proved that EU and US readers will get their preorders weeks later. Panasonic store (Click here) still shows a shipping date of Nov 30th but I guess they will change that soon. Note that previously shipment period was guessed for November (Source: Which, Techradar, Photoscala, Nofilmschool, Photographyblog, and so on…).
UDPATE:Quesabesde (translation here) posted a new set of GH3 image samples including full size RAW images!
Stuckincustoms posted that long Micro Four Thirds video talk with Gordon Laing, Giulio Sciorio, Peter Tsai, Amy DangRabbit, and Scott Giorgini. I hope you have a lot of time to watch this because it is as long as a regular Hollywood movie!
BHphoto (Click here) now postponed the GH3 release from November to December. And so Panasonic store (Click here ->now Nov 30th). Le’ts hope this is not the beginning of a long series of small delays!
Two days ago I told you that I am getting new rumors about two possible Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras. It may be a good time to remind you some statements made by Akira Watanabe at Amateur Photographer. Here are some of the key info he unveiled:
– The Canon EOS-M is “not a big challenge”
– About the Olympus fee scandal: “It is, at the moment, a management issue and there is no negative or positive impact on development or planning – no impact.”
– About future products: “new system camera technology, to be rolled out in the ‘short term’, would be ‘trickled’ down to future ‘high-end compact cameras”
– And “Basic technology development-wise, we will focus on high-end models and mainly compact system cameras”
– “very big jump’ in the performance of electronic viewfinders” and “At a certain point most people will be satisfied with replacing their optical finder with an EVF”
– “Olympus will ‘accelerate development of high-grade lenses for MFT systems’.”
The key words here are “short term” – “High End models” and “Electronic Viewfinders”. That sums it up what we will see soon (early 2013). What I didn’t hear yet is if Olympus will make some High Grade zooms like the Olympus [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses. From what I heard prime lenses are priority.
