New Camera (pre-)reviews

Share
[shoplink 22904 ebay][/shoplink]

Olympus XZ-1 Field Report at Luminous Landscape: “At low ISOs (up to 400) and without too much file manipulation the XZ-1 is capable of producing very acceptable image quality on up to about 11X17″ prints, and is certainly more than acceptable for web-destined images. In comparison with its primary competitors from Canon, Panasonic and Samsung, I would judge it as having a very slight edge in terms of usability though not high ISO noise.”
Direct search links to the XZ-1 at [shopcountry 19904] (Click on shop name).

The Olympus XA: The smallest rangefinder camera by Konstantinos Besios (SteveHuffPhoto.com): “Of course the image quality is not a par with a Leica, but for those instances where even a small camera bag is too much to carry  this little rangefinder is perfect (and the price is really a bargain !!)”
See the Olympu XA auctions on [shoplink 22904 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Panasonic GF3 Hands-On Preview (Photographyblog) and first look at Amateur Photographer.

Spanish GF3 presentation video at Quesabesde.
Preorders at [shopcountry 22077]

Share

G3, GF3 and Leica lens preorder status.

Share

In one month Panasonic did announce the G3 the GF3 and the Leica 25mm lens. Time for a preorder status check!

Panasonic G3

The G3 should start worldwide shipment on June 17. The preorders are available in US at Amazon, Adorama and B&H. In Europe at Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and worldwide on [shoplink 22077 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].

Panasonic-Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens

The only US store I found that is accepting preorders is Adorama (Click here). Be aware that when you search for the lens on Amazon (Click here) or BHphoto (Click here) you will find the bigger and older Four Thirds version not the new M43 lens!!! And on eBay there is only one reseller accepting preorders ([shoplink 23181 ebay]Click here[/shoplink]).
I checked the biggest European stores and there is no preorder option. Worldwide shipment should start in late July. As usual Asian countries will be the first to get the lens, than European, than Canadians and some months after US citizen ;)
P.S.: Panasonic published a couple of image samples you can find here.

Panasonic GF3

I found preorder option in US stores only at Amazon and Adorama.

If you find new links to preorders feel free to comment this post. But you should now that my designer is still working to fix the comment system. If you are an unregistered commenter once you click on the send button the website will keep loading for 30 sec and than show yu an error message. The comment is save and will be displayed but you should go back to the main page. I know this sucks, but we made a whole new installation on a the new server and the designer is a bit slow in fixing the issues :(

One more thing: There are new GF3 and G3 wallpapers at Panasonic’s website!

Share

(FT5) Olympus “reinvents” the AF system! It is incredibly fast!

Share
[shoplink 16254 ebay][/shoplink]

The image on top shows the GH2 which “is” and soon we can say “was” the mirrorless camera with the fastes AF. Olympus new PEN cameras will be faster!

The biggest new feature of the upcoming new PEN cameras is the completely new and almost revolutionary autofocus system! The new AF system focuses almost instantly, it’s faster than the actually very fast [shoplink 16254 ebay]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] focus (which focuses in 0.1 second with the [shoplink 14802 ebay]Panasonic 14-140mm[/shoplink]). Sources told me that the improvement is huge and you can feel it for REAL (they had the famous “Wow” reaction)! The new AF is even faster than the phase detection autofocus of most of the current Canon DSLR cameras (faster than the [shoplink 16254 ebay]Canon 5D[/shoplink] for example! Olympus made this possible by combining a new optimized sensor and engine plus the new autofocus system inside the new Micro Four Thirds lenses. I repeat, the AF is incredibly fast only when using the upcoming new Olympus lenses (like the 12mm f/2.0 lens). By the way, the AF is not only fast, it’s also very accurate (according to my sources). Genrally the real good news here is that Olympus remade the whole sensor-processor engine-af workflow. I guess and hope this will also positively affect the image quality! Well done Olympus!!!

That’s a very good news if you do consider that fast autofocus is usually one of the advantages of DSRL cameras over Mirorrless cameras!

P.S.: I will have more news about the sensor and lenses soon. I am still having some troubles about the sensor rumor I received. If you have “rumors” to share feel free to contact me using the anonymous contact form on the right sidebar Thanks!

IMPORTANT: Unregistered user will have long waiting time an error message when publishing the comment. But the comment will get stored! it doesn’t get lost. I am working to fix it. This happens because I moved on a new server and there are things that still need to be fixed. You will not have any problems if you are a registered user (see sidebar on the right to register or login).

 

Share

(FT5) Olympus E-P3, E-PL3 and E-PM1 to be announced on June 30th!

Share

I am finally 100% sure that Olympus will announce not two but three new PEN cameras! They will all use the same new (Olympus redesigned?) Panasonic sensor (more about the sensor in future posts). And here is a short description of each camera:

1) E-PM1
“M” stays for “Mini”. It is smaller than the [shoplink 17361 ebay]Panasonic GF2 (Click here to see it)[/shoplink] and a bit bigger than the new [shoplink 23109]Panasonic GF3[/shoplink]. The good news is that the mini still maintains the built-in stabilization!

2) E-PL3
It is just a bit wider and thicker than the E-PM1. It’s thicker because for the very first time there is a tilt LCD screen! But it has no built in flash unlike the “older” [shoplink 18844 ebay]Olympus E-PL2[/shoplink].

3) E-P3
Has no tilt LCD but gains a built in flash. The advantage over the E-PL3 are the manual controls and body quality. It has almost the same body design as the current [shoplink 14830 ebay]Olympus E-P2[/shoplink]. No built in viewfinder a là [shoplink 22904 ebay]Olympus XA (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].

–

After a first look on those models I can see three problems with the new PEN cameras:
1) E-PM1 is not noticeable smaller than the E-PL3
2) E-P3 is more expensive than the E-PL3 and has no tilt LCD (why?)
3) E-PL3 lost some of the manual controls of the “older” E-PL2 and has no built-in flash.

I am curious to hear your opinion on that!!!
Stay tuned! I am getting tons of rumors now and I will post more soon! And don’t forget to preorder the new amazing Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens at Adorama (Click here).

–

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

Share

Leica 25mm priced 599 Dollars at Adorama (+ new tests!)

Share

You can now preorder the Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 lens for $599 at Adorama (Click here).

There are unboxing pictures and full size image samples at omuser.com. On picture on top you can see the image comparison with the older [shoplink 16340 ebay]Four Thirds version[/shoplink]. The tester said the af is fast but not as HD fast. Motor sound is quiet, but still noticeable if you pay attention. One huge pro is incredible details even in low light.

Here are the direct links to the pictures (Click on thumbnails)

Share

43rumors is back and on the new server (+ explanation of the malware warning)

Share

We are BACK!!!!!

As you know yesterday a malware attacked a couple of servers in Northern Europe. Many websites were affected (not only 43rumors). When the malware attacked us it changed a small script which made you crash the browser. We located the attack location, blocked it and removed the dirty code. The problem was that google banned all the affected websites. We quickly asked for  re-approval from google but it took 10 hours to be back online without that WARNING message. And because we are smart (LOL!) we used that time to transfer the whole website on a new server! So now ladies and gentlemen you are visiting the 43rumors website on a 3 to 4 times faster server. It will finally allow me to upgrade the 43rumors theme with new option and at the same time we can fix some of the issues.

Please be kind and remind your friends and forum colleagues that we are back online. Also explain them that it was not a 43rumors problem only. We reacted very fast but google kept the warning for hours even if we were a safe website :(

Now I have to catch up with news and rumors. See you soon!

 

Share

Good news folks! Leica 25mm lens will cost around 73.500 YEN (around 650 Euro)!

Share


Image courtesy: Quesabesde.

There have been a lot of confusing info about the price of the lens. Some European websites initially did unveil a price tag of 899 Euro while some other websites (Dpreview, Focus Numerique) said that the final price will be announced before the market release. Things are much clearer in Japan where DC.watch said the price will be 73.500 YEN which is 675 Euro or 950 Dollars (but you know that the price in dollars will be much cheaper). The japanese store Yodobashi sells the lens for a street price of 58.800 YEN which is 610 Euro!!! That has been confirmed by the swedish magazine Fotosidan (650 Euro). The older Four Thirds lens did cost 1099 Euro/Dollars ([shoplink 16340 ebay]it costs less now on eBay[/shoplink]).

That’s good news!

P.S.: Leica 25mm still not available for preorder on Amazon (Click here to see the search results).

Share

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases