(FT5) Confirmed: Olympus announcement on March 2. But no m43 products :(

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UPDATE: We got many confirmations that there will be an Olympus announcement on March 2th. That’s why we upgraded the rumor from “FT3” to “FT5”. They also confirmed that there will be no new Micro Four Thirds product but just some kind of new compact cameras.

If you know something more about the announcement or can deny/confirm it feel free to drop us an anonymous message using the contact form on the right sidebar. Thanks!

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

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Olympus XZ-1 reviews, in Stock status and contest!

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Infosyncworld tested the new [shoplink 19904]Olympus XZ-1[/shoplink]: “The Olympus XZ-1 matched Canon’s best fixed lens warriors when it came to still image quality, and it proved itself a worthy tool to have in the field. It’s the Mini Me of PEN Land, and we welcome it with open arms.

There is a hands-on report at Cameraguide: “The XZ-1 also proved itself to be generally more satisfying to use than the competition. At this point we’ve tested all the major players in the advanced compact sector and we can say with some confidence that the XZ-1 was more enjoyable and more fun to use than all of them.

Photography Blog and Olympus are giving away a fantastic Olympus XZ-1 premium compact camera, worth £399.99 / $499.99.

The XZ-1 is in Stock almost everywhere! Click those direct links to check price and availability: [shopcountry 19904]

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Panasonic GF2 tested by DPreview!

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[shoplink 17361][/shoplink] Dpreview (Click here) posted the new Panasonic GF2 review! The camera gets a 70% overall score. For comparison: The Olympus E-PL2 (Click here to read that review) got a 71% score. The main reason for the slight edge of the E-PL2 is: “likeable and convenient though we found the [shoplink 17361]GF2[/shoplink], it’s up against the [shoplink 18844]Olympus E-PL2[/shoplink] which produces consistently better JPEG images from essentially the same sensor

Price comparison:
Panasonic GF2 direct links at [shopcountry 17361] Olympus E-PL2 direct links at [shopcountry 18844] -> In US you have a $50 instant rebate, and a $100 instant rebate on the dual kit at BHphoto (Click here).

What do you prefer?

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New reviews -> GF2, E-PL2, E-5, LX5

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[shoplink 17163][/shoplink]

There are tons of new reviews! So take a break from what you are doing right now because this is going to be very long reading!

DCresource just posted the full Olympus E-PL2 review: “Even with a few annoyances (mostly minor, or typical for a camera in this class), the Olympus E-PL2 is a well-designed interchangeable lens that’ll appeal to beginners and enthusiasts. It’s packed with easy-to-use features, tons of manual controls, HD movie recording with decent continuous AF, and lots of optional accessories.” There is another E-Pl2 at the japanes (or chinese? or korean) DC.fever website
Check the E-PL2 price and availability at [shopcountry 18844].

Olympus E-5 Review at Digital photography school: “For me, this is an excellent camera for an enthusiast or a semi pro. Fully blown pro photographers will probably turn up their noses at the feature list. But hey! Look at the price.
Check the E-5 price and availability at [shopcountry 17163].

There is three part Panasonic GF2 review at Hybridcams…in french! (onetwothree)
Check the GF2 price and availability at [shopcountry 17361].

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 : le test (Forum Olympus France).

Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II M.Zuiko Digital tested at SLRgear: “The Olympus 14-42mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 II M.Zuiko fared very well in our tests, showing that Olympus lens designers have not been idle. The complete redesign of the lens has proven very effective, though if you’ve been happy with your version I lens, you probably don’t need to rush out and get the new version.
Check the 14-42mm price and availability at [shopcountry 14816].

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Oh yes Olympus is working on a translucent camera (See the patent!)

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A half year ago a source sent us a rumor about a Olympus prototype camera that sues a semi-transparent mirror (What Sony calls Translucent). Good to know that the rumor was correct because today we found the patent that explains how it works! Download the pdf at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7889268.pdf. The many difference between the Sony solution and the Olympus patent is that you can flip up the mirror when you want to avoid the light loss you have using the semi transparent mirror.

This is the original description copied from the patent:
The digital camera of the present invention has a still image shooting mode and a moving image shooting mode, and performs different focusing operations between the still image shooting mode and the moving image shooting mode.
For example, the range of focusing tolerance and the driving speed of a focusing optical system can vary between the still image shooting mode and the moving image shooting mode such as to set the range of focusing tolerance wider or the driving speed of the focusing optical system slower in the moving image shooting mode.
An exemplary structure of the present invention can be expressed as follows. A digital camera having a still image shooting mode and a moving image shooting mode comprises: a mirror member arranged in an optical path of a photographing lens to reflect part of a subject light beam passing through the photographing lens and transmit the remaining part of the subject light beam; an imaging part for receiving the subject light beam transmitted through the mirror member to output a subject image signal; a distance measurement part for receiving the subject light beam reflected by the mirror member to detect a defocus amount of the photographing lens; and a focusing part for performing a focusing operation to drive the focusing optical system in the photographing lens to an in-focus position based on the defocus amount detected by the distance measurement part, wherein in the still image shooting mode, the focusing part performs a first focusing operation prior to still image shooting, and in the moving image shooting mode, the focusing part performs a second focusing operation different in mode from the first focusing operation during moving image recording.
According to the present invention, there can be provided an easy-to-use digital camera capable of acquiring both still and moving images.

And that was the description of the prototype the source has seen:

But there is also a second FourThirds prototype that he is testing. The name is E-P330 (again a FAKE name). It is be very similar to the current E-330. It has a similar technology to the Sony A33/55, but it does not have a translucent mirror, it has some kind of liquid chrystal mirror. The advantage is that you have no light loss when you take the real picture. The mirror can electronically change between 50% translucent and 100%. When you don’t take pictures it uses 50% of the light for the AF-system and 50% for the sensor. When you take the picture it uses the full 100% alight source. The disadvantage is that it is not as fast as the Sony technology and you do not have any AF if the mirror is at 100%. The prototype iuses the same E-620 AF-system. The viewfinder is integrated in the body and has the same specs as the VF2 for MicroFourThirds. The LCD can be tilted and it uses the same [14826]GH1[/shoplink] sensor. It takes movies with 720p. You can use an external microphone.

UPDATED: I corrected the typos. Sorry I was in real hurry today and as usual writing article with the iPhone isn’t really helping. + I am sick today :(

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Samyang 35mm f/1.4 for Four Thirds to hit the market in March

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[shoplink 16768 ebay][/shoplink]

Samyang dropped a message on the facebook fan page to announce that the new 35mm f/1.4 manual Four Thirds lens will start shipping next month.
You can find all current Samyang lenses on [shoplink 16768 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Reminder: If you donpt find the Samyang lenses at your preferred store please keep in mind that they are also sold with different brand names like “Falcon” and “Vivitar”. Check it out:
– [shoplink 14885 ebay]Falcon (Vivitar) 85mm f/1.4[/shoplink] – [shoplink 14887 ebay]Samyang 85mm f/1.4 IF MC[/shoplink] – Opteka 8mm f/3.5
Falcon 8mm f/3.5
Rokinon 8mm f/3.5
Bower 8mm f/3.5

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Desperate deal: Someone is aksing you $2,300.00 for a used GH2!

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Panasonic can’t satisfy the demand for GH2 cameras in the US market. After 6 months of wait there is still some dude that wants to take profit from your frustration. So it happens that the the worlds biggest online store sells one single used GH2 for $2,300.00 (Click here to check it at Amazon)!!! Time for us Europeans to start selling our GH2 cameras for $2.000 to our US friend. We could become rich ;)

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