Trusted sources told us that while the 12-35mm X lens from Panasonic will be announced within the next weeks the 35-100mm X lens will be released along the GH3 in late August/early September. I don’t know the reason why Panasonic is splitting up the lens release. Just my guess: looking at the past delivery problems of Panasonic they may choose to release only one lens first to avoid major delivery problems. The problem is particularly evident in USA where many lenses are still not availabel in decent quantity. The 20mm pancake (Click here) and the 25mm Leica (Click here) only got back in Stock in these days (and I guess they will again go out of Stock soon again).

It’s getting more and more busy on the rumors front. I am receiving new info every day and as you know I try to double check rumor with trusted sources in order to give you some FT4 or FT5 ranked rumor (ranking description at the bottom of this post). All I can tell you for sure is that both Panasonic and Olympus will have major product announcements within the next weeks. Please keep in mind that the rumored announcement data of May 21th (Panasonic) and June 18th (Olympus) are coming from external or non trusted sources. I am checking right now if the data are correct or not.

What’s also sure (FT5) is:
1) There will be a new Panasonic G5 with same [shoplink 22077 ebay]G3[/shoplink] 16 Megapixel sensor.
2) The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 is currently being tested by many photographers and will ship this summer.
3) The 12-35mm f/2.8 Panasonic X lens will ship this summer.

Still unconfirmed rumor (FT3):
1) Olympus XZ-2 is coming (will replace the current [shoplink 19904]Olympus XZ-1[/shoplink])
2) Pansonic LX7 is coming (will replace the current [shoplink 21136]Panaonic LX5[/shoplink])

The surprises (FT2):
1) a new Olympus Four Thirds camera is coming
2) New 7-14mm OIS lens coming

—
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

As you know the [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] is used by many professionists and artists for their work. Here are three new videos you can see:

1) Konstantin Syomin (Click here) won the international Documentary Challenge in Toronto with a movie shot with the GH2!

2) Living the dream teaser at DVXuser (Click here).

3) And here is the long text sent me by Luke:
“I wanted to let you know about a film that I made on the GH2 that is currently touring festivals and also available online during a limited internet-only pre-release via a partnership with the website Prescreen.
The film follows the Thai National Cheerleading team from their humble beginnings practicing on concrete up until the 2009 and 2011 World Championships in Florida where they brought home medals and caused over 10,000 spectators to jump up and down screaming “BANGKOK! THAILAND! BANGKOK! THAILAND!” …. it’s more than just a movie about cheerleaders though, it’s a movie about following your dreams and how even if the odds are totally stacked against you, that you can achieve your goals.
Here’s our website for the film
http://www.TheCheerAmbassadors.com
And our Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/TheCheerAmbassadors
The important link though is this one, where the film can actually be rented (until June 24th)
https://prescreen.com/movie/The-Cheer-Ambassadors
We’ve screened in Thailand, Singapore, USA and Norway. And we recently won Best Documentary at the 60N Os Festival in Norway. In Norway, the film was blown up on a 4K screen and still looked amazing, later this year we will have broad theatrical distribution in Thailand. The GH2 was totally the right camera to make this film on.
Thanks again for all your hard work on the blog, if there is any way that you could give our film a mention that would be great! I am attaching a press release announcing the release on Prescreen and also our press kit. If you want some press stills, you can grab them from this link
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9dvh5b82a224jex
– Luke Cassady-Dorion, Director, The Cheer Ambassadors”

Great work guys!

Long time ago trusted sources told me that Panasonic had the plan to upgrade the current [shoplink 14822]Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0[/shoplink] lens. The day may be close that this will happen because the lens just got discontinued at BHphoto (Click here to check). And only a bunch of them are in Stock at Amazon (Click here to check). The trusted sources told me Panasonic developed a OIS (lens stabilized) version of the lens.

Let’s see if the rumored May 21th announcement turns out to be real (reminder, this is a rumor coming form external websites!).