Dear readers! The snowstorm that hit Europe blocked me on an italian highway for 17 hours! I made 70km only between 2pm (Friday) and 7am today. I made the “famous” Bologna-Firenze highway that is well known for it’s danger. I saw many car accidents and I had nothing to eat, and of course no Internet connection to post news and rumors on 43rumors. So please excuse me if I didn’t post anything during the last 20 hours and I beg you a few hours free time because I really need to sleep a little bit. The picture on top has been taken at 8am in the morning in Radda in Chianti (Taken with my “old” but still superb [shoplink 16885]Olympus E-P1[/shoplink] and the new amazing [shoplink 15659]Nokton 25mm[/shoplink]).
For european and asian readers. Sorry if I do continue to post GH2 in Stock news for US readers only. But please do understand that they are not as lucky as we are and they have only a very limited Stock of GH2 cameras. I am trying to help them to get one of those nice cameras! ;)
P.S:: Two Nokton 25mm lenses are in Stock at [shoplink 18467 ebay]top-foto on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]!
The video shows the [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] / 1:1 Crop Mode (from Jean-Baptiste Lefournier)
The Polish site optize.pl tested the [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink] camera with good results. The final score is 62.82/100. For comparison, the Canon 60D got 59.56 and the Sony A55 got 48.88. We’ll have to wait for the D7000 and K-5 for more direct comparison.
m43photo.blogspot.com compared the new Panasonic [shoplink 16258]14mm lens[/shoplink] with the 14-42mm and the 14-140mm lenses.
DC.watch.impress tested the [shoplink 15659 ebay]Nokton 25mm[/shoplink] on the Olympus E-P2[/shoplink] and the combination looks really good :)
If you scroll at the bottom of the page you can download a few full size images they have taken at f/0.95 aperture.
Meanwhile 3Dkraft made new GH2+Nokton tests and releases a surprising statement: “Another strength is the extreme sharpness that the GH2[/shoplink] with it’s new 16 MP sensor can deliver through this lens which already comes close to the results that I reached when I spent some time with the Leica M9 and two excellent Leica M lenses.” Don’t tell this to your Leica friends…they spent a lot of money for for their cameras and lenses….PSSS! The Leica M9 sells for over 5.400 Euro on [shoplink 17539 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] :(
Of course, at full aperture the lens is not sharp in the corners but stopped down everything looks excellent. And there is a second surprise at the bottom of the post: “Another question I already saw from other users: Is it really f0.95 at fully opened aperture? I have some doubts…” Click here to read more at 3Dkraft!
As you know the lens is sold out almost everywhere. Only german resellers do have one single lens in Stock from time to time. Right now [shoplink 15659 ebay]Fotomundus has one Nokton in Stock on eBay and auction ends in 5 hours (Click here)[/shoplink].
UPDATE: 2 lenses are in Stock at [shoplink 18467 ebay]top-foto on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]!
43rumors reader “Stopkidding” just discovered soemthing really interesting: “On the right there is a link for Employee Purchase Discount programs. If you work for a company that has a tie up with Panasonic, then you sign in through that, and shop. If I revealed the size of the discount, many of you will have heart attacks here :)”
The rest of us has to pay the full price to preorder the GH2. The only shop having the GH2 in Stock is Amazon US (but via third party reselelr and with heavy extra-premium price). Meanwhile BHphoto sold out the Silver GH2.
Pocket Lint is the first website to post a (short) review of the new [shoplink 17361]Panasonic GF2[/shoplink]! Let’s start with the good news: “For those cautious of the touchscreen control, however, there’s really no need to fear – it works a treat should you want to get thoroughly involved.” Nice to hear that! Autofocus is fast “though it’s not as impressive as the forthcoming GH2“. And what about the image quality? “Images are clear and colourful, and the 14mm renders sharp results. There was the odd bit of overexposure in some circumstances, though not frequently or worryingly so.”
There are only a few issues. One of them has to do with the new 14mm pancake which is the official GF2 kit lens: “One of the 14mm’s issues is that minimum focus distance during autofocus is nowhere near as impressive as we’d expect – and this is usually a requirement for wideangle lenses.”
Although Amazon US and BHphoto do list the camera they do not unveil the price. The only exception here is Amazon UK which shows the price of the different kits (in pounds of course!). But I suggest our US readers to take a close look at the older GF1 which now sells for $599 only at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). The GF1 shares the same GF2 sensor but is probably a better choice if you like to use buttons more than touchscreens!
The new 14mm lens is NOT in Stock in US but available almost everywhere in Europe: Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR
M43photo.blogspot compared the [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] vs [shoplink 14828]GH1[/shoplink] video quality: “First of all, it is easy to conclude that the colour balance is different. I have the same saturation settings in both cameras (+1), and the lightning was the same. So the difference must be due to different implementation of auto white balance. Overall, I feel that the GH2 colours look more natural. When it comes to the sharpness, I think the conclusion is that the GH2 has better image quality. Even though the bandwidth is a bit smaller than in the hacked GH1.”
That’s the second comparison test I see and it looks like the 24Mbit AVCHD codec does an impressive job. Reminder, the new GH1 cameras that are for sale in stores are not hackeable because they feature the newest firmware which has not been hacked yet! But if you are still interested in getting the cheaper hackeable GH1 there are few of them for sale on [shoplink 18422 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Travis sent me the following text to explain the GH2 vs GF1 comparison:
“So I had a chance to film a competition this weekend with my GH2. I had filmed the exact same competition last year with my [shoplink 14828]GF1[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 14796]20mm[/shoplink] in true manual focus mode.
GH2 Rise Up comp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ahT2JHsYZo
GF1 Rise Up comp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ePxmdu0k8
This year I felt lazy and stuck it in continuous autofocus for most of the comp and single point auto focus for a few shots where the focus didn’t need to change. There are a few spots where you can see the focus change but not too bad for indoors in horrible lighting.
The biggest advantage to the GH2 is the teleconversion feature. Last year I had to use the 2x digital zoom when I wanted to film with the 20mm pancake. This year I just shot in 1080p with the 2.6x converter on. It gives me extremely detailed 1080p video as if I was using a 52mm lens. The two links below point to similar samples. The first link uses the 2x digital zoom and the second on shows the 2.6x lossless teleconversion. The difference is pretty amazing and both were filmed with the same lens in the same location.
GF1 2x Digital Zoom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ePxmdu0k8&t=0m50s
GH2 teleconversion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ahT2JHsYZo&t=1m36s
The first two clips at the link below were shot at a fixed ISO 3200 with the 45-200mm indoors. I never thought that would be possible until the GH2 came around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ahT2JHsYZo&t=3m55s
I did have some trouble with the camera turning off periodically because it couldn’t recognize the battery. That made me very mad but I have two spare batteries being delivered that should resolve the issue.
Overall I couldn’t be happier with the GH2. And now that I have the [shoplink 16258]14mm F2.5 lens[/shoplink] I really don’t think I need anything more.”
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which shows the price of the different kits (in pounds of course!). But I suggest our US readers to take a close look at the older GF1 which now sells for $599 only at 
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