Acording to our sources the Olympus E-P2 should be the next camera to be replaced (In February?). But I really didn’t expect the E-P2 price to fall that much! The E-P2+17mm combo is now for sale for $500 only at Amazon (Click here). That’s a $300 price drop in a few days! Let me make some calculations: $500 is 375 Euro and the lowest price I found in Germany is 698 Euro!
Reminder: The new Panasonic 100-300mm lens is in Stock at Amazon (Click here).
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I guess not many of you knew that there is a new adapter ([shoplink 18298 ebay]made and sold by a taiwanese company on eBay[/shoplink]) which enables the use Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX cameras. Woodent (a dpreview forum user) tested the Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95 on the Sony NEX-5. Click here to see the camera+lens combo on Flickr. There are also a few image samples (again on Flickr). The lens has a lot of vignetting at f/0.95 aperture. The focal lenght on the Sony corrisponds to 37.5mm (fullframe). That’t definitely not an ideal combination, but the Sony NEX system currently offers only three lenses so you have to be inventive :)
P.S.: There are only a few [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lenses in Stock in Europe (via eBay and Europe shipment only)[/shoplink]. And the US store Cameraquest has already sold out the 2nd factory shipment of 25/.95 lenses expected by late December.
GH2 AF-Tracking (Thanks Dieter)
Panasonic representative from Germany has confirmed that the AF-Tracking feature in movie mode has been taken out of Firmware 1.0. Source: vimeo.com/groups/gh1/forumthread:235149
The Gh2 (with Firmware version 0.2) had the AF-Tracking feature in movie mode enabled. But according to a german GH2 owner that feature has been removed with the official firmware 1.0. He had a talk with a Panasonic representative: “The good news is, that I got a call from the Panasonic manager who I talked to yesterday. The bad news is, that has confirmed information from Japan, that this feature has been taken out of Firmware 1.0.”
Meanwhile Philip Bloom updated his “Which… Video DSLR to buy?” post and added the GH2 which he highly recommends: “So all in all a big improvement over the Gh1 but PLEASE we NEEED 25p!!!!! If 25p is irrelevant to you this is simply one of the best “DSLRs” on the market for shooting video. The stills mode is pretty good too!”
Now let’s make a short GH2 in Stock status (as usual feel free to add your links to help other 43rumors readers to get the GH2 as soon as possible!):
In three days we saw two third party retailers selling the GH2 via Amazon (Click here). So keep checking. You might be lucky!
Other stores like Samys, Simplyelectronics sold out their (very few) GH2 cameras.
P.S.: At least the new Panasonic 100-300mm for $599 at Amazon (Click here)
Many stores do have the GH2 in Stock. As you can imagine in Europe we have dozens of online stores for every single country. That’s why I give you only a few link to the biggest known stores: Amazon.de, Pixmania.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Pixmania.it, Pixmania.pl, Pixmania.es.
A few friends from Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong mailed me to say the GH2 is in Stock almost everywhere at local retailers.
Thanks all for keeping me up to date with all deals! I want to see your unboxing videos as soon as possible ;)
43rumors and Mirrorlessforum launched a new poll which is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ml_survey. We are curious to see the average profile of our readers. It’s an anonymous poll, and there is no commercial use for it. The results will be published here on 43rumors after closing the poll and you will finally learn how many of us are using mirrorless cameras!
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Yesterday I received a new message from a dutch camera reseller: “A representative of Olympus in the Netherlands came to our shop and told me that Olympus will not produce anymore Dslr camera’s. they will only produce the [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink]. So pretty soon we can no longer order any Dslr except the E-5. and of the E-5 we can only order four at a time wich we have to sell first before we can order another four.
They will only concentrate on M 4/3. and by 2012 they will have renewed there whole compact line-up except for the superzoom cameras.
Are the same thing’s happening in other country’s to ?”
The answer is yes! A few other dealers had small talks with Olympus reps. And they also have been told that this could be the last DSLR.
A reminder, Olympus said that they will contnue to develop Four Thirds products until Micro Four Thirds can deliver the same performance as Four Thirds cameras.
(UPDATE) Two more retailers sent me messages:
1) “Three weeks ago i was at an “open house” at a photo dealer with all of the reps there. I spoke to the Olympus rep for 15-20 minutes. Just prior to this open house he had had a meeting with one one of Olympus’ designers. He told me that Olympus will continue designing and producing a “flagship” E-X. The E-5 was not the end of the line. Olympus has not designed a system to do away with mirrors and that they were not even close. He said that all of the other series were dead. The modular E-series would not happen but he smiled when I mentioned a “pro” micro body.”
2) “in my country it is the same with E5 as in others. Only a few at a time.”
Some [shoplink 15659]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink] test shots (Dpreview forum)
Ein Augenblick für die Panasonic GH2 (ThePublicEye).
A photo of a working E-P2 on really extreme conditions. Taken in Oymakon (Russia) on the Pole of Cold: http://yfrog.com/484313031020f8b4f7d325oj
Olympus Japan announced the official launch of the E-PL1s.
Panasonic GF2 test at cameramedia.jp.
Panasonic GH2 unboxing pictiures at dockti.me.
UPDATE: Two Panasonic GH2 cameras are in Stock at Amazon (Click here)! It’s sold via “The Price Pros”. I bet it will be sold out soon in 5 minutes…
Good news folks. The new Panasonic lenses are in Stock at Amazon:
Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 for $389 at Amazon, via Vanns (Click here)
Panasonic 100-300mm for $599 at Amazon (Click here). It’s the first time we see that lens sold my Amazon itself!
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We were told that six Panasonic GH2 cameras are in Stock at simplyelectronics (Click here)!
