Time to share your thoughts about the E-M5!

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It doesn’t happen often to see such a (mostly) positive discussion about a new m43 products. We saw the nice tests from Pekka Potka, the videos from Olympus Australia, the ISO comparison with the E-P3, the RAW files from Focus Numerique, the Studio samples Dpreview (Click here) and MR Terada making a superb job answering all journalists and your questions (Thanks Mr. Terada!). While I know it’s impossible to really judge a camera until you have it in your own hands I want to ask you what you think based on all reviews and image samples you saw. What are the single aspects of the camera you like most?

Select the features you like from the new Olympus E-M5 (maximum of three choices):

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The highest ranked E-M5 in USA (Click here) is the Silver body with kit lens. In Germany (Click here) is the Black body and kit lens. And in UK (Click here) is the Silver body with kit lens.

E-M5 preorders (Click on the names of the stores to see the product page):
Black E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, and Amazon Japan.
Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto , Digitalrev and J&R.
Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland , Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.

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Patent: Olympus is working on a new 150mm macro for 43 and m43.

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The Japanese website Egami (Click here) found a new Olympus patent describing different variations of a new 150mm f/2.8 macro lens. There are actually two different versions. One shorter lens for the m43 system and a longer lens for the Four Thirds system. Both are described as high quality optics. The only similar lens currently on market is the Sigma 150mm lens (here at Amazon).

One more thing: I am currently sorting out your lens suggestions for the m43 system and will soon publish the poll.

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New PEN+E-5 firmware update and UK/Japan shares unveiled.

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[shoplink 29838][/shoplink]

Olympus Japan announced a new firmware update for the E-Pm1, E-PL2, E-PL3, E-P3 and the E-5. It adds support for the new [shoplink 29838]SDXC 48GB cards (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. It also improves the external flash functionality on the E-Pm1 and E-PL3.

One more thing. Amy from Techradar (Click here) had another small talk with Claudia Baehr, European Product Manager for Olympus. She said the mirrorless market  share in Japan now surpassed the 50% beating for the first time the DSRL camera sales. In UK mirrorless sales climbed at 30% while USA seems to be the most conservative market with mirrorless cameras having a 20% only. Claudia said: “the reaction in the States is a bit more mixed – the Americans seem to prefer bigger cameras, such as ultrazooms.”

Maybe the [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] si the right camera for the US market? :)

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DSLRmagazine: E-M5 Jpeg quality on par with Nikon D7000. But behind the X PRO 1.

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Valentin Sama from the Spanish Dslrmagazine (Click here for the translation) tested the E-M5 sensor.
He first compared the new E-M5 with the previous m43 Olympus models. In short the noise performance of the E-m5 has indeed been improved but there is no real advantage in terms of revolution over the older 12 Megapixel E-P3 sensor. Valentin says the E-P3 per pixel sharpness is still a bit greater than the one from the 16 Megapixel E-M5 sensor.
Than Valentin made a comparison with two larger sensor APS-C cameras. The Nikon D7000 and Fuji X PRO 1. First he clearly reminds that both cameras are more expensive than the E.M5. The Nikon D7000 costs $1,500 (here at Amazon) and the Fuji X PRo 1 costs $1,700 (here at Amazon). According to Valentin JPEG testing results the E-M5 is on par with the Nikon D7000. And that’s already a surprising result!
The Fuji has a huge advantage because of the lack Anti Aliasing filter. The results are a greater clarity and less noise.

In summary: he says the E-M5 has indeed an improved JPEG quality although we have to see if that is an improvement is more due the new JPEG engine than the new 16 megapixel sensor.

One more thing: E-M5 with 12-50mm kit lens image samples at Robin Wong (Click here).

Rankings: Three different E-M5 kits are still on top of the Amazon US rankings (Click here).

E-M5 preorders (Click on the names of the stores to see the product page):
Black E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, and Amazon Japan.
Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto , Digitalrev and J&R.
Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland , Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.

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First rendering of the Panasonic G5

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The same source that sent me the real GF5 pictures sent me also that G5 picture. This looks quite a bit different from the [shoplink 22077]Panasonic G3[/shoplink]. So much more….rounded :)

Hope to get the real pics soon!

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Finally a first Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 test via OpenPN!

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video by Fotomundus.

About time! Thanks to the french website OpenPN (Click here to read the google translation). They found that the sharpness is very good even when shooting at full f/0.95 aperture. The only major issue at that aperture is the high Chromatic Aberration. The bokeh is wonderful (says the reviewer).

My personal judgment after seeing the image sample is that the Lens is damn good already at f/0.95. Of course it’s not perfect but if you seek for perfection at that extreme aperture than you have to spend over 10.000 Euro/Dollars for the [shoplink 29763 ebay]Leica Noctilux[/shoplink]!

Europenas can preorer the lens at [shoplink 29368 ebay]Digitalhandel (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 29367 ebay]Bayern Fotoversand (Click here)[/shoplink] and Fotomundus (Click here).

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(FT5) Pictures of the White and Black GF5. Noise performance is on par with 7D.

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The mysterious Asian source from nPhoto just sent me the pictures of the white and black Panasonic GF5. The new revised grip makes the GF5 looks better than the [shoplink 23109 ebay]Panasonic GF3[/shoplink]. The source was also so kind to inform me that the high ISO noise-level is as same as the [shoplink 29815 ebay]Canon 7D[/shoplink] and [shoplink 29816 ebay]60D[/shoplink]. It’s nice to know you can get that kind of performance on a camera that fits in your pocket :)

Here is the picture of the black GF5:

Do you like the new GF5?

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P.S.: Also the G5 will arrive along the GF5. Announcements soon (I am still checking for the right announcement date and hour).

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