As you remember Emanuele from Nexthardware collected your questions for Mr. Terada. Some have been answered here on youtube. But Mr. Terada didn’t have time to answer all your questions as he had to talk with EVERY journalist that toke part at the Amsterdam event. Mr. Terada proved again to be very nice and available person and he answered more of your questions in a second session. As you can read below Mr. Terada obviously couldn’t unveil any future product strategy and development. But he focused on their efforts to try to “see the market demand”:

Q. 1. E-M5. Functionality. Is it possible to have live histogram, electronic level and AF square simultaneously?
A. Histogram and level gauge can’t be seen simultaneously, but AF frame can be seen with histogram or level gauge.

Q. 2. E-M5. Functionality. Tethered Shooting. Most users are very sensitive about this issue.
A. E-M5 does not support tethered shooting.

Q. 3. OM-D Line-Up. VIDEO. Could it be possible to have uncompressed FullHD stream from the HDMI port in future high-end model(s)?
A. We have no plan to have it, we’d like to see the market demand.

Q. 4. OM-D Line-Up. VIDEO. Are you planning to introduce global shutter on your OM-D line?
A. We can’t refer to the concrete plan, but we are always studying any possibility for future products.

Q. 5. M4/3 System. Lenses. Is it possible to give us black versions of the metallic-look primes in near future?
Q. 6. M4/3 System. Lenses. What about a fish-eye zoom?
Q. 7. M4/3 System. Lenses. Weather sealed pancakes?
Q. 8. M4/3 System. Lenses. Micro4/3 converters? Any plans?
A. 5,6,7&8. We can’t refer to the concrete product plan but your requests are noted.

Q. 9. M4/3 System. Under-water. Scuba-divers ask for a new more powerful underwater strobe with a wide beam. Is it coming?
A. Our concept of underwater flash is small amount of light with red color compensation by strong auto white balance function. (I guees they’re studying it. Emanuele.)

Q. 10. M4/3 System. Under-water. Is a PT-E08 port for 60 mm macro coming?
A. We are studying it to meet the demand.

Q. 11. M4/3 System. Future. Will future PENs or OM-Ds have a multi-aspect ratio sensor?
A. We have no plan to have it at this moment. We’d like to see the market demand.

Q. 12. M4/3 System. Future. Will Olympus introduce a center image crop for extended zoom like the Panasonic GH2?
A. E-M5 has had digital teleconverter function. We like to see the market demand of zoom function.

Thanks Nexthardware!

So here is the poll where you readers can let Mr. Terada know what of the mentioned features are important for you:

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Olympus E-M5 preoder search (!) links: [shopcountry 29074] -> Good Luck :)

Olympus (Click here) announced that the new Olympus E-M5 worldwide shipment will start on March 31st. As usual Asian countries should receive the first stock first with Amazon Japan (Click here) saying that the camera will ship on the same day. But unlike Panasonic Olympus does a pretty good job with worldwide shipments and we should expect the E-M5 to be available in USA stores around mid April. BHphoto (Click here) says they will have it on April the 10th. In Europe Amazon UK (Click here) says that the camera will arrive on April the 1st.

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Full Preorder list:
1) Black E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany and Amazon Japan.
2) Silver E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany, and Amazon Japan.
3) Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
4) Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Redcoon Deutschland, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
5) Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
6) FL-600R wireless flash at
Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
7) MMF-3 Four Thirds adapter at
Amazon and Adorama.
8.) HLD-6 power battery holder at
Amazon, Adorama and Amazon Japan.

What a timing! Both m43 partners announced a new CEO and President.

Olympus named Hiroyuki Sasa (medical equipment marketing) as president and Yasuyuki Kimoto (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.) is the new chairman. Sasa said: “My duty is to win back as soon as possible the trust from everyone and repair this damaged brand.” (Source: Engadget)

Panasonic named Kazuhiro Tsuga new CEO of the company. He was the one guy pushing Panasonic to support Blue-ray in the famous HD-DVD versus Blue-ray battle. You know who won :) So this may be a good sign for his talent. (Source: Engadget)

Anyway, hope both companies can recover from their recent financial (and not only) issues.

I am in terrible stupid troubles :) Should I get the Black or the Silver E-M5? The Silver probably looks better with silver lenses and reminds me more of the [shoplink 28222 ebay]OM film camera tradition[/shoplink]. But the all black version looks very sexy and less….”old”. Looking at Amazon US ranking (Click here) buyers seems to like both equally. So I ask you, which one (and with or without lens) did you preorder?

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If you ask me why I still haven’t preordered the camera yet the answer is easy…I haven’t found any preorder option in Belgium yet.

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Full Preorder list:
1) Black E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany and Amazon Japan.
2) Silver E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany, and Amazon Japan.
3) Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon Japan.
4) Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Redcoon Deutschland, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
5) Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
6) FL-600R wireless flash at
Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
7) MMF-3 Four Thirds adapter at
Amazon and Adorama.
8.) HLD-6 power battery holder at
Amazon, Adorama and Amazon Japan.