And the New York Times (Click here) really gives us a terrible news: “That revelation alone could make this one of the biggest accounting fraud cases in corporate history. It is also a spectacular turn of events amid a boardroom battle that has pitted Olympus’s former British chief executive turned whistle-blower, Michael C. Woodford, against an otherwise all-Japanese company board.”.
The first consequences of that news is that Hisashi Mori (executive vice president) had been fired and Hideo Yamada offered his resignation. According to Bloomberg the company may take legal action against the three (including ex Ceo Kikukawa).
And the second-biggest overseas investor “Harris” says that “Woodford should return to run the company and conduct the house cleaning“.
Panasonic talks about the future:
The guys from Photographyblog (Click here) do have a sort of “special” relation with Panasonic and posted a three page long Interview with Mr. Uematsu and Sykes from Panasonic. There are quite a lot of interesting info. Those of you that were wondering why the GX1 has no built-in viewfinder like the [shoplink 8454]Sony NEX-7[/shoplink] here is the answer: “That may price it out of the range of the people we’re trying to reach. And not everybody wants a viewfinder, so at least this gives the consumer the option of having it or not. Personally I do not use them…“.
And it’s not the best kind of communication and marketing when Sykes says: “If you’re lucky you might get it (the GX1) under your tree for Christmas. It’s that type of launch. So that campaign may move into next year. Obviously the G3 we see as a mass product. The GX we don’t think will be a mass product“. So Panasonic isn’t interested to sell the GX1 at the Christmas High Shopping Season?
Uematsu explains the m43 advantages over APS-C sensors: “Concerning low light function over high sensitivity. Of course a bigger sensor is better, however we have to be concerned not just [about] low light or high sensitivity. Picture quality should be considered in tandem with optical quality. Of course Sony’s APS-C sensor is bigger, but a big sensor with a small flange-back makes not such a good situation for the corners of an image. Sometimes the resolution there is much lower than at the centre of an image. But we believe our Micro Four Thirds is a very good balance between optical and also sensor performance.”
But in general Panasonic says a built-in viewfinder NEX-7 model is “under consideration”, and so a tilting LCD screen and OLED technology.
And of course there will be new lenses next year: “We have 14 lenses and have announced the development of a further two: the 12-35mm and 35-100mm for next year, but we feel we are missing a couple of key lenses in the line up. There are discussions and video conferences on going.”
And Sykes also talked to Amateur Photographer (Click here) where he said that: “We want to be number one in interchangeable lens cameras“.
The new Panasonic GX1 m43 camera and the new external viewfinder have been announced. I will continually update this post with all the interesting news and reviews I will find on the web.
There is a good news for all current [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] owners! A new GH2 firmware update is coming in December. You can read the news here Panasonic website (Click here). There are many new features and fixes:
– New video mode which is suitable for editing video recorded at high bit rate (24Mbps)
– New functional option with Power Zoom Lens ([DISP FOCAL LENGTH (Display of Focal Length)], [STEP ZOOM], [ZOOM RESUME], [ZOOM SPEED] and [ZOOM RING*])
– Full area enlargement of AF area setting
– Improvement in the speed of consecutive shooting when shot with auto bracket
– Increased number of recordable images in consecutive shooting
– [EX.TELE CONV. (Extra Tele Conversion)] can be set ON/OFF separately in photo or video recording
– More accurate light adjustment of built-in flash
– Improvement in the AF performance in video recording
– Synchronization of alarm volume for low battery with [BEEP VOLUME]
– New [HALF-PRESS RELEASE] function
– Improved NR (Noise Reduction) in high sensitivity shooting
According to very latest info the new Panasonic GX1 should be announced tomorrow morning (7 November) at 6am London time and not on November 8! Don’t know why the date has now be changed but I ask all sources reading this to recheck the announcement date and send me a confirmation. Thanks!!! UPDATE: Other sources confirmed the announcement date. Now there is a confusion about the exact hour. 5am or 6 am? Since the clocks have gone back one hour we have that trouble right now :)
UPDATE: Also be sure to be online on November 7th at 6am London time. I am flying tonight from one end of the world to another end of the world. I should have Internet connection via a new Panasonic-Lufthansa service Hotspot. let’s hope it works :) Otherwise excuse me if I will miss last minute leaks or the early 5-6am announcement news. I will arrive on airport at 8.30 am (Berlin time) and will certainly have Internet connection at that time.
The upcoming new Panasonic-GX1 has been leaked at Panasonics website (Click here). You will see the introduction video plus some videos shot with the GX1. Hurry! They will probably remove it soon. UPDATE: The video is now on youtube (you can watch it on top of this post).
As you know our sources told us the camera will be announced in Japan on November 8. The video shows some of the camera specs. Here is what we know so far:
– 16 megapixel sensor (should be the same of the [shoplink 22077 ebay]Panasonic G3[/shoplink]).
– New Venus engine
– camera has a grip and our sources told us it is a bit tinier than the [shoplink 14828 ebay]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]
– ultra fast 0,09 second AF with X lenses.
– built-in flash
– new 1.44 milion dot external viewfinder.
– Silver and Black body
– 460k and 3 inch LCD screen
The GX1 will be announced on Monday 7 November at 5-6am London time. Be sure to be online at 43rumors! I will update you with all news and reviews. And I want to remind you that we now have a new Facebook fanpage (Click here) you should join!!!
Something I really do not like that much is how often Panasonic and Olympus keep reiterating the same camera design. I guess they need some suggestions from us what you think? :)
Of course mirrorless is a new world and you don’t have to copy the past to develop the new cameras. But there are a couple of interesting technologies that could still be intriguing in modern cameras. One of them is the [shoplink 24194 ebay]Contax G2 (Click here to see that camera on eBay)[/shoplink]. I already mentioned the camera here and there in these last three years. But today I will give you a greater idea of the camera. The camera was really advanced at the time. It had autofocus(!) which is really something you didn’t see in rangefinder cameras before. Top silent shutter, few and very useful buttons and superb lenses.
But there is one single feature that Olympus and Panasonic can learn from. The optical viewfinder changes magnification depending on what lens you use! Ken Rockwell made that table:
Lens
Finder
Magnification
90mm
114%
45mm
57%
35mm
44%
28mm
35%
Electronic viewfinders are the future but you still can find extremely appealing solution if you want a camera with optical viewfinders. Now dream with me. Imagine a pro Olympus m43 camera with optical hybrid viewfinder a là [shoplink 19929]Fuji X100[/shoplink] but that can change the magnification depending on the prime lens you use. The question to you know is:
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One more nice thing about the G camera are these top quality and nice lenses (there is even a zoom!):
[shoplink 26610 ebay]Contax G 18mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26612 ebay]Contax G 21mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26613 ebay]Contax G 28mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26614 ebay]Contax G 35mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26615 ebay]Contax G 35-70mm zoom lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26616 ebay]Contax G 45mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 26617 ebay]Contax G 90mm lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink].
And of course her eis the link to the [shoplink 24194 ebay]Contax G2 (eBay)[/shoplink]. P.S.: The Contax brand is dead. Hey Zeiss, why not bring it back to live?
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