UPDATE: For the very first time the Leica 25mm lens for m43 is in Stock at BHphoto (Click here)! And the manual focusing Voigtlaender Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lens is also in Stock at BHphoto (Click here) in very limited quantity!
Other hot deals reminder:
Panasonic GH2 with 14-140mm lens for $1299 at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Olympus E-P2 body for 299 at Amazon (Click here)
Of course every rumor is questionable, and so are mine. But there are some websites saying the GX1 will have a 12 Megapixel sensor. And many readers contacted me to ask me if that is true. I am writing this post to answer you all and to confirm you again that my sources are telling me that it has a 16 Megapixel sensor. And I am 99,999% sure I am right :)
Anyway, it doesn’t matter that much now. The GX1 will be announced on Tuesday 8 November at 6-7am 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!
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For Europeans only: New refurbished Olympus cameras are available at [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink] like:
[shoplink 26715 ebay]Olympus E-PL1 double lens kit[/shoplink]
[shoplink 26712 ebay]Olympus E-PL2 double lens kit[/shoplink]
[shoplink 26713 ebay]Olympus E-PL2 with 14-42mm lens[/shoplink]
[shoplink 26714 ebay]Another (black) Olympus E-PL2 double lens kit[/shoplink]
Photoscala (Click here) analyzed the latest Panasonic financial report. In summary, Panasonic lost 6% sales in the second fiscal quarter and the division “Digital AVC Networks” (which includes the digital cameras) had a 7% loss compared to last years quarter.
Panasonic also announced a new group organization (Click here to download the pdf).
Editor’s note: Neither Olympus nor Panasonic are doing very well this year. But I also saw that other companies are having problems. Strong YEN, Tsunami, Fukushima and now the Thai flood. There are many reasons why japanese companies are having a bad year!
The old beauty: The Panasonic [shoplink 14828 ebay]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]
Our reader TAGO (Thanks!) found the reason why the current GF cameras Panasonic by reading an old article at http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/interview/20090909_314443.html (Sep. 2009).
Here it is: “The External terminal for EVF,it is necessary to run through high-frequency parallel data. In that case, EMI increases and cannot confirm a standard. Therefore, GF1 cannot output data of more than 200,000 pixel to the external terminal.”
So it sounds like it is not a bade joke or marketing trick if the new LVF2 adapter will not work on your GF cameras. The new adapter has 1.44k dot and that’s an amount of data the “old” connections of the GF1/2/3 cannot handle!
Intergalactic Planetary from inhousegoods on Vimeo.
There are plenty of videos you can find on Vimeo (Click here to see the latest Driftwood GH2 video list). All GH2 owners can hack the camera by using these instructions: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/332/ptool-3.60d-topic. And to see a list of all patches (including the driftwood) go here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/953/gh2-patch-vault-most-popular-patches-in-one-place
P.S.: GH2 price check at [shopcountry 16254] (Click on shop name to visit the GH2 search page).
Before you read this. The rumor is based on non proved facts. I received that anonymous tip and have no way to double check it. So take it easy! It’s quite “strange” but I post it anyway. Here is the text of the rumor:
“Well, the OlympusDrama is taking a new dimension in Wall Street, here is a strong rumors about a requirement for Samsung Medical Device Development (a Samsung Electronic Division) to an evaluation company about the Olympus Medical Devices unit. Samsung could be looking for the opportunity to buy a good bunch of stocks.”
Just my tow cent on this: Although the rumor is talking about the interest from Samsung about the medical part of Olympus also the camera division could interest them. Samsung is heavily investing in their mirrorless system and an Olympus acquisition would help them to gain lot of technical skills and historical experience.
Back to real news:
Mr. Noda (prime minister of Japan) said that the allegations surrounding Olympus may be taken as indicative of how the whole country operates. And: “What worries me is that it will be a problem if people take the events at this one Japanese company and generalise from that to say Japan is a country that does not follow the rules of capitalism” Source: Techradar.
And the next news is that Olympus president Shuichi Takayama said: “We wish to make a profound apology for all the distress and trouble caused due to the recent series of media reports and fall in stock prices triggered by our recent change in President. The past acquisitions mentioned in the media were handled with the appropriate evaluations and procedures. These transactions were in no way improper and we are setting up an external panel of experts to examine and report on this acquisitions activity…We sincerely hope to conclude this situation as quickly as possible to restore society’s trust in us and to bring reassurance to our customers, business partners, shareholders and employees. Thank you for your continued understanding and support.” (Source: AP).
And MR. Woodford said “Olympus will survive the controversy and is a good business. There’s nothing wrong with the company. So the company will go on“. (Source: AP).
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A reminder: Months ago a rumor from one of my trusted sources said that Samsung offered Four Thirds sensor for Olympus. I still don’t know yet if Olympus will consider that option.
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct
New Test footage Noktor Hyperprime 12 mm from Hugo Goudswaard on Vimeo.
Don Ravine (Click here) posted a full ( four pages long) SLRmagic Hyperprime 12mm f/1.6 lens review: “Perhaps the single strongest feature of this lens is it’s potential as a very special video lens. I don’t mean point and shoot home movies (many of which are excellent, of course). I mean serious, professional or semi-professional video, planned shots with careful control of all the elements“.
Also Hugo Goudswaard (Click here) posted a first impression: “My first impressions of the lens are great. It feels robust and solid. Focus and aperture ring move as smooth as butter. 12mm looks like a nice wide angle view (like 24mm on 5D Mark II) and you can get nice shallow depth of field. I bett that this will be an awesome lens, especially outside, when stopped down with ND. Lens has 12 aperture blades so nice round bokeh“.
The SLRmagic Hyperprime 12mm lens is yet not available for preorder (but it will be soon).
Other SLRmagic lenses for Micro Four Thirds:
SLR Magic 12-36×50 ED Straight Spotting Scope lens (w/ hand grip) is now available on [shoplink 25887 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens you can preorder on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
