43 Rumors – Page 2140 – Panasonic and Olympus Digital Camera News

(FT5) HOT! Panasonic GX1 video and pictures leaked!

November 5, 2011
Rumors
190 Comments

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!!!

What Olympus and Panasonic could learn from old cameras: Contax G2

November 5, 2011
reviews
78 Comments

[shoplink 24194 ebay]

[/shoplink]

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?

Contax G2 Reviews: Ken Rockwell, ePhotozine, Steve Huff and Photo.net.

(FT5) New bits of GX1 info (surprisingly good image quality)

November 4, 2011
Rumors
76 Comments

As you know the Panasonic will not record motion jpeg anymore. But the new info I got says that it can do AVCHD / MP4 movie recording, including MP4 1080@30p (20Mbps), which seems better than AVCHD 1080@60i (17Mbps).

But the bets news I got from two sources says that they tested the image quality of the GX1 and the jpeg high ISO quality is visible better than what you get from any other m43 camera. And one source said it’s actually surprisingly close to the [shoplink 26379]Sony NEX-5n[/shoplink] jpeg quality. Let’s hope this is true because the Sony really shines in that aspect!

UPDATED: Leica 25mm and Nokton 25mm in Stock BHphoto.

November 4, 2011
deals
23 Comments

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)

Confirmed: GX1 has 16 Megapixel sensor.

November 3, 2011
Rumors
64 Comments

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]

Panasonic digital camera sales: not so good as expected.

November 3, 2011
news
36 Comments

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 reason why the new LVF2 adapter cannot work on your current GF camera.

November 3, 2011
news
108 Comments

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!