The new Olympus E-PL3 is now in Stock at Adorama (Click here) and J&R (Click here). And the “old” E-PL1 with kit lens is available for $359 at Amazon (Click here).
P.S: E-PL3 ad in China (Micadget) / E-PM1 pricing in France (OpenPN).
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A collage made by “Aless” (Thanks!) shows the real 14-42mm X lens on the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink].
Tomorrow (Friday) at 6am London time Panasonic will unveil the new X lens series and two new zoom lenses. We were never that excited about upcoming zooms! I have been told the image quality of the new and very first 14-42mm X lens is impressive (much better than the actual [shoplink 23962 ebay]14-42mm kit lens[/shoplink]). It has Nano Surface Coating, aspherical lens, inner focusing, powerzoom (with button on lens), in lens image stabilization. All this is packaged in a tiny pancake with 1.5x the length of the [shoplink 14796 ebay]20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink]! The aperture of the lens is f/3.5-5.6.
A new anonymous source sent me this (take it as FT2!): “The new kit lens will be available with the [shoplink 23109]GF3[/shoplink] in a special kit package, and Panasonic is also going to offer it with the [shoplink 14834]G2[/shoplink] at some point. Had a try with the lens last week at the press event, the way it pops out by itself is actually pretty impressive, and I can see being really useful for slipping into your bag or just dumping the camera somewhere quickly. But it’s $250/200 Euro more than the standard kit lens – will consumers want to cough up that kind of money?” P.S.: The current Panasonic kit lens price can be checked here [shopcountry 23962] (around 200 dollars/pounds/euro).
I have no reliable info yet about the second lens, the 45-175mm zoom. I have been told it is also small but I don’t know yet if it is an X lens or not.
More: It will be interesting to see how Panasonic will introduce the new “X” pro lineup. Will there be more “X” lenses coming this year? Will there be fast zoom “X” lenses too? Will there also be “X” cameras?
Be online tomorrow at 6am London time. As usual I will make a useful summary of all news/reviews/interviews and so on!
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If you are waiting to get the tiniest of the new Olympus PEN cameras you will happy to know that the camera worldwide shipment will start on September 30. Camera with 14-42mm MSC II R kit lens will cost $499.95. (via Dpreview). The E-PM1 is available for preorder at Amazon UK (Click here), Computeruniverse (Click here), Digitalrev (Click here). Notifications are available at BHphoto (Click here).
P.S.: You can see the first E-PL3 (not E-PM1) unpackaging pictures at Mobile01. Click on the green links inside the first post to open the pictures!
Our friend Mike Kobal (Click here) got his hands on the Kipon EOS to m43 adapter which has a built-in aperture ring! He says: “This is a very useful and reasonably priced adapter, well made, no problems mounting my Canon lenses, image quality is very good as long as you stay within the suggested aperture range (markings from 1-6).” That adapter is available at BHphoto (Click here) and on [shoplink 24931 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
ThePhoBlographer (Click here) made a on filed review of the 26mm f/1.4 Toy lens: “With that in mind, this is a lens for the experimental photographer, the hipster, the film lover, or just those people that want a different look and will embrace, “technical flaws” to create better images that others aren’t creating. However, the lens still isn’t perfect. The colliding aperture blades and the backwards aperture and focusing rings can be annoying and will essentially force you to just shoot wide open and not worry about the rest.” Visit his website to see image and video samples! You can check the Toy lens price on [shoplink 24931 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Also the japanese website DC.watch (Click here) tested the Toy lens.
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ePhotozine (Click here) posted a new Olympus E-PL3 review: “The Olympus PEN E-PL3 is an excellent upgrade to the E-PL2, with extremely fast focusing, which was one of the big problems with the PEN series, especially if you’d used another faster Micro Four Thirds camera, but now Olympus are back in the game.” Read the full review to see all tests and image samples!
And Olympus Japan confirmed the E-Pl3 worldwide shipment starts on September the 3rd. You can click those links to see if the stores do have the E_PL3 available for preorder: [shopcountry 23567].
Robin Wong (Click here) wrote the second part of his field review with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens: “the details captured were simply amazing. Zooming in 100% reviewed tiniest amount of details and textures“
We have been told by BHphoto (Click here) that they already shpped the first stoock of those lenses to the customers. Click those links to search for the lens at [shopcountry 23577].
The new Leica is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here, overpriced!) and Amazon UK (normal price).
You now can get the Olympus E-P2 with 17mm or with 14-42mm lens for $499 only at Amazon (Click here).
There is a $100 Instant saving on the E-PL1 at BHphoto (Click here). It runs until September 3.
At the same time there is a $50 Instant rebate on the E-PL2 too, at BHphoto (Click here).
The Panasonic GH2 with 14-140mm lens is in Stock for $1439 at Amazon (Click here).
The Panasonic 100-300mm price dropped to $499 at Amazon (Click here).
Wow guys! I am astonished. I honestly never thought that we would ever see a such small Micro Four Thirds zoom lens!!! It’s actually just a bit bigger than the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 pancake[/shoplink]!!! And you can easily see the powerzoom button on the lens! The lens name is Lumix X 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6. It is an aspherical lens and voilà…it has O.I.S. (Optical Image stabilization!).
I am not a zoom fan but THAT lens could be one of the best news for Micro Four Thirds ever! Compare that tiny zoom with all other kit lenses from Samsung, Sony and whatsoever is coming from Nikon. The Panasonic lens is smaller and has many new features (see powerzoom, OIS, inner focusing and so on!). That is really a revolution more than an evolution. Dear Panasonic, you impressed me! A hug to all Panasonic engineer’s! As you knwo that lens will be announced on Friday along the new 45-175mm lens!
Thanks Ignazio for sending me that. I do not post the link to the source yet as I am sure Panasonic would force them to shut down the site and I want to search for more info first :)
Sony announced three new NEX cameras and three new NEX lenses. Probably the most interesting camera is The NEX-7 which has 24 Megapixels and an integrated OLED viewfinder. I am curious to see if it will really sell (it costs $1199 at Amazon). I expect Olympus and Panasonic to announce similar cameras within the next six months. I don’t know what to think about that camera but I am definitely going to get my hands-on it to see how it feels. I am particularly curious about the Oled EVF. But I don’t believe it can replace the “magic” of tan optical viewfinder. After all the [shoplink 19929]Fuji X100[/shoplink] with the hybrid EVF/OVF has a different….sex appeal!
News:
Sony NEX-7 preview with video on Engadget and preview at Dpreview.
First VG-20 video preview on youtube.
Sony NEX-5N preview at Dpreview, Engadget and ThePhoBlographer.
Info about the new NEX lenses at Dpreview.
NEX-7 video: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m6QSS5UVQ2CB2/?tag=
Prices and specs:
Sony NEX-7 body only at Amazon (Click here).
Sony NEX-5N with 18-55mm lens at Amazon (Click here).
Sony NEX-5N at Amazon (Click here).
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 E-mount at Amazon (Click here).
Sony 50mm f/1.8 E-mount at Amazon (Click here).
Sony 55-210mm E-mount at Amazon (Click here).
