More dealers are sending me details about the availability of the new Panasonic-Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens. They do confirm the shipment has been delayed to end August/early September. That’s once againa frustrating news coming from Panasonic. The lens was supposed to be in Stock in August. The lens is in Stock in Japan and if you need the lens now you cna buy it on [shoplink 24565 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and on Amazon US (Click here) sold by japanese resellers.

And Amazon Germany (Click here) confirmed the lens will be in Stock between the next 3-6 weeks.

Olympus quarter results history for the imaging division (Source: Photoscala).

Photoscala (Click here) analyzed the latest Olympus financial results. Olympus managed to stop the decline. There was a slightly profit in first fiscal quarter of 2011. The bad news for Olympus is that North American sales fell by 26.3%, while in the other regions they recorded increases. But as you see from the table on top (made by Photoscala) Olympus isn’t doing very well in the camera division. It looks like Micro Four Thirds alone is not helping them to much. Olympus needs to do more! Do you have any ideas? :)

Olympus Japan (Click here) announced a new firmware update for PEN cameras. The E-PL1/PL2/P2 are now compatible with the new Olympus VF-3 external viewfinder. But there is a bug Olympus didn’t solve yet. When using the new VF-3 on the new E-P3 (with touchscreen enabled) the the two rear wheels will no longer work! You have to disable the touchscreen funtion to enable their functionalities (Source: SystemKameraForum).

Let’s take a break from rumors and camera reviews. Here is a list of links to articles that can help you to undertsand some scientific and technical aspects of photogaphy.

My prefered website is Cambridgeincolour.com. They recently published two new articles:
1) Reducing Camera Shake with Hand-Held Photos: “We’ve all likely encountered this problem many times: blurry photos due to camera shake with hand-held shots. It’s especially prevalent for those of us who are unfortunate enough to have unsteady hands. While it cannot be eliminated entirely, fortunately there’s a number of steps you can take to greatly reduce its impact — and hopefully prevent it from becoming visible in the first place.”
2) Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively: “A camera’s shutter speed can control exposure, but it’s also one of the most powerful creative tools in photography. It can convey motion, freeze action, isolate subjects and smooth water, amongst other abilities. This tutorial describes how to achieve these various effects…”

A bit more complicated and scientific article has been published by Berkeley:  “The human eye long ago solved a problem common to both digital and film cameras: how to get good contrast in an image while also capturing faint detail.” Read the article to understand “Why the eye is better than a camera“.

Now something more easy and funny to read (and use). There is a new online SLR Camera Simulator at Camerasim (found via Fotoactualidad). It’s a perfect site for beginners that need to learn the basics of photography!