Before to go on with more new Olympus rumors I want to remindert you what’s going on with the competition:

1) Tomorrow Pentax will announce the new NC-1 mirrorless system with small 1:2.33 inch sensor. You can follow the announcement live on MirrorlessRumors (Click here) at 13:00 Tokyo time! The camera is very tiny almost like the old film [shoplink 21191 ebay]Auto 110 system (Click here ot see that on ebay)[/shoplink]. It’s very important for you to know that Pentax will launch a second “k-system” in autumn (with APS-C) sensor. It’s very likely that they will use the current Sony NEX sensors.

2) Leica will announce a mirrorless system at Photokina 2012. It will use a built-in EVF instead of a rangefinder sytem a là [shoplink 22857 ebay]Leica M9 (Click here to see that camera)[/shoplink]. There are no specs now, but I guess it will be a very expensive system ;)

3) Sony delayed the new NEX Pro and lens announcement form July to late August. Pity that Sony doesn’t offer any decent lens for their NEX users!

4) Samsung will announce the NX-200 and NX-20 with 18 Megapixel sensor in July. And there will be also a nice 85mm f/1.4 lens (Source: MirrorlessRumors.com)

As you cansee, there is nothing to come from Canon and Nikon. They don’t want to cannibalize their entry level DSLR market. But how long can they play that game?

Olympus just launched a new Teaser video you can see here: http://www.getolympus.com/PENteaser/. The teaser is a bit boring because you really don’t see anything :(

I am still not 100% about some aspects of the new “mysterious” Olympus designed (or tweaked) sensor. What I know for certain is that Olympus kept the promise and will not join the Megapixel race which lead Panasonic to announce cameras with 16Megapixels (for the [shoplink 22077]G3 and [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink]). The new sensor has 12.1 Megapixels! I have been told that this is not the same “old” 12 Megapixel sensor which you can find inside the current Olympus PEN cameras. The sensor has been “tweaked” (and some sources say “redesigned”) by Olympus. What that word “tweaked” means is a big and yet unanswered question.

The second news is that the new PEN cameras will indeed use the new TruePic VI engine which has two cores. Olympus worked on all aspects of the camera, sensor, internal circuity, imaging processor with the main goal to increase the dynamic range and ISO performance. Sources said that we should expect an image quality that is at least on par (but more likely even slightly better) than the current top [shoplink 17163 ebay]Olympus E-5 model[/shoplink]. First reports I received from testers said that there is a visible step forward in image quality (with pre production models and unfinished firmware!).

In summary, Olympus may made a bit of mess with the product naming and specs (See for example missing tilt screen on the E-P3) but we have to give credit to Olympus for working on the key aspects where many of our 43rumors wanted to see an improvement:

1) That sensor is designed by Olympus and that means that they will no more have to rely on second generation sensors from Panasonic.
2) It’s nice to see that Olympus worked to improve dynamic range and ISO performance instead of increasing Megapixel numbers.
3) AF speed is amazing. And that’s going to impress many potential m43 buyers!
4) Finally some amazing lenses! The high quality 12mm f/2.0 and the cheap ($299) and fast 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens.

Overall I am very happy with the steps Olympus made with the new PEN’s. Of course there is still room for improvement. But guys, they are finally going in the right direction or not?

The new E-PM1 compared with the [shoplink 19904]Olympus XZ-1[/shoplink] (Click on image to enlarge).

As you know Olympus will announce three new PEN cameras and the 12mm f/2.0 and 45mm f/1.8 lenses on June 30th (Click here to see the official Olympus invitation). And on top you can see the very first image of the tiniest of the three PEN’s the Olympus E-PM1! The other two cameras will be the E-PL3 (with tilt-screen) and the E-P3 (no tilt screen, built-in Flash). The main new feature of the Olympus cameras will be the new ultrafast autofocus that will beat the already fast [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] AF and it will be even faster than the AF of most current DSLR cameras!!! Also the sensor and imageing engine will be new (I hope to get some more news soon about that). Don’t miss any rumors: Join us on Facebook and Twitter! Subscribe our RSS feed!

A good source had the chance to play a little bit with the new smallest PEN. And this is his hands-on report (I have rewritten the report to hide the language style):
“The E-PM1 is really very small. The body size is very similar to the [shoplink 19904 ebay]XZ-1 (Click here to see it)[/shoplink] (similar depth and height, and a little less wide. Autofocus speed is awesome (faster than the [shoplink 21666 ebay]E-30/E-5[/shoplink] by any means). And the AF is not only fast, it’s accurate! It has touchscreen, but it also has enough buttons like the [shoplink 14832 ebay]E-PL1[/shoplink].) Overall it is a camera you can handle very easy. Looking at the size of the E-PM1 it might will not sue the [shoplink 23257]BLS-1/5 battery[/shoplink], I am not sure about that but I think it could use the [shoplink 23258]Li-70B battery[/shoplink] from the XZ-1?
All three new PEN cameras do have touchscreen and a new circuitry that reduces power consumption and increases the battery autonomy.

Editor’s note: The new Panasonic GF3 is a bit smaller than the E-PM1 but that camera doesn’t come with built-in image stabilization and doesn’t have the same usability (the E-PM1 has more buttons).

Questions to sources: Do you know the price of the camera?

Links cameras/accessories mentioned in that article:
Olympus XZ-1 at [shopcountry 19904].
Olympus E-PL1 at [shopcountry 14832].
Olympus E-30 at [shopcountry 21666].
Olympus BLS-1/5 battery at [shopcountry 23257].
Olympus Li-70B battery at [shopcountry 23258].

Reminder -> Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
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