43 Rumors – Page 2287 – Panasonic and Olympus Digital Camera News

(UPDATED) Lens poll reloaded!

November 24, 2010
Rumors
265 Comments

UPDATE: You have a few hours left to add your lens selection. After that I will start the poll. Thanks!

A year ago we made a lens poll. We asked you what kind of Micro Four Thirds lenses Panasonic and Olympus should develop. The most requested lens was the 25mm f/1.4 and that lens is now coming from Panasonic.
We thought it would be good to create a new lens poll because we now have a much larger reader base that can participate the voting. We also know companies are constantly looking for new ideas and we may can give them a little help ;)

Comment this post to suggest your lenses (primes and zooms). It would be very useful if you could describe the characteristic of the lens you want…like price, wide open performance, size, video optimized lens, in-lens stabilization etc. Please try to give a realistic description. For example: if you want a 12mm f/1.4 lens you can expect a high price and a huge size. We will take into account all your suggestions and start the poll in a few days.

Reminder: The website Four-Thirds.org shows the complete Lens selection and a has nice matching simulation!

Thanks!
43rumors

P.S.: The new 100-300mm lens is in Stock at Amazon Deutschland, Amazon UK.
The 14mm lens is almost in Stock at Amazon Deutschland.

Panasonic GH2 US shipment by mid December only. Amazon deleting the black GH2 preoders?

November 23, 2010
news
41 Comments

[shoplink 16254]

[/shoplink] Helen Oster (Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador) just wrote a comment on 43rumors: “I have an update for you; we have just been told to expect a shipment during the first half of December. I hope this helps”

That info has been confirmed by a 43rumors reader (Michael) that called Adorama: “I just spoke with Adorama sales (US) and was told that the GH2 should start shipping mid of Dec.”

Alex (43rumors reader) received that message from Amazon US: “Due to a lack of availability from our suppliers, we will not be ableto obtain the following item(s) from your order: We’ve cancelled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience. We must also apologize for the length of time it has taken us to reach this conclusion. Until recently, we had still hoped to obtain these item(s) for you.”

Thanks to Helen from Adorama and all the readers for sending us info about the GH2 availability. Feel free to comment this post if you receive some kind of info from your daler or if you have any questions for Helen.

GH2 direct shop links:
Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon UK, Amazon France.

(FT5) Panasonic to create two new “categories” of Micro Four Thirds (video/photo) cameras (in 2011)!

November 23, 2010
Rumors
48 Comments

[shoplink 17020 ebay]

[/shoplink] According to my very best sources Panasonic will create two new categories of Micro Four Thirds cameras (within 2011). Not GH, not GF and not G cameras! The sources didn’t gave me any further details about those new products. But we received rumors from other (new) sources saying that Panasonic could launch an affordable Micro Four Thirds video-camera.

I tried to imagine what kind of new “camera category” could be developed (That part is my own speculation):

1) The compact Rangefinder styled Micro Four Thirds camera. Like the [shoplink 17844 ebay]Leica M9 (Click here to see the design)[/shoplink] but with EVF or Hybrid Viewfinder. We already saw a Panasonic patent of such a camera. That could become the High-end compact camera (the real [shoplink 14828]GF1[/shoplink] successor?) we were waiting for. In my opinion there is a high-chance this is going to happen although I would expect that camera to be named GF3…

2) A fixed lens Micro Four Thirds camera. Like the Sigma DP1/DP2, Leica X1 and the future awesome looking [shoplink 17847]Fuji X100 (Click here to see the design)[/shoplink]. But I see a very low chance that this is ever going to happen. From a logical point of view it doesn’t make sense to promote that camera as a Micro Four Thirds product. But from a marketing point of view Panasonic could advertise it as a fixed lens camera with Micro Four Thirds sensor. Ok I know…it doesn’t sound right :)

3) A modular Micro Four Thirds system. OK, that is an extreme speculation. I haver never received any rumor about that. But isn’t that one of the future killer-features of digital cameras? To be expandeable, upgradeable without the need to buy a complete new camera?

4) A high spec camera (weather sealed and robust camera) like that nice [shoplink 17020 ebay]Panasonic LC1 (Click here to see the camera design)[/shoplink]. Probably this is the product most of us are waiting for. A real professional photographic tool featuring the best Panasonic sensor, best AF, no AA filter, super imaging processor and all the stuff a semi-pro or pro photographer needs.

5) A video camera more affordable than the [shoplink 16841]AG-AF100 (Reminder, preorder available on BHphoto!)[/shoplink]. Sony already has the [shoplink 17848 ebay]NEX-VG10[/shoplink] so it makes a lot of sense for Panasonic to create an affordable MFT camcorder. In my opinion that has a high-chance to be announced in 2011.

I am “running out of imagination”…so If you have more ideas feel free to share it by commenting this post. I repeat, I don’t know what’s exactly coming from Panasonic but the sources that gave us that info are from a very very and very top level!

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A very positive Olympus E-5 review at ePhotozine

November 22, 2010
reviews
53 Comments

[shoplink 17163]

[/shoplink]

ePhotozine posted a surprising positive articel about the new [shoplink 17163]Olympus E-5[/shoplink]. De facto they say that “If this is the last of the mirror type DSLRs in the Four Thirds range that will be a great pity. Olympus have a finely made product that delivers exceptionally good results. Does the smaller sensor compromise quality? Not in the E-5, that’s quite clear.”

Those are just a few of the many positive statements you can find inside the article:
– The E-5 instantly inspires confidence
– In terms of exposure, the camera is not susceptible to errors from bright light sources and backlighting.
– Focusing in all modes is crisp, fast and accurate. Very impressively, the camera seems able to focus upon almost featureless dark subjects with the same snap as more normal ones.
– I have no complaints about colour reproduction either. Colours are accurate and correctly saturated at the Natural setting.
– AWB deals very convincingly with mixed lighting sources and low light levels, so it is a mixed bag of settings to achieve the best results.
– The dynamic range of the sensor is not a problem. Highlights and shadows are recorded with detail over a surprisingly wide range.

It looks like despite the not so attractive features the E-5 is capable of delivering a very good image quality! Now Olympus, bring us the Pro-MFT camera ;)

Olympus E-5 direct shop links:
Amazon US, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon Deutschland.

P.S.: You can download the japanese E-5 system chart and brochure here: http://www.olympus.co.jp/jp/support/cs/ctlg/index_ctlg.html. The english version is available here: http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/208_manuals.cfm?prodID=MN4279292

Panasonic 14mm lens in Stock at Amazon US (GH2 shipment to start today?)

November 22, 2010
deals
29 Comments

Hurry up! The Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 Lens is in Stock at Amazon (Click here). This time the offer is fulfilled by Amazon (that means you can even use prime on it).
The second good news is that today Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto should start the GH2 shipment. Please let me know if you received some kind of notification from those stores. European customers have to wait until early December because of late technical adjustments. Thanks!

There is also a new price drop to report: The Olympus E-P2 is in Stock with kitlens and without EVF for $636.78 (Click here)

Reminder: It is thanks to your help that 43rumors can cover server and maintenance costs. Purchasing products using our links gives us a small commission. But If you are interested in reading rumor news only please bookmark that link: https://www.43rumors.com/category/rumor/. Thanks for your understanding!

Philip Bloom: The GH2 is better than the hacked GH1!

November 22, 2010
reviews
16 Comments

Home Cooking…avec le GH2! from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Philip Bloom had the chance to play around with the new [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] and the new [shoplink 15659 ebay]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink] lens.

What are his thoughts about the GH2?
“Very easy to operate. LCD touch screen great and intuitive and nice resolution. EVF lovely, great resolution and makes handheld a dream! Nice to have audio meters on screen. Image… gorgeous. SO MUCH better than GH1. No mud, no nasty vertical lines…Although all shot at low ISO I did some 2500 ISO tests and there were really good! I found ISO 800 almost unusable at times on my GH1, and any underexposure in dark areas even at low ISOs…UGH, no problem now…” . And after his first short test he says the GH2 is better than the hacked [shoplink 14826]GH1[/shoplink]!
What does he say about the lens?
“It’s simply my new favourite lens, shame it won’t go on my Canons or [shoplink 17844 ebay]Leica M9[/shoplink]. It has a beautiful look to it, great bokeh, so solid and well made and can focus as close up as a macro. LOVELY!”

You can order the lens on eBay ([shoplink 15659 ebay]Click here[/shoplink]) or Amazon Germany (Click here)

P.S.: The GH2 should start shipping today in US (let us know if you receive it!). Those are the GH2 direct links to some of our affiliate shops:
Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon UK, Amazon France.

a little bit of everything…

November 22, 2010
Rumors
5 Comments

It’s a long time since I posted the latest ” a little bit of everything” post. Thanks all our readers for sending me links to news and videos. I will try to post your videos during the next weeks. And here you have the very long news list:

24Mbit AVCHD versus 100Mbit AVCHD-Intra on the Panasonic AF100 by Crews.tv (EosHD) and Mini resolution test – Hacked Panasonic GH1 versus AF100 in 1080p (EosHD)

Micro 4/3 vs Full Frame (Dpreview forum)

Olympus mju 9010 Review (Trustedreviews)

Canon PowerShot SX30 IS vs Panasonic Lumix FZ45 / FZ40 vs Lumix FZ100 Real-life resolution (Cameralabs)

New Olympus E-PL1 deep blue kit (ForumOlympusFrance)

Our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS10 Review (Steves Digicams)

Canon PowerShot S95, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 y Samsung EX1 (Quesabesde)

FF vs micro 4/3 (Dpreview forum)

Lumix 20mm compared with Sigma 30mm (m43photo.blogspot.com)

New firmware update for the Lumix DMC-FZ100 superzoom (Panasonic.japan)

Pinwide cap for Micro 4/3 at Wanderlustcameras: 11mm f/96 (22mm equivalent). Price US $39.99

Samples from an Infrared Olympus EP1 at Photo Plus 2010 (ThePhoBlographer)