An interesting story about the E-5

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I have been very silent about the upcoming Olympus E-5. I didn’t give you much news about that camera because we had received conflicting reports. Finally my sources allowed me to tell you why I had received such different rumors.

As I told you in April Olympus made a very last minute decision to not announce any new low and middle class FourThirds DSLR (->The cameras were ready for the worldwide launch!).
In case of the E-5, Olympus tested different prototypes (with different sensors, features and designs). Of course it is normal that a company reviews different camera versions, but what I am telling you is that they only decided a few weeks ago(!) how the camera will look! Even the name wasn’t sure until few weeks ago.

An example? According to our sources Olympus had two prototypes, one working with the Kodak sensor and one working with the new Panasonic sensor. We don’t know what sensor has been choosen but we suspect that Olympus will use the new Panasonic sensor

1) We believe the E-5 will be announced mid-September (14 or 15)
2) The E-5 will be in Stock months later (by end of the year). Reason for the delay could be the new Panasonic sensor which had a longer than expected development history.
3) We don’t expect the new sensor to have an electronic global shutter but two of our sources told us that we should expect a intermediate solution (?)
4) More Megapixels -> 14-16MPX
5) UPDATE: One source told me that it has a more current design (E-30 and E-3) and another source that is very similar to the [shoplink 14878]Olympus OM4ti[/shoplink] design (we still need to confirm that part of the rumor). I guess they saw two different prototypes :(
6) A special mount solution (could also use MicroFourThirds lenses?)

We hope to get 99% proof detailled rumors soon!

Thanks!

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The need for speed…and the need for cheap :) SLRmagic 35mm f/1.7

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If you need a fast lens but you don’t want to spend a lot of money this lens is probably the right lens for you! The [shoplink 14881]SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens[/shoplink] only costs you $79.99!

And the image quality is not bad at all…check out following post on dpreview (click here). Does one of our readers own the lens? Are you satisfied?

You can find the [shoplink 14881]SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]

UPDATE:
Ruy sent us those links where he explains how to get a similar lens for $15 only!!!
http://www.dchome.net/viewthread.php?tid=790031&highlight= (japanese)
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=34012546

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The reason why Leica didn’t join MicroFourThirds (+ Leica lens test on the E-P2)

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Popsci tested the [shoplink 14883]Leica Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 lens ($2,400)[/shoplink] on the [shoplink 14830]Olympus E-P2[/shoplink] ($850 body-only) using the Novoflex’s Leica M-Mount Micro Four Thirds adapter ring ($270). They also shot with the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens ($275) for comparison.

Christian Erhardt, Leica’s VP of Marketing tells why that combination doesn’t work very well:

Our lenses our designed to work best with full format, the light can hit different pixels of the sensor at a very extreme angle–once you have that, the image may be slightly out of focus, or not as bright around the edges.”.

But he also explained why Leica choosed to not join the MicroFourThirds alliance: “One reason why we’ve decided not to move into Micro Four Thirds is that we have looked at the sensor size and realized that it cannot produce the image quality that we need. Therefore we decided to stick with the full format in addition to APS-C. It’s all about the ratios“.

Do you really think the Leica X1with fixed lens(!) that sells for $1,995.00 is a better solution?
By the way, Popsci came to the conclusion that the price difference doesn’t justify the use of the Elmarit instead of the Olympus 17mm lens :)

Source: Popsci
Found via: Noisycamera

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(FT5) Samyang 35mm f/1.4 for FourThirds to be announced at Photokina

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Samyang just revealed that “We would like to show a sample on Photokina. It starts 21 September of this year.
35mm will be 1.4 we don’t plan to make it 1.2. It should be available at the end of this year.”

We form 43rumors already told you months ago that this lens will also be available with native FourThirds mount!

Source: Fredmiranda

Samyang lenses for FourThirds are also sold with different brand names like “Falcon” and “Vivitar”. Check it out:
– [shoplink 14885]Falcon (Vivitar) 85mm f/1.4[/shoplink] – [shoplink 14887]Samyang 85mm f/1.4 IF MC[/shoplink] – Opteka 8mm f/3.5
– http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=9&pub=5574825908&toolid=10001&campid=5336351024&customid=&icep_uq=Samyang+8mm+Olympus&icep_sellerId=&icep_ex_kw=&icep_sortBy=12&icep_catId=&icep_minPrice=&icep_maxPrice=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg”>Samyang 8mm f/3.5
Falcon 8mm f/3.5
Rokinon 8mm f/3.5
Bower 8mm f/3.5

Maybe you will surprised to read how well those lenses do perform! Check out the latest Samyang reviews on photozone…not bad at all!

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a little bit of everything (Panasonic firmware Hack updated)

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Added “PAL<->NTSC Menu” patch for [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink] and [shoplink 14826]Panasonic GH1[/shoplink].
In short – it allows you to change video standard on the fly.
“Video Out” menu is used. It’ll simultaneously set you TV output standard
and also camera shooting standard.
As a side effect, this patch enables Video Out menu for regions where it was
disabled.
Firmware download and how-to on DVXuser.com
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Amin Sabet tested the new [shoplink 14818]Olympus 9-18mm[/shoplink] lens (Serious compacts)
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Panasonic Lumix G2, uma G1 com vídeo (fotodigital online…portuguese!)
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[shoplink 14832]Olympus E-PL1[/shoplink] review on Reghardware
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Olympus E-PL1 “Bounce Flash”? (Thedigitalstory.com)

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Panasonic GF1 price drops on Amazon and Adorama (also in Europe)

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More we get closer to Photokina more we can find new price drops (especially in US).
The Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 Lens price dropped at $739.43 (click here). But here is an even better price on Adorama…$724! (click here). Yes, I expect new GF camera/cameras at Photokina, but I am not sure if it/they will replace the current model…

Also in Germany the price is getting cheaper and cheaper:

The best deal is on Pixmania Deutschland (707,00€ with the following code “PIX12DE07”)

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Rumors from others: No mirrorless camera from Canon? Sony to stop fullframe production?

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Canon: According to their official press release they could also choose to make DSRL even more compact instead of going mirrorless! Read more on mirrorlessrumors.com

Sony: According to our sources Sony will heavily invest reasearch and development in the NEX system. In 2 years there could be no more Sony DSLR around! Read more on mirrorlessrumors.com

Samsung: New NX100 and three new lenses at Photokina. Again mirrorlessrumors.com

Discuss all rumors and news inside our new forum: mirrorlessforum.com (still in beta version)

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