The Big Freeze from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

There are plenty of new Nikon and Canon news: Andre Reid is wxperimenting with Hitchcock and the Nikon J1 with 16mm c-mount lenses (EosHD). There is also a new Nikon 1 Field Report Diary  at Outbackphoto. And if you alreayd own a Nikon 1 camera than you should know that Nikon (Click here) just released a new Nikon 1 firmware upgrade (1.11) : “An issue that sometimes caused images captured using the built-in flash to be over-exposed has been resolved“.

Techradar (Click Here) had a chat with Canon about the new Canon G1X. New G1 X Photos  have been posted at Photographyblog (Click here).

Outback photo (Click here) published a new iPhone book “The Art and Craft of iPhone Photography“. The iPhone is the currently most sold mirrorless camera

Engadget (Click here) tested the new K-01 and wrote that it “doesn’t feel as cheap as it looks”.

Ricoh now took full control over the Pentax imaging division. Here is the press release:

“Tokyo, February 9, 2012 – Ricoh Company, Ltd. (President and CEO: Shiro Kondo, hereinafter Ricoh) announces an organizational change to its imaging system business including security system business and consumer digital camera business.

Since October 1, 2011 when PENTAX RICOH IMAGING COMPANY (President and CEO：Zenji Miura, hereinafter PRI) was established, Ricoh managed its global imaging system business under two brands, RICOH and PENTAX. Specifically RICOH brand digital cameras were designed, developed and sold by Personal Multimedia Product Company (hereinafter PMMC), an internal organization of Ricoh, while PENTAX brand digital cameras were designed, developed and sold by PRI.

In an effort to strengthen customer relationships and provide innovative products and services, Ricoh will re-organize its structure.

1.Effective date：
・April 1, 2012（plan）

2.Scope：
・Worldwide

3.New functions of each business unit：
・PRI: Consumer businesses such as digital cameras for B2C market
(This includes Ricoh development resources to improve capabilities and support
Ricoh branded cameras )
・Ricoh PMMC: B2B businesses including security system business, and imaging solutions
business for B2B market

February 9, 2012
Ricoh Company, Ltd.”

Meanwhile Pentax announced the new 2012 lens roadmap (via Photorumors). There will be a new K-mount pancake,a 50mm f/1.8 standard prime lens, an unspecified tele photo lens, the Pentax DA 560mm f/5.6 SMC lens (what a beast!), a Pentax D-FA 645 90mm f/2.8 SMC lens and the L to Q mount lens adapter. Clcik on pictures to enlarge:

The huge world wide web becomes quite small if you try to find some image samples taken with the new Fuji X PRO 1. But Fujirumors found some samples in Portugal at Fotodigitalonline (Click here). If you hover the pictures you can see a 100% zoom of the images. Yep, that’s all you get

The good news is that there are some new preorder options in UK, Italy and Japan:

The Fuji X PRO 1 camera can be preordered:
in USA/Canada at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Epxansys US (Click here) and Expansys Canada (Click here).
in Europe at Jessops UK (Click here), eBay Italy (Click here) and Expansys UK (Click here).
in Asia at Amazon Japan (Click here) and eBay Japan (Click here).

The Fuji X 18mm f/2.0 can be preordered:
in USA/Canada at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
in Asia at Amazon Japan (Click here).

The Fuji X 35mm f/1.4 can be preordered:
in USA/Canada at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
in Asia at Amazon Japan (Click here).

The Fuji X 60mm f/2.4 macro can be preordered:
in USA/Canada at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).

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And one more thing. According to Amazon US lens rankings (Click here) this are the most preordered Fuji X lenses:
Position 1: The 35mm f/1.4
Position 2:  The 18mm f/2.0
Position 3: The 60mm macro

The new Canon G1X got DxOmarked (Click here). On paper the Canon is on par with current Micro Four Thirds cameras but far behind the newest Sony NEX cameras. But you know we love to see REAL world comparisons and Imaging Resource (Click here) fulfilled that duty and posted an ISO comparison between the Canon and other big mirrorless cameras: “Fine detail on the G1 X looks quite good, though it’s bested by the T3i and NEX-5N, an outcome we’d expect. As ISO rises, contrast and saturation tend to decrease in the G1 X, while it stays stronger in the T3i, E-P3, and NEX-5N. The J1 and G12 appear to be out of the running for this contest“.

While the G1X is definitely an interesting product it’s still not enough to seriously compete against the mirrorless and interchangeable systems. But I think Canon is coming with the real BIG thing at Photokina…

Preorders are available at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

The video on top is a X PRo 1 Focal Plane Shutter Demo.

Fujiguys posted two new video you see here on top and at the bottom of the post. The first video shows the focal plane shutter and the second video the aperture blade. And there is a new set of image samples on Fuji’s website (Click here to see). Meanwhile if you are Japanese you can preorder the camera at Amazon.co.jp (Click here).