P.S.: Kai from Digitalrev pretty much summed up the this year Photokina “unexciting” stuff.

Personal View shows a good list of video interview that might be interesting for you. So here they are

Zeiss Pentax interview on Vimeo.
Leica interview on Vimeo (part one and part two).
Fuji interview on Vimeo (part one and part two).
Samsung interview on Vimeo.
Blackmagic interview on Vimeo.
Sony (28-135mm Cine lens) interview on Vimeo.
Uematsu (Panasonic) interview on Vimeo.
SLR magic interview on Vimeo.
Panasonic interview on Youtube.
Michael Guthmann (Olympus) interview on Vimeo.

Nikon still is playing down the importance of the mirrorless market  saying DSLR still for advantages for PRO. I guess one day Nikon manager will wake up and notice that it will be too late for them to compete against all other mirrorless camera makers!

Here are some of the key points of the interview released by Nikon manager Jaspers at Amateur Photographer:

– You shouldn’t underestimate the Nikon 1 system…

– Nikon has not been able to fulfil demand for the Nikon 1 V3

– mirrorless is  on a very small scale [in relation] to the size of the [overall] market.

– DSLR offer advantages over CSCs, in terms of AF speed, tracking and ‘reliability of the life cycle’.

…..

Sleep Nikon sleep…..

Kazuto Yamaki CEO from Sigma talked to Focus Numerique (translation by SigmaRumors).

Well first of all Sigma confirmed again they are not developing an interchangeable mirrorless camera yet. Pity, would love to see a Sigma Foveon system camera.

On the lens front they will keep making APS-C or MFT lenses for mirrorless system but they have no plan to make lenses for the Sony Full Frame E-mount cameras.

Overall Sigma confirms that their main focus is still creating optics for the DSLR market. But I am pretty sure the day will come they will make more of those nice ART lenses for mirrorles systems including the superb 50mm ART.

It’s hard to write an article about a google translated Japanese interview :) But if I got it right DC.watch reports that Canon is investigating the possibility to launch a new kind of system camera with new mount. I guess they are talking about a mirrorless Full Frame mount. Canon says they recognize the value of having a compact system camera.

Translated form Japanese culture to Western culture: They are finally recgnizing that they did a mistake not taking mirrorless seriously :)

The Leica D-Lux LX100 clone

Panasonic and Leica announced the extension of their partnership within the digital camera market:

Panasonic Corporation and Leica Camera AG today announced they have extended their partnership agreement and agreed to expand and strengthen their technological cooperation in the digital camera field.

The agreement includes the extension of license agreement for use of Leica’s trademark on Panasonic’s digital camera products as well as expansion and strengthening of technological cooperation between the two companies. Based on this agreement, Panasonic will be able to commercialize digital camera products with Leica lenses over the next five years, from October 2014 to September 2019 while Leica will be able through the expansion and strengthening of technological cooperation to utilize Panasonic’s digital technology in its own product development. The agreement will allow both companies to boost product competitiveness by combining Leica’s optical technology and Panasonic’s digital technology. The companies had signed a cooperative agreement for digital audiovisual equipment lenses in August 2000 and agreed to cooperate in the digital camera sector in July 2001. Since then, the companies have built up a cooperative relationship in optical technology and quality control, and brought high-performance and high-quality digital cameras to the market by fusing Leica’s superior optical technology with Panasonic’s digital technologies such as image processing. The technological cooperation newly agreed upon in this agreement will reinforce the partnership between the two companies, enabling them to accelerate the development of excellent digital camera products with enhanced appeal to the global camera market. Yoshiyuki Miyabe, President of AVC Networks Company, an internal company of Panasonic, stated: “It is a great honor to be able to strengthen our bonds with Leica as a strategic partner. Panasonic will continue to incorporate Leica’s century-worth of optical technologies and camera traditions into the DNA of Panasonic’s digital cameras to further expand our business.” Alfred Schopf, Chief Executive Officer of Leica Camera, said: “The signing of this agreement is significant for Leica as we seek further growth in the digital imaging sector. Strengthening our cooperative relationship with Panasonic is essential to Leica’s continued growth.”

Source Panasonic Japan. Found via Dicahub.