The camera has been already there for preorder at BH for a while but now it’s really…official!

You can get it here:
Black at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Brown at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
White at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.

Full press release after the break:

And here it is the new Olympus E-M5II It got announced today along a long list of accessories.

Preorders:
E-M5II body in Black or Silver at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
14-150mm II lens at Adorama, BHphoto
FL-LM3 Flash at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
Olympus ECG-2 External Metal Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
Olympus HLD-6P Battery Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
HLD-8g at Amazon, Adorama,
E-P16 eyecup at Amazon, Adorama,
HLD-8G and HLD-6P kit at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
Full leather case at Amazon, Adorama,
Olympus PT-EP13 Underwater Housing at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto
Olympus Stylus Tough TG-860 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto

Previews and tests: First impression at Dpreview, Hands-on review at ePhotozine, First impressions by ThePhoBlographer, Test by DSLRmagazine (Spanish), First impression by Russian reviewer Dimitri Kroupski (Russian of course), Spanish analysis at Quesabesde, First impression Steve Huff,

Image samples: On Flickr.

Videos: Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Hands-On Field Test by TheCameraStoreTV:

Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Youtube), Olympus EM5 Mark 2 versus a DLSR (Youtube), Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII The Runner (Youtube), 5-Axis Image Stabilization (Youtube). London Taxi – A short film shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Vimeo).

Press text: E-M5II: Dpreview, BHphoto, Photographyblog, SystemKameraForum, DSLRmagazine, Quesabesde, ePhotozine, Focus Numerique, DC.watch, 14-150mm II: Dpreview, Photographyblog, ePhotozine, ThePhoBlographer, DSLRmagazine, DC.watch, E-M1 firmware: Dpreview, Photographyblog, ePhotozine Focus Numerique, 8mm f/1.8 fisheye: Dpreview, Photographyblog, SystemKameraForum, DSLRmagazine, Quesabesde, ePhotozine, Focus Numerique, DC.watch, Olympus launches the Air clip: Dpreview, DC.watch, TG-860 compact: Dpreview, Cool E-M5II accessory range graph at ePhotozine.

At last the big Samsung NX1 firmware can be downloaded at Samsung. Because of the many improvements you get also the NX1 manual got an update (pdf here).

Firmware Improvements:

Movie Mode:

New Gamma options, normal gamma, C gamma and DR Gamma. With C and DR gamma users can also customise colour, saturation, sharpness, contrast and hue. 
Added Video AF speed control for more cinematic refocusing (3 settings)
Video AF responsiveness control in 5 steps (dictates camera’s readiness to change AF subject)
ISO adjustable during movie capture 
Audio levels adjustable during movie capture 
23.98p and 24p frame rates for 3840×2160 and 1920×1080 video 
Output time code (Free Run) over HDMI (for use with external recorders)
Wider range of display options, including gridline, center, aspect ratio and action-safe area markers 
General improvement in the image quality of FHD video
‘Pro’ movie quality setting added for 1080 capture 
AF / Manual Focus and SAF / CAF toggling in movie mode
Autofocus lock option in movie mode

Photo: 

Now possible to turn off the NR in Bulb mode
When setting Auto ISO, the automatically chosen ISO value is displayed in real time
Can now select from four AF area sizes when using CAF + Multi AF
Able to use Exposure Compensation in M mode

Customization:

Wi-Fi and [REC] buttons functions can be swapped 
AF On and AEL buttons functions can be swapped 
Depth of Field Preview and Delete buttons are customizable and additional functions are available on custom buttons
Added ISO or Exposure Compensation to command dial (customizable per PASM mode)
Command dials direction of operation can be reversed 
Exposure/Focus Separation on/off option 

Other enhancements:

Smartphone App can operate as simplified remote release using Bluetooth (The Samsung Camera Manager App must be updated through the Google Play Store)
Checks for and installs firmware updates over Wi-Fi 
Tethered shooting now supported via ‘Samsung Remote Studio’ with Windows (Software downloadable from i-Launcher)
Selecting and grabbing frames from video
Menu re-arranged for improved usability

Voigtlander announced the price of the new 15mm Heliar III M-mount lens. It will cost 749 Euro. Still no info on the 10,5mm Nokton for MFT lens price. But it’s rumored to be around 1200 Euro.

Image Sensor World reports about a new Samsung paper disclosing the tech for a new “Organic-on-silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor colour image sensors“:

The company proposes superposing an organic photodiode (OPD) onto a CMOS circuit with Si photodiodes, which is said to double the light-input surface area of each pixel.

Samsung is not the only company working on such a tech. Something similar has been developed by Fuji and Panasonic too.. It is yet impossible to say when that kind of sensor will make into a real mass production camera. But Samsung at least shows us the very first image taken with such a 5 Megapixel organic sensor:

Maybe we don’t have to wait to long for it….

Mirrorless shares in Japan during the last 12 months. Source BCN, Graph Dicahub.

On top you can see the mirrorless share graph of the last 12 months in Japan. I am a bit surprised to see Sony loosing shares the last months. But it still remains the number one in Japan closely followed by Olympus.

The original BCN report also states that Canon wants to become the number one in the mirrorless market by end 2017. I guess Canon will have to launch a mirrorless Full Frame system to achieve that…

Samsung finally released that awesome big NX1 firmware update. You can download it here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/EV-NX1ZZZBZBUS.

Those are the new features and fixes:

Movie mode:
Audio levels adjustable during movie capture
ISO adjustable during movie capture
23.98p and 24p frame rates for 4K UHD and 1080 video
‘Pro’ movie quality setting added for 1080 capture
Wider range of display options, including gridline, center, aspect ratio and action-safe area markers
Output time code over HDMI (for use with external recorders)
C Gamma and D Gamma curves added for movie shooting
Master black level
Luminance level limiting [0-255], [16-235], [16-255] AF speed control for smoother refocusing (3 settings)
AF responsiveness control (dictates camera’s readiness to change AF subject)
Added tools for selecting and grabbing frames from video

Physical interface changes:
Autofocus lock option in movie mode (if set to AEL button)
AF/MF toggling in movie mode (AF ON button option)
Wi-Fi and [REC] buttons’ functions can be swapped
AF On and AEL buttons’ functions can be swapped
Command dials’ direction of operation can be reversed
Add ISO or Exposure Comp. to command dial (customizable per PASM mode)
DoF Preview and Delete buttons customizable
Auto ISO options (ISO, ISO Customizing, Minimum Shutter Speed) arranged together in menus

Wireless features:
Smartphone App can operate as remote release using Bluetooth
‘Quick Transfer’ to automatically send thumbnails to a smartphone as they’re shot
Pair with multiple smart devices
Check for firmware updates over Wi-Fi

Other additions:
Trap Shot feature – fires shutter when a subject crosses a specified guideline
Samsung Remote Studio for thethered shooting from Windows PC
Samsung to release SDK for Windows to allow independent remote control software creation