New rumors: Panasonic 100-400mm lens costs $2,500. X-E2 firmware coming. A6xxx ships early 2016.

There are a couple of new “Minor” rumors floating on the web:

First of all I got word the new A6xxx camera will ship in very early 2016. But I still don’t know the day of the announcement. At the same time SAR reports there is also a “mysterious” High End Camera coming. Not sure he is talking about A or E-mount here.
43rumors got few info about the Panasonic-Leica 100-400mm lens. It will be announced in February and cost $2,500. And Fujirumors reports the X-E2 firmware will be released in mid January.

In the meantime we still don’t have any official Samsung statement about the recent camera business closure rumor. I really hope they will tell us something about that soon!

Meyer Optik Görlitz announces the new Trimagon 95mm f/2.6 lens.

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Meyer Optik Görlitz announced the launch of their new Trimagon 95mm f/2.6 lens. It will be available for Fuji X, Sony-E, MFT, M42 und Leica M mirrorless sytsems. They claim the lens can outresolve 60 Megapixel sensors. There is yet no price info but the lens is expected to ship in Summer 2016.

Technical specifications:
Aperture & Focal Length: f/2,6-22; 95 mm
Lens construction: 3 elements in 3 modules
Picture angle: 25 °
Filter Diameter: 52 mm

Characteristics:
Lens construction in classical triplet | 3 lenses / 3 groups
Iris diaphragm with 15 specially constructed aperture blades and special anti-reflective coating
Mounts: Canon, Nikon, Fuji X, SonyE, MFT, M42 and Leica M
Available from early summer 2016

Click on the image to see the full size version:

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Found via Photoscala.

More bad news: Samsung announces it discontinued the NX1 in Europe :(

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Samsung just told at EosHD:

“We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of NX1 cameras for now since there is already much better and upgraded cameras. This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets. We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging Camera categories.”

This is the next bad news on Samsung which is rumored to quite out of the camera business. Particularly worrying is the phrase “since there is already much better and upgraded cameras“. So they are actually saying the cameras of the competition are better!

Nikon sales: -8,3% cameras sold. -8,7% lenses sold. Olympus back to black!

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Nikon latest financial report (PDF here) is out and discloses some worrying info. During the last quarter Nikon sold -8,3% cameras and -8,7% lenses. Forecast has been revised too with less cameras that will be sold til March 2016. But Nikon hopes the weak YEN will help them to gain some revenue at the end of the year.

A half miracle happened at Olympus. For the first time after six years(!) they are not loosing money in the imaging business (PDF report here). Strong OMD and PEn sales in Europe and Japan helped to achieve those results. And of course again the weak YEN is helping japanese companies to “hide” some of the losses.

Will Canon launch a new PRO mirrorless APS-C camera at Photokina?

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It’s now 2 years we keep reading rumors about Canon launching a High End mirrorless system. The last one comes (again) via Northlight Images. I guess sooner or later those rumors will be inevitably become true :)

I have no reliable info yet but I don’t think Canon will launch such a camera at Photokina as claimed by NL. I am actually pretty sure they will not do it. Canon not even has launched enough lenses for their current EOS-M system. Nope, this rumor is likely to not be true and we will have to wait 2-3 years more before Canon goes really “serious” on mirrorless!

found via Canonwatch.

Tony Northup and Ming Thein show you how to create the (almost) perfect camera!

First of all a nice Sunday to all of you! And before we go on with new rumors let’s talk about how companies should actually make the cameras so that they are almost perfect:

On the video above Tony Northup shares his ideas about the perfect camera. And Ming Thein shows us how to design mirrorless right.

Companies should take note of their suggestions and make such cameras for a low price ;)

Lens rumors: Leica patents a new 23mm f/2.0 APSC-lens. Zeiss is developing five new FE lenses.

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We have some new lens development news:

Egami spotted a new Leica patent describing a 23mm f/2.0 APS-C t-mount lens.

Ilovehatephoto posted an interview where Zeiss confirms they are now developing five new Full Frame E-mount lenses. Zeiss also said their Touit lens development is on hold becasue their priority now are FF lenses. That’s particularly a bad news for Fuji X camera owners who cannot rely on getting new Zeiss lenses any time soon.