Samsung roadmap info gets leaked through China conference!

Raf007 at Dpreview forum got some interesting info about the current and future Samsung strategy. He writes:

“Ive found some interesting info from Samsung’s last week conference in Beijing. At first some more or less known facts:

NX30 AF speed up to 30% faster than NX300, better focusing in low lights, shorter shutter lag
16-50mm has four stops stabilisation
faster focusing than 45mm 1.8
ED-SEF580A is based on Metz 58 AF-2

Now come some more interesting facts/rumours from the conference

Samsung is going to release entry level NX3000
New flagship model is going to be released probably next year
50-150mm 2.8 water and dust resistant is going to be released probably next year too
300mm 2.8 is it the works. Apparently Samsung had a prototype of the lens already in 2011″

Likely first (real) picture of the new Fuji X-T1?

Fuji Photographer Ray Ohara first posted (and then removed) this picture of himself with a Fuji camera. And as you can see this Fuji camera clearly has an EVF bump in the middle.

Now, we already had one photographer last week showing a fake Fuji camera. this may be part of a Fuji campagn to create some buzz around the new camera???

Fuji X-T1 announcement on January 28!

And finally we will see the real (and no fake) Fuji weather sealed and Olympus OMD alike camera with X-mount! It will be officially unveiled on January 28!

Here is the specs list (via Fujirumors):

announcement January 28th (trusted source)
bigger (extra-large) and better (high performance) EVF / (trusted +  anonymous sources)
APS-C X-Trans sensor II (16MP) / (trusted +  anonymous sources)
double SD-card slot / (trusted sources)
weather sealed body / (trusted sources)
price range between X-E and X-PRO line / (new and anonymous sources)
FujicaST-like design / (source who was right in the past, but not yet upgraded to the elite-team of trusted sources)
faster AF than the X-E2 / (new source)
additional battery grip / (anonymous source)
name: X-T1 / (anonymous sources)

Sounds great! I am pretty sure real images will be leaked soon!

Samsung’s ED-SEF580A Flash Unit – First Impression?s

When Samsung announced their new SEF-580A Flash in conjunction with their NX30 introduction,
the first thought that came to my mind was ‘Top Heavy’.

The above featured image, and those following, display the camera and flash in a horizontal position.
Raising or lowering your lens toward your subject will make for an un-balanced tool in my opinion.
When you position the flash forward or backward you will ‘feel’ the flash’s weight.
Doing this during a 1/2 day’s shoot can be tiring and a waste of energy in my opinion.

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2013 Mirrorless camera shares in Japan: Olympus rules, Sony is catching up, Panasonic is falling.

BCNranking (google translation here) posted the full 2013 market share analysis. In the mirrorless category Olympus is leading the group closely followed by Sony. The big change is the 9% share drop fro Panasonic. Quite a bad news!

It will be interesting to see if the Sony A7-A7r series will have a major impact on 2014 sales. My guess is that Sony could become number one in Japan!