Four new announcements to come: Sony, Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji.

I got some reliable info from trusted sources saying that Sony, Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji have scheduled press releases for early January. As you know the CES show takes place in Las Vegas and usually companies announce plenty of compact cameras. I still don’t know if there will be mirrorless stuff too but there seems to be a good chance that at least Sony and Olympus will release new cameras and lenses. Not sure about Fuji while Panasonic likely will announce compact cameras only.

Sounds like the next rumor and announcement time is about to start!!!

Sony to announce a new 85mm f/1.8 lens in January-February. Also one lens coming from Olympus?

The next lens coming from Sony could be the new 85mm f/1.8 fast tele prime lens. There is no info yet about the price but as we heard this lens should come within 1-2 months. And Sony may be not the only one announcing a new lens for a mirrorless system. Also Olympus could announce a new lens soon. But it is defintiely not the 40-150mm f/2.8 lens. That rumor got busted!

P.S.: Just a reminder, the three Zeiss primes for the NEX and Fuji X system should arrive in April!

 

 

E-M5 firmware coming on Friday (maybe). And Sony kills the A-mount mirrorless prototype.

There will be no new Mirrorless camera today but there is still one possible exciting news to come. On Friday Olympus could release a new firmware update for the Olympus E-M5. It will improve the EVF performance and add one mysterious new feature that we suspect to be the “peaking mode”. The video on top shows you one of the trick used to have peaking mode on the E-M5. The firmware update will only “activate” it officially.

And there is one small interesting story. Sony killed the plan to release an A-mount mirrorless cameras. Apparently they decided to put all efforts on the E-mount FF. We have been told that we will have to wait almost one year before that camera may be announced. Development still hasn’t finished (so I have been told).

 

First time in Stock: Sony RX1. And rumors about FF NEX growing every day…

The Sony RX1 now finally is in Stock at Amazon (Click here). This is a little gem camera but don’t know how many will buy it knowing that Sony may release a FF NEX in 10-12 months. According to rumors we got Sony is indeed developing an E-mount Full Frame camera.
Anyway, the RX1 strengths are
1) the super compact size (doubt it you can make it so small with an interchangeable E-mount).
2) Sensor-Lens optimization
3) Leaf shutter (silent operation). This also is not going to be a feature of future FF NEX cameras.

Now let’s hope to get some specs about that FF NEX any time soon!

 

Another film camera gets out of production. The Zeiss Ikon!

[shoplink4583 ebay][/shoplink]

The world of film cameras is getting smaller every year. A Japanese Zeiss retailer announced that the [shoplink4583 ebay]Zeiss Ikon ZM[/shoplink] now has been officially discontinued. This is (or was) a high quality M-mount camera.It filled the gap within the superbly made (and expensive) Leica M film cameras and the cheap (and not so well made) Voigtlaender cameras. A bad news (again) for the film lovers like me :(

You can still grab some new Zeiss Ikon ZM on [shoplink4583 ebay]eBay (Click to see the auctions)[/shoplink].

via ZR and TP.

X trans finally supported with the upcoming Capture One update?

One of the big downsides of the Fuji X RAW files is that they are not native supported by current RAW converters. I mean, they do the job, but none of them do it flawlessly. The good news is that Lionel12 of the Phase One Crew writes in this forum (click here): “Let me be a bit on lim here, all you Fuji lowers – look for next Capture One release – real soon now.” Rumor says that Capture One will be the first software to 100% support the X-trans sensor characteristics.

And the second little good news is that Rico Pfirstinger (author of the X PRO 1 book) shared me two links with a preview to his books:
For the English sample version click here. To see the book at AmazonUS click here (47% price drop).
For the German sample version click here. To see the book and read customers reviews at AmazonDE click here.

via Fujirumors.