Leica Monochrome reviews roundup…

Today we talk a bit about the Leica Monochrome. Yes, this is a post for reach people only :)

First of all BHphoto (Click here) reports that the $7,950.00 Monochrome will start to ship from August 28th. Focus Numerique posted a Leica Monochrome review by Alexander Maller: “The images are impressive. There are many, many, many details from what I know with film. The sharpness is excellent and the images are searched and really beautiful especially in the small details like hair, skin.“.
ISO Test: Leica M Monochrom vs. Leica M9 at RedDotForum.
Leica M Monochrom Hands-On Preview at ePhotozine. They also posted a Leica X2 Hands-On First Impressions Review (ePhotozine).
Leica M9 unscrambled at PetaPixel.

Now really, who of you guys preordered that camera? I can’t wait to see a FF mirrorless for $3,000. That’s what I want!

New Samsung NX lens announcement soon! And Panasonic day on July 18th.

It looks like Panasonic and Samsung will still announce some new mirrorless stuff in mid-late July! While Panasonic announcement is scheduled for July 18th (G5 and 45-150mm m43 lens) we have been told that Samsung will announce new NX lenses too! There will be three new zooms, 16-80mm, 12-24mm and another 50 (or 55?)-300mm.

I guess that stuff wouldn’t get that much of press buzz when announced at Photokina. That’s why they prefer to launch the stuff in these hot summer.

Samsung launches the EX2 (super lens!)


Samsung finally unveiled the new EX2 compact camera. You can already preorder it at Bhphoto. The 24-80mm f/1.4-s.7 lens is much faster and wider than the big Sony RX100 competitor. An astonishing achievement! The only “downside” compared to the Sony camera is the much smaller 1/1.7-inch sensor compared to Son’y full 1 inch size.

More inf at Engadget and Dpreview.

Four new Fuji X PRO 1 reviews to read!

If you can’t get enough of X PRO 1 reviews than enjoy the next four links:

Dpreview: “the X-Pro1 is a very good camera, with excellent design and image quality, let down by a few small but significant operational bugs and quirks.“

Neocamera: “Paired with one of the three excellent XF-mount lenses, the X-Pro1 produces some extremely sharp large prints up to ISO 6400 and even remains usable for mid-size prints until its maximum ISO of 25600.“

Digitalcamerareview: “Make no mistake, I really like this camera. The image quality and particularly the high ISO performance are just marvelous. But with midrange DSLR money involved I’m just not sure that the overall higher and more balanced performance of the DSLR doesn’t trump the ISO card of the X-Pro 1.“

Luminous Landscape posted an interesting Hands-on: “Their designs are brilliant, build quality is very high, and optical quality second to none. Now they just need to refine their functional execution to have class-leading products.“

As you see the X PRO 1 is a camera that polarizes a lot. Fuji needs to work on the weaknesses of the camera and find a way to price it a bit lower. Than they will have an even greater hotseller!

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In stock status check:
Fuji X PRO 1 body is in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Jessops UK (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 18mm f/2.0 in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 35mm f/1.4 in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 60mm macro f/2.0 in not Stock at Amazon (3-4weeks) but is in Stock at Digitalrev (Click here).

New Nikon mirrorless patent (with larger APS-C sensor) and Canon rumors.

Today we have a double news about the two biggest photo companies:

First Egami found a Nikon patent that veyr likely describes a new 18-55mm kit lens for a Mirrorless camera with APS-C sensor. I would be very surprised to see that new system coming for real!

And CR reports that the Canone mirrorless camera will «launch with at least 2 lenses and an EF adaptor. One lens will be a wide angle “kit” lens as well as a telephoto lens»

The time for a Canon mirrorless is coming closer…

New Canon mirrorless rumors!

Rumors about the upcoming Canon Mirrorless system are increasing and now it’s NR saying that there will be “a kit zoom and an adapter for EF lenses such as the new pancake 40mm lens“. Our friend Frank at CanonWatch spotted a patent for an EF adapter by Canon (see pictureon top), filed last year (machine translated).

Overall I think that between now and Photokina we will have tons of new mirrorless related rumors and announcements. It will become a pretty exciting summer :)  As next we will see a new Panasonic G5 cameras and new 45-150mm zoom. Should arrive by end of this week!

The high end compact camera market just restarted (RX100, EX2 and LX7)

Picture from CNET.

While mirrorless interchangeable system is our main thing it’s still interesting to see whats going on the the high end side of the compact cameras. They very often offer a real good image quality for a real pocketable size.

So it happens that David Pogue from the New York Times (Click here) writes about the new Sony RX100: “No photos this good have ever come from a camera this small.”. And latest rumor suggest that Panasonic will launch a similar camera (the LX7) next week! A bit less spectacular are the leaked specs of the EX2 with tiny 1/2,33 inch sensor (leak at Photorumors)

How big the interest in these cameras is…is also proved by the Overall camera ranking at Amazon (Click here to check it out). The ranking includes all cameras, compact, mirrorless and DSLR and the RX100 is on top!

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RX100 Preorders at Amazon US, Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon Germany, Amazon France and Jessops.