New “cheap” APS-C mirrorless from Pentax coming as next?

I admire Pentax for trying to imagine new kind of products like it is with the Pentax Q and K-o1 cameras. But is it really paying off? Digicaminfo (Click here) found an article at Nikkei (you have to pay to read it) where Ricoh confirms that they will release a cheaper than the K-01 mirrorless camera. The K-01 sells (body only) for $700 at Amazon. The new camera will have use “cheaper” material to cut costs. It has to be seen if the design will change or not.

Panasonic says Canon mirrorless is coming this year.


Canon concept mirrorless camera by David Riesenberg (Click here)

In an interview with Amateur Photographer Panasonic UK’s Lumix G product manager Barnaby Sykes said that “Panasonic expects Canon to launch its first CSC in 2012.” There is one more interesting analysis made by Mr. Sykes: “the continued loyalty of many photographers to major camera brands such as Canon, owing to their long photographic heritage, continues to pose a ‘massive challenge’ to Panasonic, despite the firm’s success in the CSC arena.“. In simple words, the Canon user prefers to wait for Canon to launch their own mirrorless system instead of jumping the ship by using one of the current mirrorless systems.

I think that could be one of the main reasons why the mirrorless market still didn’t boom in some regions like USA and Europe.

Sharpness battle: Fuji $600 lens beats Leica $5,000 lens?

The much discussed blogger and “guru” Ken Rockwell (Click here) posted a short Fuji 35mm f/1.4 X lens preview: “This is as sharp, maybe sharper than the equivalent LEICA 50mm f/1.4 ASPH, and has the same superb bokeh, focuses faster and closer and has the same near zero distortion. Not bad for $600!” The Leica lens costs just a tiny bit more…$5,000 on eBay (Click here)!!! The only thing Ken is not happy with is the sensor size. He would have preferred a Full Frame sensor on the X PRO 1 instead of the current APS-C. In his opinion this would have killed Leica instantly!

More X PRO 1 news: X PRO 1 test at Photoscala (Click here for the translation). New set of pictures by Brandon Remler (Click here). Field Session with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 at Outbackphoto (Click here).

Also the lenses are in Stock! Time to make a short in status check:
Fuji X PRO 1 body is in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (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).

Ken Rockwell and Focus Numerique Fuji X PRO 1 testing and first sniff test :)

Go on minute 2,45 to see the first Fuji X PRO 1 sniff test ever made :)

So, now that you have seen that weird sniff test you can focus your attention on the “serious” ISO testing made by these websites:
1) The famous blogger Ken Rockwell (Click here) compared the X100 and X PRO 1 with all recent FF cameras: “The Fuji X-Pro1 looks great, as clean as the D4 and usually sharper.”
2) Focus Numerique (Click here) also posted an ISO test comparison with the Sony NEX-7 and Olympus E-M5. They say that you can up to 6.400 ISO “without any hesitation“!

More bits: DC.watch (Click here) tested the X PRO 1. First image samples from Mike Kobal (Click here). The X PRO now gets beaten by the NEX-7 at Amazon (Click here to see the full ranking).

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).

Samsung NX20, NX210 and NX1000 will be announced next week.


The well informed Korean iNews24 (Click here) revealed that Samsung will announce all three new NX cameras next week. After months of leakages we can finally see what the cameras can do for real! Samsung worked hard to match the sensor and electronic viewfinder performance with the best Sony mirrorless cameras. Will that be enough to convince customers to buy into the NX system? Don’t think so. Something more revolutionary is necessary to create a buzz around Samsung. Why not introduce some of the nice concepts leaked last year? Here is the pic:

Now that is something that is catching my attention! Don’t you think so?

Fuji X PRO 1 sexiness (tested with the Zeiss Biogon!)

That super nice picture has been published by DC.watch (Click here) which just posted the X PRO 1 and Zeiss Biogon 21mm lens review. It’s written in Japanese and google translation tool is making a messy work (as usual). But it’s worth to check their website just to see the pictures :)

They used the new KIpon G to X mount adapter () to fit the super 21mm Biogon () on the X PRO 1.

One more Fuji news….the X100 firmware update is out: http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/firmware/x/finepix_x100/. With following improvements:

“When checking focus point by pushing AE-L/AF-L button in MF mode, following phenomena can be observed in relation to focus area settings. These phenomena are improved.

  • 1.When the focus area is set to bottom right end position, the camera may hang up.

  • 2.Even when the focus area is set to other area than above, focus may be hard to be established.“

 

Meanwhile the Fuji X PRO 1 got dethroned by the NEX.7 at the Amazon sales ranking (Click here to see).

Panasonic GF5 announced. Sony NEX-F3 is next!

After multiple leaks the Panasonic GF5 is finally here and already available for preorder at Amazon (Click here). Full news and reviews coverage is available at 43rumors (Click here). If all the rumors I am getting are correct than the next new mirrorless camera announcement will be from Sony in a couple of weeks. The new NEX-F3 (NEX-C3 successor) should arrive. It will be even smaller than the NEX-C3 but not as small as the GF5.

One more thing: Leica announcement is on May 10th and than one more announcement from Samsung is also coming…