The japanese company “Hino” produced a new Tilt-Shift adapter for MicroFourThirds cameras. Their website is in japanese only that’s why I can’t tell you how you can buy the lens. May some of our japanese readers can help us?

UPDATE: Chief Noda made us a better translation of the text. It is available here: http://www.chiefnoda.com/temporary/ts/
Thanks Chief!

source: DC.watch

Dear readers!

Finally after months of work I almost finished the new forum. Now I need some help from you!
1) I need Beta testers: contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com and I will give you the link to the forum.
2) I also need some genious for a new logo for the forum only (not for 43rumors!). Contact me if you want to make one!

I need you to make me suggestions for forum settings, forum categories and I also need a vBulletin expert to fix an issue

Cheers!

The LOREO 3D Lens

Few days ago we told you that Loreo would introduce a new 3D lens for MicroFourThirds (the FourThirds 3D lens is already available). Now one of our readers received that message from LOREO:

“The 3D Lens in a Cap 9005 (Micro 4/3 mount) is scheduled for shipment in mid-April 2010, and will retail for USD150 plus USD13 universal shipping to anywhere in the world. Shipping within Hong Kong is free of charge.”

You can order the lens here: http://www.loreo.com/pages/shop/loreo_products_online.html

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You can find some Loreo lenses on Ebay (click here)

Focus Numerique interviewed Michiharu Uematsu from Panasonic. The Interview doesn’t reveal anything important. He just says that 12Megapixel are enough
Anyway feel free to read the text in french or google english translation.

Rayqual adapters

According to DC.watch Rayqual is going to release three new MicroFourThirds adapters for Nikon Pentax and Sony lenses.

I don’t know where you can buy this lenses. Currently there is only one single M-mount rayqual adapter in Amazon and eBay doesn’t offer it at all.

During the last days I received many news and rumors. Because of the Panasonic G2 and G10 rush I had to stop posting them. I am now checking all the past emails and will post them over the next days!

Thanks!

We will continually update this post with all the most important infos about the new cameras. The link list has a cronological order (latest added on top).
UPDATE 2: Many many many thanks for sending me all this links
UPDATE: Reload the page to see the updates!

Live tweet of the Panasonic UK event: http://twitter.com/joshwal (press conference at 9am London time)

Press release:
Panasonic G2 and G10 presentation on Amazon
Panasonic global press release: http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/popup/pressrelease/g2g10.html#1
The official Panasonic press release (Panasonic UK)
The PhoBlographer
Forum Four Thirds (german)
Focus Numerique knows the price! 599 Euro for the G2(body only) 699 Euro with lens and 549 Euro for the G10+Lens! Crazy only 150 Euro difference?
Photoscala (german)
Dpreview: 14-42mm lens / G2 / G10
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Hands-On:
Hands-on on dkamera.de (german)
Imaging Resurce: “The Panasonic DMC-G2 retains its predecessor’s 12.1 effectieve megapixel sensor resolution, and yields a maximum resolution of 4,000 x 3,000 pixels. Compared to the G1 though, the Lumix G2 uses a newer generation of the company’s image processor, dubbed Venus Engine HD II.”
Panasonic G2 by dpreview
Photographyblog Hands-on G2 / G10 / Panasonic G2, G10, G1 Comparison
hardwarezone “Panasonic explained to us that the G and GH product lines are going to be developed separately. The GH series will be the premium, Full HD capable line, while the G series will be more photo than video-centric, explaining the 720p video recording limit on the G2 and G10.”

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Videos:
Panasonic UK video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01q7gr2_TQQ
Two more youtube videos here -> http://luc.saint-elie.com/
First touchscreen test http://vimeo.com/9936494

UPDATE: According to a Korean website the G2 and G10 will be released in June. Our sources told us it will probably be a little bit earlier (late May)

LUMIX G2 Touchscreen from Andreas Jürgensen on Vimeo.

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UDPATE: Two more videos from Luc Saint-Elie!

(Reuters) – Japanese group Olympus Corporation is aiming for its small, lightweight models to have 20 percent of the high-end digital camera market in three years, up from 5 percent now, its president said.

The camera and endoscope maker is also targeting 500-600 billion yen ($5.7-$6.8 billion) sales of medical gear in five years, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa told Reuters on Thursday, in a glimpse of a mid-term business plan due out in May.
That medical sales target compared to an estimated 345 billion yen for the year to end-March.

Last year, Olympus launched cameras based on the Micro FourThirds System which helps makes smaller high-end cameras with interchangeable lenses, targeting those reluctant to trade compact cameras for bulkier and heavier models.
Digital cameras with interchangeable lenses are the most lucrative and fastest-growing portion of the global camera industry, a segment that has been dominated by Canon Inc and Nikon Corp.
Canon and Nikon managed to carry their popularity in the film camera era into the digital age partly because lenses for their respective film cameras were compatible only with their digital cameras, prompting customers to stick to one brand.
“Now a considerable number of compact camera users are moving up to higher-end models. Not many of them bought Canon or Nikon’s high-end models in the film age. For these people, being lighter and smaller means a lot,” Kikukawa said. “It can be a real hassle to carry around a big camera and lenses.”

Panasonic launched digital cameras based on the Micro FourThirds System in 2008, followed by Olympus in 2009, and now such cameras account for 20 percent of high-end camera demand in Japan, Olympus said.

Kikukawa, who took the helm at Olympus in 2001, said he aimed to bring the camera division’s operating profit margin to at least 10 percent in five years, compared with an estimated 2.8 percent in 2009-10.
“Growth in high-end camera sales comes with growth in sales of lenses and accessories, which are also high-margin products,” he said. “We need to hit a 10 percent margin in five years at the latest. Otherwise, it would not make a lot of sense for us to stay in the business.”
He aims to boost overall sales at Olympus to 1.5 trillion yen in five years from an estimated 900 billion yen this year, and to lift operating profit to at least 100 billion yen from a forecast 59 billion for 2009-10.
Olympus, the world’s fourth-largest maker of high-end cameras behind Canon, Nikon and Sony Corp, is the No.1 maker of endoscopes used to examine internal organs with a global market share of about 70 percent. Smaller rivals include Hoya Corp and Fujifilm Holdings.
It aims to boost revenue at the medical equipment division to 500-600 billion yen by 2014-15 by driving sales in emerging markets such as China and India, Kikukawa said.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Dan Lalor)

Dear readers. Many of you noticed that our website were offline. I was told by the technicians that there is a fault inside some parts of the US network. So don’t blame on us …blame on US

According to dpreview:
- 6,600 Micro Four Thirds cameras were sold in the UK!
- interchangeable lens cameras contributed to around 9.4% of total sales volume in Europe

And one more thing…
-In Japan Micro Four Thirds cameras made up 11.1% of total interchangeable camera unit sales in 2009.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1003/10030401gfkq4salesreport.asp