Panasonic G5
Via Dpreview: “Panasonic has announced that Getty Images sports photographer Dean Mouhtaropoulos will be covering the London 2012 Olympic Games exclusively using its recently-announced Lumix DMC-G5.” Great! Meantime BHphoto notified that the camera may ship from August 10 (see screenshot).

Olympus E-M5
Our reader Melchior noticed a problem on the E-M5 firmware update: “On the Olympus.jp site they say “The update service to Ver. 1.2 was temporarily discontinued. The update service to Ver. 1.1 is available. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=42134144&refresh=1033“
E-M5 vs GH2 highlight recovering test at Dpreview forum. How Sharp is the $999 Olympus OM-D E-M5 vs the $6800 Canon EOS 1D X? (Diglloyd).
Different E-M5 kits keep goin in and out of Stock every hour. Check the status via: [shopcountry 29074].

E-PM1 and other deals:
Refurbished E-Pm1 with lens for $299 at [shoplink 32469 ebay]BHphoto eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. 20mm pancake for $359 at Amazon (Click here).

The team around Vitaly Kiselev now released the new version 3,66D of the PTool hacking software (Click here). It supports the Panasonic GX1 and G3 cameras. Our reader Nils posted some G3 test results and video samples on the Personal view forum. I guess sooner or later also the just announced G5 will be supported. As usual it’s nice to know our cameras can get better in time without to have to buy a new one!

Links to the two new hackable cameras:
Panasonic GX1 [shopcountry 26836] Panasonic G3 [shopcountry 22077].

Samyang-Rokinon announced on Facebook the release of three new Cine lenses: “Rokinon 35mm T1.5 cine lens will be available in U.S in few weeks and Rokinon 24mm T1.5 & 14mm T3.1 cine lens will be available in U.S in September.” They will be available in Four Thirds (not microFT!) too. For the m43 system they only made the cute [shoplink 29106 ebay]Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye lens (Click here to see it on eBay)[/shoplink]. But I guess they will also bring some new m43 lens at Photokina. Samyang lenses deliver often a top image quality for a low price. Can’t wait to see new toys!

That said, if you are still confused about the brand name don’t worry. The confusion is not your fault! Example, the Micro Four Thirds fisheye lens:
In USA it’s named Rokinon 7.5mm and you find it on [shoplink 29105 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
In Europe it’s named Samyang 7.5mm and you find it on [shoplink 29106 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Amazon (Click here),
In UK it’s named Walimex and you find it on [shoplink 29109 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Amazon UK (Click here).

But that’s not all! There are many more weird names. Here is a list of eBay links on all Olympus Four Thirds lenses: [shoplink 20647 ebay]Samyang [/shoplink], [shoplink 20684 ebay]Walimex [/shoplink], [shoplink 20649 ebay]Rokinon [/shoplink], [shoplink 20650 ebay]Opteka [/shoplink], [shoplink 20651 ebay]Falcon [/shoplink], [shoplink 20653 ebay]Vivitar [/shoplink] and[shoplink 20652 ebay]Bower [/shoplink].

So you got it?

In a surprising announcement Kipon unveiled the development of the new Kipon EOS to m43 (and NEX) adapter with full electronic control. There is no info about price and features yet. This may will help some EOS EF lens owner to join the m43 system instead of the new Canon EOS-M :)

Non electronic Kipon adapters are already available on [shoplink 20746 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

So guys. I hope you had time to check the Canon news and reviews I summed up at MirrorlessRumors. With Canon we finally have a full overview of the different mirrorless systems. I read some of the EOS-M previews and it certainly has some nice and interesting features. A problem may be the price. At $799 (at Amazon and BHphoto) the camera costs $50 more than the GF5 with 14mm f/2.5 pancake but $400 more than the GF3 with the same pancake. Talking about Olympus it costs $200 more than the E-PL3 with 17mm pancake. But I am sure Canon huge marketing machine will push the EOS-M preorders.

But here is the final question for you…and please no fanboy thinking…try to be honest ;) And let me also know what Olympus and Panasonic should “copy” from the new cam!

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Canon specs and info:
Dedicated presentation page on Amazon (Click here).
EOS-M price and specs at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

TENDERS ARCHIDOCKERS The Hidden Anamorphic Session from Seb Farges on Vimeo.

Concurso Olympus via DSLRmagazine.

Photonz posted some image samples taken with the Olympus 75mm lens.

Olympus wearable glasses at The Verge.

ThePhoBlographer: Revisiting The Panasonic G1: Is The Micro Four Thirds Old-Timer Still Any Good?

Why I Hate My Camera by Steve Giralt.

PEN customization pictures at Fotopus.

Die Olympus PEN im neuen Kleid (SystemKameraBlog).

Arjan: “I don’t know if it’s only in the Netherlands but if you buy a Panasonic G camera here, you’ll get Lightroom 4 for free and a €50 cashback if you buy a second lens. See Panasonics site: http://www.panasonic.nl/html/nl_NL/Mijn+Panasonic/Acties/LUMIX+G+zomeractie/276993/index.html#anker_276997“

The special Olympus adapter patent (via Egami).

Two (anonymous) sources sent me the same short and precise message. The High End digital OM camera is already in the final testing phase. And one of the sources wrote that the actual [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] will get a price drop this winter because of the new E-Mx camera. I hope trusted sources are reading this and can confirm (or deny) the rumor soon. Meantime thanks to the two new sources for sending me this! Hope you can share us some more bits about the cam soon!

I have no specs yet but as I told you back in January Olympus managers said that they are focusing on the viewfinder technology. So this camera may be able to use both electronic and optical viewfinders but in a different way than the Fuji X PRO 1. It may will use a special adapter with built-in mirror instead. We already have seen some patents regarding this from Olympus and Sony NEX adapter (Click here) and even better the [shoplink 31778 ebay]Leica Visoflex (here on eBay)[/shoplink] prove that this is a realizable goal. But that’s just pure speculation for now.

Have an idea…may you write here what you would expect form a High End OM camera? What should it have? Will than put a poll on that!

Check the E-M5 in Stock status: [shopcountry 29074].

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Here is the chronological ordered list of all OM film cameras ever made by Olympus. Click on the names to see them on eBay (ordered by first announced camera): [shoplink 28221 ebay]M-1[/shoplink], [shoplink 28222 ebay]OM-1[/shoplink], [shoplink 28223 ebay]OM-1 MD[/shoplink], [shoplink 28224 ebay]OM-1N[/shoplink], [shoplink 28225 ebay]OM-2[/shoplink], [shoplink 28226 ebay]OM-2N[/shoplink], [shoplink 28227 ebay]OM-2S/SP[/shoplink], [shoplink 28228 ebay]OM-3[/shoplink], [shoplink 28229 ebay]OM-3Ti[/shoplink], [shoplink 28230 ebay]OM-4[/shoplink], [shoplink 28231 ebay]OM-4T/Ti black and chrome[/shoplink], [shoplink 28232 ebay]OM-10[/shoplink], [shoplink 28233 ebay]OM-20 (OM-G)[/shoplink], [shoplink 28234 ebay]OM-30(OM-F)[/shoplink], [shoplink 28235 ebay]OM-40 (OM-PC)[/shoplink], [shoplink 28236 ebay]OM-77AF (OM-707)[/shoplink], [shoplink 28237 ebay]OM-88 (OM-101)[/shoplink], [shoplink 28238 ebay]OM-2000[/shoplink].

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Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct