Make no mistake! We can be pretty sure Olympus and Panasonic will not launch any new system with larger sensor in the near future. There is still a lot to do in the m43 world to defend the primacy also against the future Canon mirrorless system. But the Full Frame battle just restarted after a long time of silence. Today Canon announced the Canon 5dmarkIII ($3500 at Amazon) and Nikon announced the Nikon D800 and D800E a couple of weeks ago.

So just for fun I made a short list of advantages and disadvantages of a hypothetical “Macro Four Thirds” system with FF sensor :)

PROS:
– Currently only Leica are offering a Full Frame digital mirrorless system. But the [shoplink 22857 ebay]Leica M9 is incredibly expensive (Click here)[/shoplink] and there is plenty of room below that price range.
– You could make Full Frame lenses backwards compatible to the m43 system. One lens to rule them all :) -> Disadvantage the lens would be bigger
– Marketing: It gives a kind of magical and professional aura if you can offer a Full Frame system. Sounds stupid but it is not. I know of many people that buy new and more expensive cameras just to feel like a “hero”.

CONS:
– It’s expensive to build up a new system. And Panasonic/Olympus have limited resources.
– Also the service has to be improved to satisfy the professional needs.
– The profit margin is larger on small sensor systems than on Full Frame camera systems.
– Lenses would be bigger and one of the main advantages (size!) over the FF DSRL market would be less visible.

Now it’s up to you to let us know what you would do:

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My two cent: 99% of us don’t need Full Frame. If you need absolute image quality for special work like studio photography or big prints than it may be better for you to go medium format. Or if you want that nice 3D depth of field feeling than buy a camera like my [shoplink 28309 ebay]Mamiya 7[/shoplink].

The hacker Vitaly Kiselev (Click here) reports that he got the GF3 and will start to work on the hack soon! At that point I want to say thanks again to Vitaly for what he is doing. And I hope Panasonic and Olympus understand the power of his work!
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Shop search links to the three hackable Panasonic cameras:
Panasonic GH2 at [shopcountry 16254].
Panasonic GF3 at [shopcountry 23109].
Panasonic GF2 at [shopcountry 17361].

Our reader YouDintYouDo noticed that yesterday Panasonic launched a new free iPad App (Click here to see the app). I haven’t an iPad so I cannot tell you if that is something useful and interesting or not. So may you download it to see what it looks like. The description says that this is what it contains:
• A matter of size – find out about the LUMIX G Camera System
• Learn all about the LUMIX G models GF3, G3, GH2 and GX1
• Discover the range of available lenses
• Find out all about the technologies behind
• Enjoy real stories with professional photographers using LUMIX G

Anyway, If you are a dynosaur like me and don’t have an iPad you may look at normal paper books for Panaosnic. Like the GH2 guide (Click here).. :)

P.S.: Photoshop launched the new App for the iPad (Click here to see it on iTunes).

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The new Sigma 30mm f/2.8 lens is now in Stock at BHphoto (Click here). And for the third week now the E-Pl1 is the king of the mirrorless camera sales at Amazon (Click here to see full ranking).

As you remember Emanuele from Nexthardware collected your questions for Mr. Terada. Some have been answered here on youtube. But Mr. Terada didn’t have time to answer all your questions as he had to talk with EVERY journalist that toke part at the Amsterdam event. Mr. Terada proved again to be very nice and available person and he answered more of your questions in a second session. As you can read below Mr. Terada obviously couldn’t unveil any future product strategy and development. But he focused on their efforts to try to “see the market demand”:

Q. 1. E-M5. Functionality. Is it possible to have live histogram, electronic level and AF square simultaneously?
A. Histogram and level gauge can’t be seen simultaneously, but AF frame can be seen with histogram or level gauge.

Q. 2. E-M5. Functionality. Tethered Shooting. Most users are very sensitive about this issue.
A. E-M5 does not support tethered shooting.

Q. 3. OM-D Line-Up. VIDEO. Could it be possible to have uncompressed FullHD stream from the HDMI port in future high-end model(s)?
A. We have no plan to have it, we’d like to see the market demand.

Q. 4. OM-D Line-Up. VIDEO. Are you planning to introduce global shutter on your OM-D line?
A. We can’t refer to the concrete plan, but we are always studying any possibility for future products.

Q. 5. M4/3 System. Lenses. Is it possible to give us black versions of the metallic-look primes in near future?
Q. 6. M4/3 System. Lenses. What about a fish-eye zoom?
Q. 7. M4/3 System. Lenses. Weather sealed pancakes?
Q. 8. M4/3 System. Lenses. Micro4/3 converters? Any plans?
A. 5,6,7&8. We can’t refer to the concrete product plan but your requests are noted.

Q. 9. M4/3 System. Under-water. Scuba-divers ask for a new more powerful underwater strobe with a wide beam. Is it coming?
A. Our concept of underwater flash is small amount of light with red color compensation by strong auto white balance function. (I guees they’re studying it. Emanuele.)

Q. 10. M4/3 System. Under-water. Is a PT-E08 port for 60 mm macro coming?
A. We are studying it to meet the demand.

Q. 11. M4/3 System. Future. Will future PENs or OM-Ds have a multi-aspect ratio sensor?
A. We have no plan to have it at this moment. We’d like to see the market demand.

Q. 12. M4/3 System. Future. Will Olympus introduce a center image crop for extended zoom like the Panasonic GH2?
A. E-M5 has had digital teleconverter function. We like to see the market demand of zoom function.

Thanks Nexthardware!

So here is the poll where you readers can let Mr. Terada know what of the mentioned features are important for you:

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Olympus E-M5 preoder search (!) links: [shopcountry 29074] -> Good Luck :)

Olympus (Click here) announced that the new Olympus E-M5 worldwide shipment will start on March 31st. As usual Asian countries should receive the first stock first with Amazon Japan (Click here) saying that the camera will ship on the same day. But unlike Panasonic Olympus does a pretty good job with worldwide shipments and we should expect the E-M5 to be available in USA stores around mid April. BHphoto (Click here) says they will have it on April the 10th. In Europe Amazon UK (Click here) says that the camera will arrive on April the 1st.

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Full Preorder list:
1) Black E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany and Amazon Japan.
2) Silver E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany, and Amazon Japan.
3) Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
4) Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Redcoon Deutschland, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
5) Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
6) FL-600R wireless flash at
Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
7) MMF-3 Four Thirds adapter at
Amazon and Adorama.
8.) HLD-6 power battery holder at
Amazon, Adorama and Amazon Japan.

What a timing! Both m43 partners announced a new CEO and President.

Olympus named Hiroyuki Sasa (medical equipment marketing) as president and Yasuyuki Kimoto (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.) is the new chairman. Sasa said: “My duty is to win back as soon as possible the trust from everyone and repair this damaged brand.” (Source: Engadget)

Panasonic named Kazuhiro Tsuga new CEO of the company. He was the one guy pushing Panasonic to support Blue-ray in the famous HD-DVD versus Blue-ray battle. You know who won :) So this may be a good sign for his talent. (Source: Engadget)

Anyway, hope both companies can recover from their recent financial (and not only) issues.

I am in terrible stupid troubles :) Should I get the Black or the Silver E-M5? The Silver probably looks better with silver lenses and reminds me more of the [shoplink 28222 ebay]OM film camera tradition[/shoplink]. But the all black version looks very sexy and less….”old”. Looking at Amazon US ranking (Click here) buyers seems to like both equally. So I ask you, which one (and with or without lens) did you preorder?

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If you ask me why I still haven’t preordered the camera yet the answer is easy…I haven’t found any preorder option in Belgium yet.

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Full Preorder list:
1) Black E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany and Amazon Japan.
2) Silver E-M5 body at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany, and Amazon Japan.
3) Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Amazon Japan.
4) Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Redcoon Deutschland, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
5) Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at
Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
6) FL-600R wireless flash at
Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
7) MMF-3 Four Thirds adapter at
Amazon and Adorama.
8.) HLD-6 power battery holder at
Amazon, Adorama and Amazon Japan.