Thanks to Samyang current Four Thirds user can see the light of some new Four Thirds lenses. They just announced on their website (Click here) that by end of the year they will announce the 24mm f/1.4 fast wide angle! It will have 13 elements (in 12 groups) including four ED elements and two aspheric lenses. The lens is manual focusing only but the optical quality is on a very top level
There are currently two fast manual lenses you can get for your Olympus camera:
1) The 35mm f/1.4: In US you can find it as “Rokinon” at Amazon (Click here), as “Samyang” on [shoplink 24768 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and as “Rokinon” on [shoplink 24770 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
2) The 85mm f/1.4: You can get for $274 on Amazon (Click here), as “Samyang” on [shoplink 24769 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and as “Rokinon” on [shoplink 24771 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
P.S.: All Samyang lenses for Olympus can be found on eBay only and under seven different brand names (Click on it to see all Four Thirds lenses from the specific brand!):
[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]
[shoplink 20652 ebay]Bower [/shoplink]
REMINDER: Those are the direct search links to all the new Pana/Oly stuff:
Panasonic G3 search page at [shopcountry 22077].
Panasonic GF3 search page at [shopcountry 23109].
Panasonic-Leica 25mm f/1.4 search page at [shopcountry 23110].
Olympus E-P3 search page at [shopcountry 23568].
Olympus 12mm f/2.0 search page at [shopcountry 23576].
Olympus 45mm f/1.8 page at [shopcountry 23577].
More dealers are sending me details about the availability of the new Panasonic-Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens. They do confirm the shipment has been delayed to end August/early September. That’s once againa frustrating news coming from Panasonic. The lens was supposed to be in Stock in August. The lens is in Stock in Japan and if you need the lens now you cna buy it on [shoplink 24565 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and on Amazon US (Click here) sold by japanese resellers.
Olympus quarter results history for the imaging division (Source: Photoscala).
Photoscala (Click here) analyzed the latest Olympus financial results. Olympus managed to stop the decline. There was a slightly profit in first fiscal quarter of 2011. The bad news for Olympus is that North American sales fell by 26.3%, while in the other regions they recorded increases. But as you see from the table on top (made by Photoscala) Olympus isn’t doing very well in the camera division. It looks like Micro Four Thirds alone is not helping them to much. Olympus needs to do more! Do you have any ideas? :)
Olympus Japan (Click here) announced a new firmware update for PEN cameras. The E-PL1/PL2/P2 are now compatible with the new Olympus VF-3 external viewfinder. But there is a bug Olympus didn’t solve yet. When using the new VF-3 on the new E-P3 (with touchscreen enabled) the the two rear wheels will no longer work! You have to disable the touchscreen funtion to enable their functionalities (Source: SystemKameraForum).
Let’s take a break from rumors and camera reviews. Here is a list of links to articles that can help you to undertsand some scientific and technical aspects of photogaphy.
My prefered website is Cambridgeincolour.com. They recently published two new articles:
1) Reducing Camera Shake with Hand-Held Photos: “We’ve all likely encountered this problem many times: blurry photos due to camera shake with hand-held shots. It’s especially prevalent for those of us who are unfortunate enough to have unsteady hands. While it cannot be eliminated entirely, fortunately there’s a number of steps you can take to greatly reduce its impact — and hopefully prevent it from becoming visible in the first place.”
2) Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively: “A camera’s shutter speed can control exposure, but it’s also one of the most powerful creative tools in photography. It can convey motion, freeze action, isolate subjects and smooth water, amongst other abilities. This tutorial describes how to achieve these various effects…”
A bit more complicated and scientific article has been published by Berkeley: “The human eye long ago solved a problem common to both digital and film cameras: how to get good contrast in an image while also capturing faint detail.” Read the article to understand “Why the eye is better than a camera“.
Now something more easy and funny to read (and use). There is a new online SLR Camera Simulator at Camerasim (found via Fotoactualidad). It’s a perfect site for beginners that need to learn the basics of photography!
During the last couple of weeks readers sent me links to their own works done with m43 gear. This is the summary of all of them:
1) Emmanuel (Video on top of the post) “Hi, there is a student film made in Bordeaux and Barcelona. Everything was shot with the GH2 (execpt for one shot made on 5D). In fact we had 5 GH2 ^^. The lens used was : 20mm 1.7, 9-18 olympus, 14 140mm panasonic and a 50MM 1.8 canon. It ‘s student work but we were produced at a low budget by the university (for less than 5000€) that become slowly professionnal. The last part is really impressive for the camera used. Hope you will post it on your site. Thanks for reading. Cordially (and sorry for my english).”
5) Florian: “Nice photos made with a PEN E-P2 on Flickr. Have a look. Hope you like the pictures.”
6) Luis: “I noticed your call out for any photography work that was created with m43 equipment and I wanted to pass along my own experience. I was on an assignment in Abu Dhabi this past December and I ditched my Nikon D3 + lenses when I visited a few cultural sites including the wonderful Grand Mosque. It was great fun using this light camera with it’s 14-45 kit lens. I’ve since moved on to the GH1 and I will carry it on all future jobs. Take a look at the images when you have some time. http://adventurephoto.posterous.com/where-we-work-a-tale-of-two-experiences”
7) Aaron: “I’ve been a big fan of the website and have been checking it almost daily since I got my first M43 camera almost 2 years ago. After seeing the link to Amos chapple’s website the other day (which I enjoyed immensely) it got me thinking that it would be great if you could feature the work of other M43 photographers somewhere on your site. I’m in the middle of a year long trip through Asia, and have been documenting my photos on www.aaroninasia.com all of which have been shot with the panasonic gf1 and the 20mm and 14mm lenses. (anxiously awaiting the announcement of the gf pro…). I just thought that your readers may be interested in another website updated regularly with travel photography made exclusively with the M43 format. If you think it’s a good idea, please post the link to my website, it may encourage others to contact you to post links to their websites as well. I love finding out about new gear, but sharing the photos this gear makes would be great too!”
8 ) Johannes: “discovered this guy on the DPReview MFT forums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weesam/ I don’t think he’s a professional photographer, but I really love some of his landscape pictures!”
Editors’s note: Thanks for sending me all those links! If you find more nice works drop me a text at 43rumors@gmail.com. Keep in mind that I might link to your work after days or weeks only!
Samyang just announced on facebook (Click here) that they will release the new 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens for m43 in September. And there is now also an official statement on their website (Click here). The lens provides a 180 degree field vision and is manual focusing only. You can also see the four very first image samples (again on facebook). Those images do look very good! We have no word yet about the price but it will be certainly much cheaper than the current [shoplink 14820]Panasonic 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye[/shoplink] lens. Click here to check the price of that lens: [shopcountry 14820].
One more editors note. Samyang makes chreap lenses with very high quality! The recent [shoplink 20647 ebay]35mm f/1.4 lens for Olympus[/shoplink] is simply amazing. See the test results on a Canon APSC- done by Photozone (Click here). I do hope Samyang will make more of those lenses for m43!
Message to Samyang. Make some decent compact and fast primes and I bet you will sell tons of them!
P.S.: All Samyang lenses for Olympus can be found on eBay only and under seven different brand names (Click on it to see all Four Thirds lenses from the specific brand!):
[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]
[shoplink 20652 ebay]Bower [/shoplink]
