Don’t kow you guys, but I never saw a filter like this! It has been announced by Kenko-Tokina and you may check out their website to learn more about it. Looks  abit tricky, don’t knwo if I would carry one of these along my camera…

More news bits:
The US company J.B. Camera Designs made a new E-M5 grip&stay you can already buy on Amazon (Click here).
Frugalfilmmakers posted a short GH3 hands-on report. Full size GH3 image samples by Optyczne.
Mobile01 (translation here) posted the full Olympus E-PL5 review.
Sgoldswoblog posted a short body cap lens test. Bye the way, you can win that lens by participating the latest E-P1.net contest.

Current and future E-PL5/E-PM2 owners may be glad to know that Gariz just released their new high quality case. And they are already available on eBay:
[shoplink 34731 ebay]Black E-PL5 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34730 ebay]Brown E-PL5 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34733 ebay]Black E-PM2 case (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 34732 ebay]Brown E-PM2 case (Click here)[/shoplink].

There is also another E-PL5 ISO test posted by the Hungarian website Pixinfo. Sadly google translation tool doesn’t work on that website so you can just take a look at the ISO test images.

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E-PL5 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France and eBay (via Slidoo).
E-PM2 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France and eBay (via Slidoo).

Example of moire on the Panasonic GH3 from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

Our friend Andrew from EosHD had the chance to test a pre-production GH3 camera. He met Panasonic manager Uematsu-san and the first interetsing news is that he “hinted at a weaker anti-aliasing filter in our conversations. This results in sharper stills but more aliasing in video mode“. On the other side the weaker AA filter allows to have a “better overall image because of improvements to colour, gradation and the codec“. And the GH3 “resolves as much detail as the $15,000 Canon C300 and at a higher bitrate in 24p.”

A look into the future: Uematsu-san said that Panasonic could bring global shutter to the GH line in 2 years.

If you want to read more about the GH3 I invite you to read the article at Luminous Landscape.

Special GH3 page at Amazon (Click here) and a full Olympus presentation page at Amazon (Click here).
GH3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt.

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UPDATE: 60mm macro lens in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).

First off….there are now eight(!) refurbished E-M5 auctions on Olympusmarket eBay (Click here to see the list on Slidoo eBay). If you are going to bet on it…Good Luck! :)

Panasonic 35-100mm X: Our reader Twills got his new X lens and posted the video on top. Here is his short review text: “The lens is exceptionally sharp even wide open at F2.8. The 35-100mm has in lens image stabilization that as you can see in the video works extremely well in both stills and video modes. This lens is not that much longer and actually narrower than the 14-140mm. I have not seen in CA(Chromatic Aberrations) or other distortions with this lens. The image quality of it is unmatched by any other m4/3s I have tested. This is expected with a lens this expensive though.
The 35-100mm lens emits very faint whirring and whining noises from the continuous auto focus motors. They are faint but you can hear them if you put your ear up next to the lens. I couldn’t hear the noises in any of the videos I took.
The auto focus with the GH2 + 35-100mm is extremely accurate and it does not hunt at all. However, it can be slow to refocus in very dark situations where the focus point changes very quickly.
I have uploaded the still images from the video at the link below.
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/4222674355/albums/35-100mm-f2-8-samples
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3293287”

One more review: 60mm macro test at Camerastuffreview.

On left the Olympus lens, on right the [shoplink 31293 ebay]Zeiss Biotar 75mm f/1.5[/shoplink].

ePhotozine posted the full Olympus 75mm f/1.8 review. And it’s not a surprise that this lens gets another big appraisal: “It’s amongst the sharpest lenses currently available for any camera system, it’s well built and a pleasure to use. The price is actually quite good value when such high optical performance is delivered. It can certainly give the Zeiss’ and Leica’s a run for their money.”

The only real downside for them is that it is not weather sealed and that you have to pay extra for the original hood. At least some third party hoods are already made on sold in US ($7 on amazon), US ($32 better quality), [shoplink 34663 ebay]Germany (ebay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 34664 ebay]Hong Kong (ebay)[/shoplink].

The lens itself can be found at [shopcountry 31284].

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Olympus Lens alternatives (if you don’t care about the missing autofocus and electronic contacts):
1) [shoplink 31292 ebay]Dallmeyer 75mm f/1.9 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This is an extremely expensive lens and I don’t know why it is so. Only crazy guys would buy that :)
2) [shoplink 31293 ebay]Leica Summilux 75mm f/1.4 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Extraordinary high quality lens for an extraordinary price (although it’s still less expensive than the mysterious Dallmeyer). It’s the fastest of all 75mm lenses
3) [shoplink 31293 ebay]Zeiss Biotar 75mm f/1.5 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Fast and also a bit exotic lens made for the Exacta series.
4) [shoplink 31294 ebay]Leica Summarit 75mm f/2.5 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. High quality and relatively compact lens. A bit slow compared to the Olympus (f/2.5).
5) [shoplink 31295 ebay]Voigtlander Heliar 75mm f/1.8 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Probably the best alternative of the new Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens. Same aperture, superb high quality and cheaper.
6) [shoplink 31324 ebay]Fujinon 75mm f/1.8 (Here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This is a very cheap TV lens and I don’t expect the quality to be very good. I wouldn’t buy that unlike your really need that focal length and you have a very low budget.

The Panasonic average resolution diagram posted by Lensrentals (please visit the website to see full test)

Roger Cicala from Lensrentals tested the Panasonic 35-100mm X lens: “At 35mm the lens is awesomely sharp; every bit as good as the 12-35 f/2.8 OIS is at 35mm. There was a slightly different story at 100mm, though, where resolution dropped significantly (100mm mtf50 is 86% of what it is at 35mm, hence the article title). This is still good, but it’s not what I was hoping for.”

Sgoldswoblog also posted some new 35-100mm X lens image samples: “On the basis of today’s experience I’m willing to assert both that the 35-100 is sharp but also that it provides shooting opportunities that wouldn’t arise with primes. Clearly the price for that is a limited low light performance and (subjectively) inferior bokeh.”

The Panasonic X lens is certainly a good quality lens but from these early tests it still doens’t 100% match the exceptional Oly FT zooms. In case you don’t care about the big size than you may be interested in getting a refurbished (but faster and super high quality) Olympus 35-100mm f/2.0 lens at [shoplink 34656 ebay]Adorama (Click here)[/shoplink] or here at [shoplink 34657 ebay]Olymarket Europe (Click here)[/shoplink]. A full list of acutions are availebl on Slidoo eBay.

The Panasonic 35-100mm X lens is in Stock at Technikdirekt Germany, Wex UK and preorders are available at Amazon (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and eBay (here on Slidoo).

Short deal info: Newegg (Click here) has a limited offer where you can save $70 on the GF5 with 14-42mm kit (normal price at Amazon is $519)

It is the day of the comparisons and here is the next one. ePhotozine (Click here) posted the nest E-M5 versus GH3 image comparison. And for them it looks like the E-M5 has the edge when it comes to analyze the JPG (not RAW!) images: “Outdoors in the “Wide” shot, the Olympus shows warmer images, with the GH3 image looking cooler in comparison. In the “Street” image there is stronger colour saturation and contrast in the Olympus OM-D E-M5 image. In the final image of the kiwi fruit, the Olympus provides a sharper final image.”

As you know Olympus always had the edge over Panasonic when it comes to JPG quality. But it will be interesting to see a real RAW comparison. I suppose both cameras are suing the same (Sony) sensor and quality will be almost identical. The real difference between the two cameras are the features, not the image quality.

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GH3 preorders at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK and Technikdirekt. Shipments starts in mid December!