Image courtsey: Ming Thein | mingthein.com

Ming Thein (Click here) reviewed that what he calls the “mini OMD” camera, the new Olympus E-PL5. He likes the camera a lot and ends the conclusions with a wish: “now if only they’d make one with a built-in EVF like the NEX-6…“. Don’t worry Ming, I think Olympus will do that soon! :)

Speaking of the E-M5. There is “travel review” at Eidolonfilms and writes: “I’d highly recommend the Olympus OM-D E-M5 to any travel or street photographer that craves a low profile camera that works quickly and produces great image quality.  I know my back is grateful that I no longer lug around a larger DSLR”

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E-PL5 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
E-PM2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,

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And the refurbished E-M5 is also back via Cameta:
Silver Olympus E-M5 for $849 at Cameta (Click here).
Black Olympus E-M5 with 12-42mm lens for $949 at [shoplink 34210 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).
Silver Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens for $1149 at [shoplink 34211 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).
Black Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens for $1149 at [shoplink 34211 ebay]Cametaacutions (Click here)[/shoplink] and Cameta (Click here).

Zacuto’s First Look at the Panasonic Lumix GH3 from Steve Weiss on Vimeo.

Zacuto posted this first GH3 hands-on video. And Luminous Landscape are now testing the GH3 too. Review will be up soon but in the meantime they wrote that: “so far I am extremely impressed with the build, handling, and especially image quality, both stills and video. This may be the best hybrid camera yet.”

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GH3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK, Photogalerie FR and Technikdirekt.

European blogs had the chance to play with the GH3 with firmware version 0.5:
EosHD (Click here) reports “First change, I felt that the buttons were more tactile and grippy“.
The German Slashcam (translation here) reports that the Audio Level can be changed while recording.

by reading this reports you get the feeling that there are still many changes to come. Let’s hope there won’t be any delay and the camera ships on November 30th as “promised” by Panasonic US.

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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.

Photoreview Australia posted the Olympus E-PL5 review including a detailed Imatest report: “The review camera’s low-light performance was impressive, with image noise only becoming visible in long exposures at ISO6400 and shots taken at ISO 12800 being printable up to A4 size.” The E-PL5 shipment now started in Asia at Amazon Japan and on [shoplink 33622 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. In US and Europe shipment will start in 1-2 weeks.
E-PL5 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
E-PM2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,

New Lens tests:
Tokina 300mm f6.3 Mirror Lens at ThePhoBlographer: “The focal length is extremely long and not everyone may like the doughnut effect or the slow manual focusing. To really get the most out of the lens, you’ll need to slow down, think, and wait for the right moment.”
Olympus 75mm test at Focus Numerique.
25mm f/0.95 HyperPrime test at ThePhoBlographer: “Even though this being only a prototype, I found it to be very sharp wide open for a lens this fast”
17.5mm Nokton review at ePhotozine: “Sharpness in the centre is impressive for a lens with such a fast maximum aperture and it just gets better as the lens is stopped down. The quailty feel delivered by the materials and workmanship is of a level normally reserved for Leica and Zeiss lenses, which generally cost a fair bit more.”
Kurt Munger tested the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens. Also Camerahoarders posted one.
60mm macro review at Seldomscenephotography.

a short GH3 low light test

GH3 test after test is being posted on many websites. Now it’s time to see a short and not scientific GH3 versus E-M5 comparison at ePhotozine (Click here). There is also a short video test too. It’s really not possible yet to say what’s the difference between the two cameras. We will have to wait for Dpreview or DxOmark to learn more about it.

Our reader Joshua (Thanks!) noticed that Panasonic US store (Click here) just updated the GH3 page and added an estimated Ship Date of November 30. And the 35-100mm X lens will ship on October 31 (Click here to see the page).

And now back to new GH3 tests:
Cnet UK (Click here) posted a short GH3 preview. You can see some 100% crops and a video test. They write: “Head out with the GH3 and you can largely forget about light and sensitivity. When set to automatic ISO, my tests proved it could be trusted to select settings at least as high as ISO 3,200, with very little detrimental impact on the image. You have to look very closely to spot the grain, and it certainly doesn’t affect detail levels. Indeed, I would have no hesitation in shooting regularly at sensitivities above ISO 2,000 with the GH3.”
Photo-i.co posted a video hands-on (Click here) and some image samples (Click here).

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Panasonic and Olympus Preorder Links with specs and price:
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.
35-100mm X lens at Amazon (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), Panasonic US.
E-PL5 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
E-PM2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here). In EU at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France,
XZ-2 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
60mm macro at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
12mm Black prime lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
15mm cap-lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).

Panasonic GH3 Video, MOV, 25fps, 72Mbps ALL-I from photographyblog on Vimeo.

Photographyblog (Click here) posted a set of videos on his website. One of them I embedded here on top of this post.

Techradar also posted a first preview of the GH3 and writes: “With all this goodness stuffed into a weatherproofed body that’s still smaller and lighter than most pro-level SLRs, Nikon and Canon should be watching their backs, through we’re sparing our full verdict till the final review.”

The GH3 preorder links at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here) and in Europe at Wexphotographic UK, Technikdirekt DE and Digit-photo FR.

For Eu readers: The E-M5 sells for 839 Euro in France. You can have it in [shoplink 34135 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] or in [shoplink 34136 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].