Lumix G X Vario 12-35 F2.8 Lens Test from Erik Naso on Vimeo.

Time to catch up with some reviews posted the last week:

Reviews:
Panasonic 14-42mm X pancake lens (Soundimagesplus).
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8 Pancake Lens Review (ePhotozine).
Test du flash Olympus FL 600 R (partie 1 at Lepidi).
Olympus OM-D E-M5 vompared with Sony NEX-7, Fujifilm XPro1 and Canon Rebel T4i/650D at Ronmartblog.
Phil Rudin: “My review for the E-M5 and Nauticam NA-EM5 underwater housing is now available at Underwater Photography magazine, UWPMAG.com. This magazine has over 20,000 subscribers that are hard core U/W photo fans. The cover shot is also mine and was taken with the same system using the Panasonic 45 mm macro lens.”
E-PL1 Pictures from a ‘panigiri’ as promised (greekdiaries).

eBay Madness:
Olympus E-P3 Pen Digital Camera Black w/M.Zuiko 17mm f/2.8 45mm f/1.8ED VF-2 by [shoplink 33167 ebay]Adorama on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The so called “french” Noctilux. The Cetor 35mm f1,3 on [shoplink 33168 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Next cheater price. Nokton 17.5mm for OVER $6K on [shoplink 33169 ebay]eBay Suisse (Click here)[/shoplink].
Olympus E-M5 for $939 by [shoplink 33190 ebay]CameraLand (Click here)[/shoplink] Very Rare Dallmeyer Super-Six Anastigmat 1.9/2 1/2″ 63.5mm (63mm) in C-Mount on [shoplink 33191 ebay]eBay Austria (Click here)[/shoplink].
Most expensive pancake is the Boyer Paris Saphir 1.9/75 Alvar #585907 [shoplink 33192 ebay]eBay Slovakia (Click here)[/shoplink].
Fastest tele lens is the Hasselblad 1:1,3/250mm Zoomatar [shoplink 33193 ebay]eBay Germany (Click here)[/shoplink].
Fastest and most expensive 0.95 lens is the Angénieux Paris M2 35mm 0.95 Ultrafast C Mount Lens [shoplink 33194 ebay]eBay France (Click here)[/shoplink].

There is a first short hands-on of the upcoming new Olympus 60mm macro lens at Precision Camera (Click here): “This lens is awesome. It has a great build quality with responsive AF and very quick macro focus.” There is not a lot of info but I guess we will see a real review very soon!

One mroe little news: Egami found a new Panasonic patent showing a heating warning system. Whenever the sensor is getting hot it says you how much time is left before the camera shuts down.

Don’t know who made this video! Worth to be seen :)

More E-M5 news:
1) a test with the Auto-S 40mm F1.4 at DC.watch.
2) TheDigitalStory bought a third party E-M5 battery from Amazon.
3) The firmware update is back (DC.watch)
4) And I can’t explain this but indeed Italian stores are selling the E-M5 for much less than other European stores! The body only can be found for 777 Euro at ePrice.it (that’s a 22 Euro discount). And so on eBay Italy [shoplink 33122 ebay]here[/shoplink] and  [shoplink 33123 ebay]here[/shoplink].
5) E-M5 plate at Reallyrightstuff.

First Olympus 75mm User Reviews are also up at Amazon US (Click here to read them).

Damian MCGilliCuddy had the chance to test the Olympus 75mm lens and writes: “very well made, compact and light and stunning IQ – its even a good price all things considered…. any downside, on consideration yes!  Olympus a lens of this quality really should come with its matched lens hood at the point of the purchase… seriously“.

Damian is very “close” to Olympus and they may listen to him. The original hood costs $80 at Adorama or 80 Euro at Amazon Germany. On eBay (via Hong Kong) you can buy a third party [shoplink 32155 ebay]standard hood for $15 (Click here)[/shoplink] and a [shoplink 32156 ebay]tele hood for $16 (Click here)[/shoplink].

And now to the preorder options :
In USA Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), J&R(Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Also in Europe  Amazon Germany (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon France (Click here) and Amazon Italy (Click here).
In Asia it’s already available at Amazon Japan, Digitalrev and on [shoplink 31284 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].

While we are still waiting to get our hands on the preordered Olympus 75mm lens Admiringlight posted the final Olympus 75mm review: “I have to say this lens is worth every penny of the asking price.  The absolutely brilliant sharpness, rich color and creamy bokeh make put it among the finest optics I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.“.
And Itmedia (translation here) also tested the Olympus lens. Some image samples at Pen and Tell.

And now le’ts talk about the mostly “non-in Stock” status of the lens. The lens is in Stock in Asia only at Digitalrev and [shoplink 31284 ebay]eBay[/shoplink] for example. In US BHphoto shipped the very early preorders but none is in Stock now. In UK it’s in Stock via [shoplink 33039 ebay]Simplyelectronics[/shoplink] which I suspect imports everything from Hong Kong directly ([shoplink 33039 ebay]although they say it’s shipping from UK[/shoplink]).

Olympus OMD EM-5 + Canon 5D MkII + After Effects + a Stunning Piece of Architecture = Impressive. from Wade Johnston on Vimeo.

My friend Elenea posted her first pictures taken with the E-PL1 I sent her a month ago. Check out her stories at greediaries.me (and tell her what she needs to do better).

A new OMD case at DC.watch.

Panasonic G5 in Island (Focus Numerique).

LX7 versus RX100 at DSLRmagazine (Translation here).

Tokina 300mm lens test at DC.watch (Translation here).

The 2012 Olympus Visionary Roster (SmallCameraBigPicture).

Using other Raw Converters as Lightroom Pre-Processor (Outbackphoto).

Festival d’été 2012 / Serge Lopez, Kiko Ruiz et Bernardo Sandoval. The video on top is taken with the E-M5. I love the colors and the music! Thanks Stefano!

Here is a short roundup of latest [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] reviews. At that time most of you will have the E-M5 in your own hands. I hope you are enjoying the cam!

Head to Head Review: Olympus OM-D E-M5 v Nikon D7000 at Photographyblog: “In summary, there’s no clear winner – and that alone says volumes about how far compact system cameras have come in the last few years. That the Olympus OM-D E-M5 can hold its own against one of the most highly regarded prosumer/semi-professional DSLR cameras of recent years is a huge surprise”

M43eu (Translation here) tested the Panasonic 3D lens on the E-M5.

Readers mail: “My name is Tavinho Costa, I just bought a EM-5 and for the last month i’ve been using it on the streets of são paulo and the cities that i visit. I’m a fashion photographer and i’m starting to shoot with the OMD on magazines, i will send the results to you guys later!
hope you like my blog – http://tavinhocosta.tumblr.com the last month is 100% OMD!“

Lenses Compared On the E-M5 at ePhotozine:
Canon 200mm f/4 with FD mount designed for use on the Canon A series of cameras ([shoplink 32927 ebay]find the lens here on eBay[/shoplink]).
Nikon’s Nikkor 200mm f/4 from the 70s/90s when the FE2 and FM2 ruled the prosumer market ([shoplink 32928 ebay]find the lens here on eBay[/shoplink]).
Pentax K SMC 200mm f/4 from the days of the highly popular student camera the K1000 ([shoplink 32929 ebay]find the lens here on eBay[/shoplink]).
Pentax Takumer 200mm f/5.6 – a preset lens from the 60s with an M42 screw mount that was designed for use on the Spotmatic ([shoplink 32930 ebay]find the lens here on eBay[/shoplink]).

The E-M5 keeps being a hotselelr at A.US (ranking here). Olympus E-M5 search links at [shopcountry 29074].