Image courtesy: DSLR-Check

Panasonic and Olympus marketing guys are stating that their system is better than the APS-C competition because of the better corner to corner sharpness of the Four Thirds sized sensor. The picture from DSLR-Check (Click on picture to enlarge!) shows the bad resolution performance of the 24 megapixel NEX-7 camera used along the 16mm pancake. Yes, it is unfair to use the cheap pancake for a comparison with some of the best m43 lenses! But our friend Klaus from Photozone (Click here) tested many NEX lenses and none can really take advantage of the 24 megapixel resolution. I am not playing down the NEX system, the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 is a superb lens and the NEX-7 definitely an interesting camera (and currently the most sold mirrorless camera at Amazon). But this is just a small post to remind you that the lens quality REALLY matters! Invest in good lenses instead of expensive cameras!

Speaking of good lenses here is another review of the Olympus 12mm prime lens at Admiring Light (Click here): “All things considered, this lens has earned a permanent place in my kit.  In fact, I could be pretty happy with only this lens, the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4“.
Search links to the 12mm lens at [shopcountry 23576].

KTF-Turbo (Click here) tested the 26mm f/1.1 Macro Switar C-mount lens on the GH1. This is actually a very expensive lens and you get it for more than $1000 on [shoplink 30256 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. He also compared the Switar with the upcoming new Micro Four Thirds Sonnetar (Click here to see the comparison).

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Today Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 6/8/9 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 2 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 13 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 6/11 (Click here).

You can see some nice images samples taken with the new 30mm and 19mm Sigma Micro Four Thirds lenses on ThePhoBlographer (Click here). I have to admit that while it remains true that I am not happy with the size and slow aperture of the Sigma lenses I am positively impressed by the image quality which is quite good for a $199 lens. Let’s hope they will also do some more of them with a m43 centered design (the current two lenses have been designed for m43 and NEX).

The 19mm f/2.8 lens is now in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here) and Amazon France (Click here).
The 30mm f/2.8 lens is now in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here) and Amazon France (Click here).

Reminder: List of Four Thirds Sigma lenses (Click on link to see them on eBay):
[shoplink 18947 ebay]Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6[/shoplink] [shoplink 18948 ebay]Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8[/shoplink] [shoplink 18948 ebay]Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] [shoplink 18949 ebay]Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] [shoplink 18950 ebay]Sigma 24mm f/1.8[/shoplink] [shoplink 18951 ebay]Sigma 30mm f/1.4[/shoplink] [shoplink 18952 ebay]Sigma 50mm f/1.4[/shoplink] [shoplink 18953 ebay]Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3[/shoplink] [shoplink 18955 ebay]Sigma 55-500mm f/4-5.6[/shoplink] [shoplink 18956 ebay]Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8[/shoplink] [shoplink 18957 ebay]Sigma 105mm f/2.8[/shoplink] [shoplink 18958 ebay]Sigma 135-400mm f/4-5.6[/shoplink] [shoplink 18959 ebay]Sigma 150mm f/2.8[/shoplink] [shoplink 18960 ebay]Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6[/shoplink]

Tyson Robichaud (Click here) tested a new Lensbaby product for the mirror-less systems which enables access to all of the Lensbaby optics. He writes: “Not only does the Composer Pro offer access to the entire Lensbaby system, it also promises to be much more “future proof” in the event that Lensbaby looks to further diversify its system as the new Composer Pro has worked around the design issues with these mirror-less system mounts that the newer optics had compatibility-wise with the Tilt Transformer.”

And Carl Zeiss released two new CP.2 15mm T/2.9 and CP.2 135mm T/2.1 lenses also for m43 mount (Source: Dpreview). They will be available in late 2012 for $5,700 or €4,200 each (VAT excluded). These are special video optimized lenses and perfectly color-matched to allow consistency in footage. Sound good for the current AG-AF100 and the new camcorder that is going to be announced next week!

Links to CP.2 lenses on [shoplink 15756 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

E-M5 focus test. Terrific!

Short in Stock status update. Two local european dealers informed me that they will receive a very limited Stock of [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] cameras next week. And now let’s check the latest E-M5 reviews coming mostly from Asia where the camera is already shipping at Amazon (Japan) and Digitalrev (Hong Kong).

Fullcirclepix (Click here) is testing the video quality of the E-M5: “This is certainly a huge improvement from my AVCCAM which is a semi HD and cost 4 times more than the E-M5. The E-M5 is also much less complicated to function and gained more points with me for its new IS.”

Amateur Photographer latest magazin issue contains a full E-M5 review. Adventurerob (Click here) posted some excerpts of the test: “The overall conclusion is for the utmost in image quality, you’d be better off with something else (I think they were hinting at the X Pro 1 (reviewed last month – I don’t know score) and NEX-7. But then said for it’s class of camera (micro-4/3) it is as good as it gets right now.”

A short hands-on report by the japanese Itmedia (Click here). RAW and JPEG image samples at FourThirdsUser (Click here). A short hands-on at Itmedia (Click here). Another JPEG and RAW test comparison by DSLR-check (Click here).

There is a new full E-M5 review at Mobile01 (Click here). Our friend Jesper made the nice work to translate the conclusions:

Pros:
1. The battery grip is a exellent add-on. Featuring complete sets of function buttons, scroll wheels. But still keeps the size rather comapct
2. Weathersealed. Magnesium alloy body
3. Customizable real-time curve
4. Lots of customizable buttons, both scroll wheel are customizable.
5. The revolutionary 5-axis IS
6. 17 art filters
7. Tilt screen
8. E-M5 plus 12-50 (Macro, motor zoom, weathersealed) are perfect match

Cons:
1. The camera suffers of minor lags, starting up, button, scroll wheels are not as reponsive as Panasonic cameras. Especially the exposure compensation.
2. When recording, E-M5 does not support touch-toggle-focus.
3. Lowest ISO-value is 200.
4. The flash is external.

That’s it for now!

(Pre)orders: Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Today Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 11/13/14 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 25/30 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 14/20 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 3/14 (Click here).

Yesterday I had a tuff day with the GF5 announcement at 6am in the morning and a full day of work here in Antwerpen (with cold windy shitty weather). I slept 10 hours and now I am ready to take a bit more serious look on the new GF5 image quality perfromance :)

Panaosnic claims that this is a new 12 Megapixel sensor based on the same technology of the 16 Megapixel [shoplink 22077]Panasonic G3[/shoplink] sensor. Does it show any advantage over the older GF2/GF3 cameras?

The polish website Lenstip (Click here) posted an interesting GF5 versus GF3 ISO comparison. I have to say the older [shoplink 23109]Panasonic GF3[/shoplink] looks better! Now, I hope for Panasonic that the polish reviewer made a mistake with the image description and maybe he switched the camera anmes. If that is not a mistake I would say don’t go for the GF5 and buy the cheaperr and now hackable GF3! There are two more ISO tests by Openpn (Click and scroll down) and Fotopolis. Before to start to blame Panasonic let’s wait and see more testing. Maybe some reviewer are not making a correct testing?

—

Links to current hackable GF cameras:
Panasonic GF3 search links: [shopcountry 23109].
Panasonic GF2 search links: [shopcountry 17361].

Links to the new GF5:
Black GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).
White GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).
Red GF5 with 14-42mm or 14-42mmX lens at Amazon (Click here and choose the lens).
GF5 at Amazon Japan (Click here).

DigitalPhotographySchool (Click here) posted a short Panasonic GX1 review. Unlike so many other websites their conclusions are always very short and clear: “One of the most desirable Micro Four Thirds cameras around.” :)

GX1 versus X PRO 1 versus NEX-5N at Soundimagesplus (Click here). Obviously the Fuji X PRO 1 is the clear winner ….costs also 2,5 time the GX1! ($1699 at Amazon)

Zelenpol announced a new GX1 case (via DC.watch). You can already find E-PL3, E-P3 and GF3 Zelenpol cases for sale on [shoplink 30239 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

In USA you have those nice $100 price drop on the GX1 and a $20 price drop on the 14-42mm X lens.
GX1 body only is now priced at $649 at Amazon (Click here) and Adorama (with extras!).
GX1 body with 14-42mm kit lens is now priced at $699 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
GX1 body with 14-42mm X lens for $849 at Amazon (Click here).

Click on the image to see the full size version!

Some E-M5 news are coming from Asia today! As you can see here on top Dslr-check (Click here) posted a E-M5 vs NEX-7 vs GX1 vs E-PM1 Jpeg comparison (all pics at ISO 400 and f/4 with zoom kit lens). I leave any judgment to you :)

A Japanese friend of mine that got the E-M5 did some testing to find out more about the so called “IS sound noise”. Here are his findings:
1) The noise is here, but you hear it only when you are closed in a complete noiseless room. In normal situation you don’t hear it at all.
2) The noise almost goes away when you switch to movie mode. That’s good news as this will avoid any “contamination” while recording video.
3) My sources told me the noise is related to the 5 axis system but even if you switch off the IS system the noise remains there.

Overall all I can say is that I understand customers reaction when hearing that noise for the first time. It’s something a bit…annoying! But it looks like this is a NON-issue when shooting videos or photos in real world conditions. I hope to get my hands on the E-M5 soon. Want to check that for myself!

One more news: As you know Asian stores like Amazon Japan and Digitalrev are already shipping the cameras. So guess who are the next lucky guys getting the E-M5? USA?….nope…Germany?…nope… it is Canada! Henrys just informed some of our 43rumors early pre ordered that the E-M5 will ship to their houses next week! Lucky guys!

(Pre)orders: Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Today Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 11/13/15 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 4/10 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 20 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 7/10 (Click here).