E-P3 Video Test in Quiet Room feat. E-M5 from Michael Gakuran on Vimeo.

The new [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] is shipping in Asia and first user are reporting some “sound noise” issues. At Amazon Japan you can find two reviews describing the noise starting when you power the camera on. It remains there until you completely shut down the camera. I tried to find some evidence of the issue but at least from the video I found on youtube (Click here) I really hear NO noise at all. I have been told by my sources that the very low noise you here is coming from the 5 axis IS. And it is much lower during movie shooting (you will not hear it while recording the audio). It’s unusual in the beginning but you will forget it when working with the camera.

We Europeans and our Americans readers will have to wait a bit longer for our cameras anyway. Amazon UK issued the following statement: “We’re sorry to let you know that your order will take longer to fulfil than originally estimated. Our supplier has notified us that there is a delay in obtaining stock of this title. We now expect to dispatch your order by April 23, 2012.” :(

As I said, Japanese are already receiving their cameras and they are posting new video on youtube. Here is a set of short clips made by PortableTV and some ads made by Olympus itself:

PortableTV
Burst mode on youtube (Click here).
Rolling Shutter test on youtube (Click here).
Power ON/OFF on youtube (Click here).
IS test on youtube (Click here).
Af speed test on youtube (Click here).

OlympusOMD commercial (weird voice!)
Af speed on youtube (Click here).
FPS speed on youtube (Click here).
EVF on youtube (Click here).

Preorders: Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 5/7/9 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 4 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 15 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 8/16/17 (Click here).

Klaus from Photozone (Click here) posted a new Panasonic 45-175mm lens review on Photozone: “The Panasonic lens is a good albeit not superb telephoto zoom lens as some might have hoped from its “X” designation“. The problem is that the X lens has huge vignetting and pronounced Chromatic Aberration. But overall Klaus says: “There is much to like about the Panasonic lens – also from a price/performance perspective.”

Digi163 (Click here) posted a Nanoha lens review. The bad news is that the review is made in Japanese and google translation tool doesn’t work on that website. But you can still look at the nice image samples!

Felix from ThePhoBlographer (Click here) tested the Zeiss 50mm Planar ZM on the E-P1 and G1: “The colors, contrast and bokeh are equally pleasing when used on Micro Four Thirds as they are on the Leica.“. The lens can be found [shoplink 30081 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink].

Our french colleagues from Hybridcames (Click here to read the translation) also published a new Panasonic GX1 review.

I am learning dutch and I casually found that E-M5 video on youtube. Didn’t know that Olympus invited a fake Angelina Jolie for the E-M5 press release event. You can see her at the end of the video :)

Phil Hall from Whatdigitalcamera (Click here) reviewed the new Olympus E-M5. The camera earns a Gold Award. They like almost everything of the E-M5: “The AF is a noticeable improvement over the PEN series, while the new image stabilisation system works a treat.” and “The OM-D E-M5 performs very well at the lower end of the ISO range, delivering clean and detailed images. Increasing the resolution over the E-P3 could lead some to assume that with more photosites taking up the same sensor area, image noise could be more pronounced, but the OM-D performs very well.”

Their only critic is that “it’s a shame to see no ISO 100 on offer”.

More news: Finally you can preorder the E-M5 at Amazon Germany (Click here) for the normal non cheater price :) There is a new firmware update for the 12-50mm kit lens (Source: Olympus Japan). It improves the IS in macro mode and adds zoom support when used on Panasonic cameras. DC.watch (Click here) posted some info about the Epson EVF used by the E-M5.

Preorders:
USA: Amazon, Adorama and B&H.
Europe: Jessops, Amazon UK and Amazon Germany.
Asia: Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 7/12/14/15 (Click here)
UK: Silver E-M5 on position 20 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 6 and 8 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 4/11/14 (Click here).

Under the category crazy Asian m43 stuff we can find that new Ownuser GH2 battery grip. The video on top shows a first hands-on. The battery grip can be purchased at http://www.ownuser.com.tw/e_paypal_panasonic.html. They already sell battery grips for other Panasonic and Olympus m43 and 43 cameras on [shoplink 27770 ebay]eBay (Click here to see all Ownuser auctions)[/shoplink].

And here is another exotic news: At DC.watch (Click here) you can see some Olympus E-Pm1 with Leica Elmar 35mm f/3.5 lens review. That lens is so tiny! You can find a few lenses for $400 on [shoplink 29579 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Andrew from EosHD (Click here) posted a new detailed Canon 5DmarkkIII versus Panasonic GH2 video comparison. In terms of resolution the “$600 GH2 still matches the full frame beast at $3500.“. And “the 5D Mark III’s image cannot be sharpened in post to match the GH2. That camera has a sharper image yet it is organic and fine not digitally over sharpened.“. And the praise for the GH2 continues: “In the standard picture profiles the 5D Mark III and GH2 are pretty neck and neck for dynamic range. Nobody in their right mind would say the sensor in the GH2 was a match for the 5D Mark III’s full frame CMOS but in video mode, it is. This is because the GH2′s video image is very close to its JPEG output whilst the 5D Mark III’s is painfully far away from its superb stills.”

We should really thank the Panasonic engineers and Vitaly’s hack for the awesome work they did on the GH2. On the other side I am surprised by Canon. Even when it comes to the stills quality they seem to have lost the train in favour of the Nikon D800 which sells way better than the new 5D (Here are the Amazon rankings). Makes me wonder if Canon will make a decent mirrorless system or not (more about that here on MirrorlessRumors).

What about the new GH3? I got some rumors from new sources I will post soon. It’s low value only but as usual I hope trusted sources can read this to confirm if it’s true or not.

—

Panasonic GH2 price check links: [shopcountry 16254].

It’s time for a short E-m5 recap!

1) Damian MacGillycuddy (Click here) started a new Olympus competition and posted a new E-M5 nude picture.

2) Federico Cabrera (Click here) posted some fashion photos taken with the E-M5. Nice!

3) Full resolution OM-D E-M5 samples compared to Pen E-P3, Lumix GH2 and Sony Alpha 55 at Four Thirds User (Click here).

So, when will our postman deliver us the E-M5? BHphoto (Click here) still says it’s coming on April 16th. Amazon UK (Click here) says the E-M5 will now ship within 1-3 months. Amazon Japan and Digitalrev will ship the camera from March 31th. Amazon US (CLick here) doesn’t share any info and the first [shoplink 29946 ebay]eBay preorders (Click here)[/shoplink] are up via Malaysian store :)
I don’t believe Olympus will be able to ship all the E-M5 preorders. The requests are really high and the E-M5 Olympus camera keeps staying on the Amazon US top seller list (Click here).
—
Here are all full store search linsk I check from time to time to see if the E-M5 shipment/preorder status changes:
[shoplist 29074]

The Shires from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Andrew from SLRmagic told us that Seb got a very early lens prototype that very likely has an issue. This means the video on top very likely doen’t show the full potential of the Hyperprime lens! A more represenative video has been shot by EosHD (Click here).

Seb Farges (Click here) tested the two lenses on the hacked [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] and writes: “My opinion ? mmmm the Noctilux is an extraordinary lens, good rendering at f/0.95, smooth focus ring. This lens is a little smaller and lighter than the SLR Magic lens. It’s in M mount (Leica). The problem : the [shoplink 23018 ebay]Noctilux is too expensive for me, 8000€ (10600$)[/shoplink]!!! Please note that the SLR Magic I’ve used here is a prototype lens. It’s be available in september in M mount, it’s price is not fixed yet, but it will be around 2300€ (3000$), 3.5X less cheaper than the Leica. The SLR has more color aberration (purple fringing), mostly when the focus is not perfect.”

P.S.: The Leica Noctilux crazy price check on [shoplink 23018 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Speaking of our m43 0.95 lenses here are the links to:
1) [shoplink 15659 ebay]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
2) [shoplink 29927 ebay]Voigtländer Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
3) [shoplink 25691 ebay]SLRmagic 50mm f/0.95 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].