HOT!!! Olympus confirms! June 15th official Olympus MicroFourThirds camera presentation!

dc.watch.impress.co.jp

dc.watch.impress.co.jp (very bad english google translation)

www.digitalcamera.jp/

digitalcamera.jp (very bad english google translation)

photofan.jp

photofan.jp (very bad english google translation)

Our sources pointed the June 16th as the right date for the Olympus announcements. Well they were one day out;)

That rumor was posted way back (March 29th !) so I would say we were REALLY CLOSE with our prediction!

Read our rumor from March 29th !

P.S.: If some japanese 43rumors friends wants to send us proper English translations…we would be grateful!

Not long now!

UPDATE:

Kumatax sent us a translation. Thank you K.!!!!

The MicroFourThirds machine announces on June 15th. President Kikukawa of Olympus declared it–The philosophy of film camera “PEN” is succeeded to. To externals different from the mockup

Olympus announces the MicroFourThirds machine that becomes the first in this company on June 15th. The sale is the first week of July. Olympus is disclosing the content of the results briefing concerning the period on March, 2009 to Web with the voice file, and Kikukawa president is clarifying it in that.

The MicroFourThirds machine to release is considered to be the model that reference exhibited a mockup at in Photo Imaging Expo 2009 (PIE2009).  It announced release of summer, 2009 previously in PMA09. In addition, it is said that the appearance considerably changes because the model that exhibited in PIE2009 is not an end product.

It was introduced with a camera with the philosophy of the “PEN” by the briefing session. The new camera is with the model that succeeded to the concept of half-size camera “PEN”.

Mr. Kikukawa explained as follows. “The users of the compact digital camera, a little over 30% want to use the DSLR. However, do not make step-up to the DSLR by the reason of a price, size, weight, difficulty of the operation. I make these users a target in the future. I will plan the revival of the picture business in future by making efforts in the MicroFourThirds system”

A little of everything…

A lot of reviewers seem to be falling in love with the Panasonic Lumix ZS3/TZ7 ! We have three reviews to show you!

1) Steve digicam’s “Bottom Line – Panasonic’s new Lumix ZS3 is an outstanding new addition to the Lumix line.”

2) Camerlabs “Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-TZ7 (or ZS3 as it’s known in North America) continues to be one of the most flexible compacts on the market, and one with very few rivals.”

3) Quesabesde (spanish only)

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Dpreview posted some Sigma Dp2 sample photos.

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Finally a Fuji F200 EXR review. We post it because the camera is the principal Panasonic LX3 opponent.

Japanese rumors…

Some Olympus announcements today?
From Hiro Sakae on his blog!

In Japanese
in English (with google translate)

MNZ (who sent us this link) made this small summary for us.

He pointed out these things:
1) Today is Oly’s Statement of Accounts for the FY2008 and
their announcement of the next 3 years’ middle-term plan.
2) They announced the “New-concept DSLR” (must be micro-4/3)
at the stage of Statement of Accounts for the FY2006.
3) Original Olympus PEN was unveiled 5-12, May 1959.
4) The launching sales promotion  for the E-620 will be finished the Wednesday.

Is something coming up?

Thanks MNZ!

(FT 4) There will definitely be an E-3 successor (for 2009)

olympus-e-5

This is an image of the new E-5 (it’s probably a fake)

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Everybody is anticipating the E-3 successor. It is the camera that most needs a refresh! From first rumors we received it will be not a revolutionary camera, just an “upgraded” E-3. So it will probably  have the latest 12Megapixel sensor (maybe the same E-30 sensor) + some gimmicks like Art Filters. Sorry that we can’t get excited over that rumor. :(
We do not have any idea when exactly the camera could be announced. So do not wait for it, buy the E-3 now if you need the camera!

Post scriptum: We made a lot of predictions in the last month. I will soon post a summary of all our best rumors.

Post post scriptum:

Support our website and make yourself a nice present by pre-ordering the Panasonic GH1 from here Panasonic DMC-GH1 12MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video

Or buy the compact camera with the best image quality the Sigma DP2 14MP FOVEON CMOS Sensor Digital Camera with 2.5 Inch TFT LCD
Olympus Evolt E620 12.3MP (Body Only) 699$ only (after the 100$ price drop!)
And finally the Panasonic LX3 is again available in BLACK!
Panasonic DMC-LX3K 10.1MP (Black)

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Thanks to our german friends we were able to affiliate ourselves with Amazon Germany!
Sigma DP2 Digitalkamera (14 Megapixel, 24.2mm F2,8 Festbrennweise, 2,5)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (SCHWARZ)
.

For UK, France and Japan please start your shopping by clicking the amazon logo :)

Many Thanks!

A little bit of everything…

Gordon Laing is one of the most notorious youtube “skinheads” and one the most famous digital camera testers. He made a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 / ZS3 video tour in High Definition. Do you like him? I think most of you would dream to do his job!

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A welcomed plugin is Nik Software’s Sharpener Proâ„¢ which now comes with an Update for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2. But the plugin I use is Color Efex Proâ„¢ 3.0 and Silver Efex Proâ„¢. Try them out!

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ANyone looking for a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1? There is another review available at digitaltrends.com. The conclusions are:

Highs: Extremely compact; good photo quality; 12x wide-angle zoom; attractive screen

Lows: Few manual adjustments; proprietary connections; no HD video; forget ISO 1600 and high sensitivity setting

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Than we have another two Olympus compact camera reviews. The Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 does the rounds at about.com and the Olympus Mju 9000 Digital Camera gets reviewed at ephotozine.com.

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Finally Go to the Olympus firmware download information page in order to find the updated Olympus μ-7000 firmware. The firmware improves the reliability of camera operation while viewing images taken in a vertical position and pressing the DISP button.

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(FT 4) Leica to not join the micro four thirds adventure (or not soon)

lowresleica-m8
We already wrote a post over that but today we got one more confirmation from a very reliable source. Leica seems to be interested in the micro four thirds standard but they will wait before making any decision of joining the adventure. They are focusing now on the new M9 (and of course the S2 system).
We have some doubts concerning their plans with the R-System. We know they want create a new R-System which in fact is a cheaper M-system. But we don’t know if that R-System will use the micro four thirds standard or not. We will see…

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