Another beautiful sunday morning, and another roundup of the latest news and articles, gathered from aroung the interwebs four your enjoyment!
Panasonic DMC-G3
In case you missed it (you probably haven’t — it’s been all around the web), Panasonic have just announced their latest Micro Four Thirds model, the G3, featuring a slightly smaller body, new 16 megapixel sensor, and less buttons and more touch operation (a bit like the GF2 in fact). 43rumors, as always, have a complete list of announcements, previews, reviews and opinions on the new G3.
Particulary interesting, though, is this article at PhotographyBLOG, in which the website interviews to Panasonic officials about the new G3 and other (upcoming) Panasonic products. During the interview, it is noted that the new 25mm f/1.4 Micro Four Thirds lens that was announced earlier, will indeed — just like its Four Thirds predecessor — be Leica branded.
Fujifilm X100 vs. Leica X1
This was just clear, wasn’t it? All around the web, people are discussing which is the better camera, the old X1, or the new X100? To stir up the heat a bit, Leica Rumors have posted their one (quite elaborate) comparison of the two, both in technical as well as user-based terms.
Win a(nother) Leica M9!
You may remember that a couple months ago, Seal gave away his M9 in a contest on Steve Huff’s website. For those who didn’t make it then, here’s another chance at getting a free M9! This time, it even is a special edition with a chrome Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH. lens. All you have to do is buy the next couple issues of the Amateur Photographer, collect six tokens printed in the magazine, send them in and … with a bit of luck, you’re the soon-to-be owner of a new M9!
Is there an upgraded M9-P coming in June?
As we’re at the topic of a new M9 — it may well be possible that Leica will present us an upgraded M9-P in June. This has been rumored in several internet forums, and now aforementioned Seal has been spotted with a camera that looks like a hybrid of an M9 and an MP: no decorations on the top plate, but missing battery compartment and film rewind lever. If we are to believe in the rumors, the M9-P will also featured a new LCD cover. Will it be sapphire glass? We’ll know soon enough!
That’s it for today — have a nice remaining weekend! 
Contrary to my recent note about Zeiss products, here are some good news from Olympus!
According to 43rumours, our first source when it comes to anticipating new Olympus product announcements, Olympus are going to release several new large-aperture lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system, as these have been demanded heavily since the introduction of m4/3.
Also – contrary to what has been reported earlier – it looks as though the Four Thirds segment (cameras, and maybe also lenses) may indeed be continued past the new E-5. Former Olympus head Akira Watanabe mentioned that both the E-x and E-xx series could be continued with new cameras in the future. If we may speculate here: the first new Four Thirds model could be a successor to the mid-level DSLR E-30, and will probably be called E-50.
 The weather-sealed Olympus E-5 DSLR. Picture courtesy of Olympus
As you may know, the Carl Zeiss AG (among others like Schneider Kreuznach and Kenko) has joined the Micro Four Thirds consortium, quite a while after announcing last year that they would soon release their Compact Prime movie lenses in Micro Four Thirds mount. Well, the MFT-fit Compact Primes aren’t there yet, but here’s a flickr set showing a GH2 with an adapted PL-mount CP lens, together with some portrait samples.
 Picture by Chrispy Harrison via flickr Via 43rumors.com (where you can also find a video taken with that same combo!)
Via Denkmuskelkontraktion.
fotopolis.pl are the first (to my knowledge) to have written a full review on the E-PL2, Olymus’ new entry-level Micro Four Thirds camera. The E-PL2 comes with a completely new body design over its predecessor the E-PL1, now looking more elegant and retro, like the higher-end models E-P1 and E-P2. It’s still got the same sensor with 12.3 megapixels, which proved to deliver very good image quality in the E-PL1. The E-PL2 gains a 3″ 460k dot display, though, and adds the rear adjustment wheel known from the E-P1 and E-P2 models, which makes it more convenient to operate.
 The Olympus E-PL2. Image courtesy of Olympus. Fotopolis are quite positive about the E-PL2, ascribing it the best image quality of all current PEN models – which was to be expected. As the E-PL2 is quite similar to the E-PL1 in overall specs, there’s not much new to say about it, really (see the E-PL2 announcement for more info). Noteworthy though is what they have to say about the new monitor: it’s inferior to the previous 230k dot models, in being less bright, less contrasty and less true in colour reproduction. Well, Olympus claimed they had a reason to stick with 230k pixels when they introduced the E-P1. And the E-P1’s monitor really is exceptionally good. Maybe they should go OLED in their next model?
SLR Magic, manufacturer of (among other things) manual prime lenses for Micro Four Thirds and Sony NEX, are asking users via Twitter if they would like to see a 50mm f/1.0 lens. Here’s what I replied to them:
Dear SLRmagic team,
first, I want to say that it is a great job you’re doing supplying MFT and NEX users with manual prime lenses. Keep going!
You asked on Twitter if we would like a 50mm f/1.0 lens. Personally, while I think ANY fast prime lens is good, I think a 50mm is not necessarily needed for MFT. (But it might be nice for NEX, where it equals 75mm). There is already the Noktor 50/0.95 (while not available most of the time), and there are many legacy C-mount lenses with that specification to be found. Then again, if your 50/1.0 lens could outperform the Noktor in terms of colour rendition, contrast and sharpness wide open, it might be a serious option to consider.
What I personally think is needed for MFT is a portrait lens shorter than 50mm – say 40, 42, or 45mm, equivalent to the classic 80, 84 or 90mm portraiture focal lengths on film. An f/1.4 specification would suffice in my opinion. (Examples: There’s a 40mm f/1.4 for the original Olympus PEN, as well as a 42/1.2, there’s the 40/1.4 Nokton for Leica M and the 45/2 Zeiss Planar for Contax G. But a dedicated MFT lens in that focal length/speed range would be great!) Also nice would be a 17 or 18mm prime with an initial f/1.4 or faster aperture. 35mm on film is the classical focal length for street shooting and photojournalism, and also very versatile in neither being too wide nor too narrow (like 50mm). The 35mm lenses sell like hot cakes for Leica M rangefinders. It would be great to have such a lens for MFT.
Sincerely,
Felix Esser, enthusiast amateur photographer
What is your opinion on this topic? What kind of MFT/NEX lens would you like to see from SLR Magic?
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May 15th, 2011, 10:45 am | 
