Several readers informed me that the new Ricoh GR is already shipping in the US. At some point the camera was available in stock at Amazon, mainly from third party resellers. DxOMark published their latest test results and the GR scored slightly below the Nikon Coolpix A (see review):
Ricoh GR ($796.95) vs. Nikon Coolpix A ($1,096.95) cameras shootout:
Some additional Ricoh GR coverage from around the Web:
Samyang is rumored to announce two new APC-S lenses this summer. Those will be brand new designs and not a "remakes" of existing lenses. I do not have other details at that point. Stay tuned for more info.
Leica will be announcing a new Mini M camera on June 11, 2013. The information I received is that the new camera will be made in Germany and it will not be based on an existing Panasonic model. Folow LeicaRumors for the latest updates.
The current Panasonic GX-1 model
Panasonic will soon be replacing their Lumix GX1 Micro Four Thirds camera. Here is the first wave of rumored specifications for the new model that could be called GX2 (the name is not confirmed yet):
Via Digicame-info
A quick update on my last post: Hasselblad representatives were also present at the same Zeiss Touit event in Japan and announced the official launch dates for Lunar mirrorless cameras (the initial release was delayed). The first launch will start on May 30th in New York and then will move to Europe and Asia.
This Lunar first look video pretty much describes the target audience: "this is a camera for the person who appreciates that getting there in style can be more important than getting there the fastest":
In a recent press event in Japan for the unveiling of the new Touit lenses, Zeiss showed an updated roadmap that in addition to the existing ZM, ZF/ZE/ZF.2, the not yet released high end DSLR and Touit lenses, also had a fifth unnamed product line marked with a question mark. Maybe this will be a new line of lenses designed for Micro Four Thirds or medium format cameras. Last year Zeiss said that they will not make Micro Four Thirds lenses because the m4/3 sensor is too small.
Olympus filed patent 2013-88725 in Japan for their own wearable computing device in the form of glasses, which similar to Google Glass, will also have a built-in camera and display. The patent doesn't provide any other details or technical specifications.
Few years ago Nikon released the Media Port UP300x head display and have also filed several related patents since.
A reader informed me that Samsung released the code for the NX200 and NX300 mirrorless cameras as open source based on the Cortex A9 quad core CPU and Neon coprocessor. This means that everyone can download it and make their own modifications, fix bugs, add new features, etc. As far as I know, this is the first major camera manufacturer to release their source code to the public. Could this be the beginning of the open source camera?
Think Tank Photo announced a new Test Drive program and the release of a new version of its largest rolling camera case, the Logistics Manager 30. With the Test Drive program you get to try out any of Think Tank’s very popular Retrospective soft shoulder bags for 30 days for free. Currently they are also running free FedEx ground shipping on all U.S. orders through May 31, 2013.
According to this interview with Sigma's CEO Mr. Yamaki, the new 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM lens (price is not yet announced) will be released this summer. So far there are no plans to develop NEX and MFT versions of that lens.
Olympus to drop the cheap V series point and shoot cameras:
"Olympus said it will eliminate its V series of compact cameras – the cheapest in its lineup, selling for less than $200. Its camera business posted a loss in the last fiscal year through March, because demand for compact cameras turned out to be weaker than expected, the company said."
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