Olympus announces M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens

Amid its financial woes, today Olympus announced a new weather sealed powerzoom M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens (35mm equivalent: 24–100mm). The new lens will be available in mid-January 2012 for $499.99.

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Posted in Olympus| 15 Comments

MIT’s new camera can do 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second

“You can think of it as slow motion,” Andreas Velten, a postdoctoral researcher who is a member of the design team, said during a recent technical presentation. “It is so much slow motion you can see the light itself move. This is the speed of light: there’s nothing in the universe that moves faster.”

Read the entire article at NYTimes. Here are two videos that captured traveling light shot at one trillion frames per second:

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Posted in Future of Photo Equipment| 19 Comments

Will Fuji buy Olympus?

It seems that Bloomberg gave an answer to my question from few weeks ago – apparently Fujifilm is considered as a possible buyer of Olympus:

“Fujifilm, which makes equipment for medical scans, has been reported as a possible bidder for Japanese camera maker Olympus Corp. Yamamoto, who also is a board member at Fujifilm, declined to comment on a possible buyout of Olympus today.
Fujifilm Chief Executive Officer Shigetaka Komori said last month it was too early to discuss Olympus issues while the third-party panel was still probing the fraud at the camera maker.”

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Posted in Fuji, Olympus| Tagged | 30 Comments

Olympus to announce a new 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens with powerzoom tomorrow

Olympus is rumored to announce a new powerzoom 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens on December 14th, 2011. The expected specs are:

  • Focal length: 12-50mm
  • Aperture: f/3.5-6.3
  • Close focusing: 0.35 meter (0.98 ft)
  • Macro: 0.2 to 0.5 meter (0.66-1.6 ft)
  • Filter size: 52
  • Ring: Focus and Aperture ring
  • Zoom: Powerzoom button on the left side of the lens
  • AF: Super fast AF and silent focusing

Price is expected to be around $400.

Posted in Olympus| 7 Comments

What else is new? (Sigma PG-31, BenQ GH700)

New power grip PG-31 for Sigma SD1 DSLR:

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the Power Grip PG-31, specially designed for Sigma’s SD1 digital SLR, the camera that ensures high resolution and breathtaking image quality.
The PG-31 is a specially designed battery grip which upgrades the battery power of the SIGMA SD1 by holding two dedicated BP-21 battery packs. This caters for large-volume photography and photography in field. The PG-31 also incorporates a shutter button and therefore becomes a grip for vertical photography when attached to the SD1, providing a more assured grip.

New BenQ GH700 camera: 21x super zoom with BSI CMOS Sensor:

 

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Posted in BenQ, Sigma| 5 Comments

The new Sigma APO 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM lens is MIA

The Sigma APO 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM lens was announced back in February, 2011. The lens was initially supposed to start shipping in October, 2011 but then it was further delayed till 2012.

In September the Sigma APO 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM was still listed on Sigma’s website:

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Posted in Sigma| 32 Comments

Olympus patents hot shoe mounted miniature camera for capturing stereo/3D images

Olympus filed patent 2011-250022 in Japan for a hot shoe mounted miniature camera that will be used to capture stereo/3D images. It seems that Olympus has chosen a different 3D solution than Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds 12.5mm f/12 3D lens.

Posted in Olympus| Tagged , | 10 Comments

Rumors of a full frame Pentax DSLR and a new APS-C mirrorless camera suface again

According to this dpreview forum member, Pentax will release a full frame DSLR and a new APS-C mirrorless cameras in 2012. The full-frame DSLR model is expected to use a 24MP sensor from Sony.

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Posted in Pentax| Tagged | 19 Comments

Upcoming Sigma and Tamron lenses in 2012

Sigma is rumored to release the following new lenses in 2012L

  • 24mm f/1.8 (full frame)
  • 35mm f/1.8 (full frame)
  • 300mm f/2.8 OS
  • 500mm f/4.5 OS
Posted in Sigma, Tamron| Tagged | 20 Comments

Zeiss cinema lenses roadmap for 2012

Zeiss announced on Facebook and Twitter their plans for new cinelenses for 2012: new compact, lightweight zoom and prime CP.2 lenses plus a new line of anamorphics lenses. More details about those lenses will be revealed at NAB 2012. More information available at FDTimes articles (PDF file, coverage starts at page 16):

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Posted in Zeiss| Tagged , | 4 Comments