Olympus filed a patent in Japan for a 6-24mm f/1.8-3.8 lens designed for a point and shoot camera (28-112mm equivalent):
The ZX-1 has a similar i.Zuiko 6-24mm f/1.8-2.5 lens. Maybe Olympus is thinking of introducing a lower level P&S camera with a wide f/1.8 aperture.
PhotographyBay reported that the price of the newly announced Adobe CS5.5 could be going up on April 27th. If you have purchased the previous version CS5 on or after March 10th, 2011 you will be eligible for a free upgrade to CS5.5. That also means that if you buy CS5 by April 27, you can avoid the rumored price increase. Check all available CS5 purchase options on Amazon.
In a recent interview in China, Akira Watanabe from Olympus reassured that they will continue to produce their single and double digits E-series product line (E-5 and E-30). The three digit models are/will be replaced by the PEN m4/3 camera line. There were some conflicting statements in the past from Olympus, indicating that they could stop producing full size DSLR cameras.
At a Chinese trade show, Pentax showed a teaser of an upcoming camera, covered by a black cloth. Reportedly, the new product is suppose to be “more important” than a regular point and shoot camera. Pentax is expected to release two new interchangeable lenses compact cameras this summer, one will be mirrorless (NC-1) and the other will be SLR type (Auto 110 digital).
Two more pictures of the previously leaked Sony NEX flash appeared from the same source on dpreview. No further specs are available.
Sony showed a prototype of a new CMOS sensor. Here are some of the specs:
From the same source who leaked the NEX C3 pictures, here is the first image of the Sony a35 camera. Few weeks ago, the a35 briefly appeared on Sony’s website. The a33 model has already been discontinued, so the a35 announcement should be coming soon.
A dpreview forum member published several pictures of the upcoming Sony NEX C3 camera (some of the images were already removed). The new NEX will have a 16.2MP sensor and will support 720p HD video (not full HD). The exact date of the announcement is not known, but is expected to be somewhere in May. A new flash (pictured above) will probably be part of the announcement.
Check also the first picture of the Sony a35 camera.
More images after the break:
As previously reported, FujiFilm released the first firmware 1.01 update for the X100 camera today. There seems to be only one minor fix in this update, but there are already speculations online about other “hidden” fixes:
Fuji X100 won the TIPA Best Premium Camera award for 2011 (no surprise here).
FujiFilm filed a patent in Japan for a three layer image sensor with improved color reproduction and high sensitivity. In a recent Q&A session FujiFilm acknowledged that the sensor in the X100 is their own creation. The latest DxOMark test showed that the Fuji X100 sensor outperforms most of the DSLR cameras on the market today: Pentax K7, K-x and K-r, Nikon D300S, D3100, D5000, Sony Alpha 290, 390, 450, 550, SLT Alpha 33, Canon EOS 1100D, 600D, 60D, 7D, 1D Mark III (thanks Dan).
Takeshi Higuchi, board member of Fujifilm Holdings recently said:
“Digital camera resolution has reached saturation and the next innovation will be on sensors with CMOS technology, which brings advanced imaging features to digital cameras.”
FujiFilm is expected to launch 40 new camera models this year, 27 of them will be launched by May, 2011.
