Here are the latest financial results from Olympus and they don’t look that good. Net sales are down 4.1%, net income dropped 84.5% compared to 2010. Here are the details for the imaging division:
| Fiscal year | Market volume (In millions) | Olympus camera sales (In millions) | Olympus Market Share |
| 05/06 | 67,2 | 8,4 | 12.5% |
| 06/07 | 81,5 | 9,6 | 11.8% |
| 07/08 | 106,3 | 11,3 | 10.6% |
| 08/09 | 112,8 | 10,0 | 8.9% |
| 09/10 | 113,6 | 9,0 | 7.9% |
| 10/11 | 121,5 | 8,1 | 6.7% |
I received some information on the US pricing of the upcoming Pentax NC-1 mirrorless camera – the kit with one lens will have a MSRP in the $600 range. More lenses are expected to be released later in the year. Pentax already showed a teaser for their new mirrorless camera at a recent trade show in China. The NC-1 is expected to be announced in June, 2011.
June will be a busy month with upcoming announcements from Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Leica and possibly Samsung.
Ricoh GXR system is rather unique since it uses a swappable cartridges that encapsulate the lens and the sensor in one piece. The last GRX product announced was a cartridge with a Leica M mount. A Micro Four Thirds GXR unit was also rumored last year.
Ricoh filed a new patent in Japan for several interesting GXR units that are completely different than the current lens+ sensor combos:
Adorama is the first major US store that just started taking pre-orders for the Sigma SD1 camera at $6,899:
Who is ordering one?
The new Sony a35 will have a new tele-zoom high speed shooting mode:
A new set of 11 effects will also be introduced in the upcoming a35 and NEX C-3 cameras. They will also be available as a firmware update for the older NEX 3 and NEX 5 models:
The full frame Sony a850 is now officially discontinued at B&H. The camera was announced in August of 2009. The future of the Sony full frame DSLR line is unclear at that point. Sony did confirm that all future Alpha cameras will have translucent mirror technology.
Samsung’s representative confirmed to AP the existence of the 300mm f/2.8 XF ED lens prototype spotted in this promotional video three weeks ago. Currently there are no definitive plans to release this lens.
Back in February, Samsung already announced five NX lenses and the 60mm f/2.8 Macro ED OIS SSA seems to be already distributed to testers. A new 700mm NX lens is also expected. This summer Samsung will release two new mirrorless cameras: NX20 and NX200.
The retail price of the Sigma SD1 is $6,899 – almost $3,000 less than the initial MSRP of $9,700. This also explains why the SD1 kits were priced lower than the body.
The giveaway is now closed. I will announce the winner shortly.
What can I win?
In this giveaway you can win a Fujifilm Finepix X100 camera from Adorama. For those of you outside the US: Adorama was established in 1975 and is one of the major online retailers for photographic equipment in the States. They also offer classes, equipment rentals, Adorama TV, printing services and old equipment buyout program. If you are in New York, you can visit their store in Manhattan.
How do I win?
The rules are simple:
OR
This giveaway will be closed in one month.
Sigma's website still doesn't have a price for the SD1 camera
It’s Monday and the price of the Sigma SD1 is still $9700. I guess the initial price was not a typo. The SD1 kit prices are still lower than the price of the camera.
