Micro Four Thirds | Roberts Raw! Camera News, Advice, And Learning

› posts tagged ‘micro four thirds’

Olympus Releases All Black E-P2 Kit, Jody Grober Is The Likely Audience

If there’s one thing my boss is good at, it’s helping pros get the equipment they need. If there’s a second thing, it’s complaining when cameras don’t come in “professional” black. So, Jody Grober, this kit is for you.

At its heart, it’s the same E-P2 with 17mm f2.8 pancake prime that’s been available for a while. So, you’re talking 13 megapixels, a 3″ LCD, full-time LiveView, Olympus’ dust-reduction system and in-body sensor-shift image stabilization, and those find-them-fun-or-hate-them-passionately art filters (including multiple exposure.) And they’re adding the previously optional FL-14 flashgun to the package. And the lens and flash are now black.

Think you can handle that? Good. Estimated pricing is about the same as the current kit without the flash, so, basically you get the black paint and the flash for free. Can’t beat that, now can you?

Coming, er, sometime?

Olympus M.Zuiko 75-300mm Reaches 600mm Equivalency

Like zoom? (Zoomy!) You know you do, come on… And that’s why you’re excited by Olympus’ new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7. Because, for those of you not hip to the game, on the Four-Thirds and Micro Four-Thirds system, there’s a crop factor of 2x, meaning a 300mm lens will appear to have the same zoominess a 600mm did on 35mm film bodies.

For the record, 600mm is a lot.

I mean, 600mm is often the longest lens any manufacturer will make in a 35mm line-up.

So yeah.

As always, the name really tells you most of it, like that this lens is a little slow at 6.7 on the long end. What the specs don’t tell you is it weighs less than a pound and is a little over 4.5″ long as pictured. Yeah, seriously. Not even 5″ traveling size gets you 600mm equivalent. And, it looks pretty nice to boot.

Estimated retail? $900 or so. But you’ll pay it, because you know you love the zoooooooom!

Olympus Announces m.Zuiko 40-150mm f4-5.6

For all you Micro Four-Thirds fans, Olympus has a couple new ones today for you, starting with this new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 which ways all of 6.3oz and, like in the big-brother Four-Thirds line, compliments the kit 14-42mm to make a fully covered 28-300mm equivalent range in only two compact lenses.

Now, I used the Zuiko 40-150mm that came out back with the E-410, and it was a nice lens. Compact and light, and fairly sharp. A bit slow, sure, but it was like a fifth the size of the 50-200mm I replaced it with (a lens that was so big in comparison I nicknamed it the “Leviathan”). So, I have every faith this newer, more compact model with the same range and f-stops will be a rather similar performer, and will be just fine for general use.

Also, it reportedly uses a silent motor, so it can autofocus during movies with being heard over the din of your memories.

Estimated retail when it starts trickling in? About $300 bucks.

Panasonic Micro-Four Thirds Camera Users Are Sexier

OKCupid, an online dating site which I may or may not be fond of myself, has let loose possibly the best blog article ever, where they have collected data on user attractiveness and correlated it against the EXIFs of the photographs. The results are kind of amazing and definitely interesting to read through. They looked at the results based on camera type, aperture, flash usage, and time of day. Some of the key findings? Interchangeable lens cameras make you hotter than point-and-shoots, and they’ll both make you way hotter than camera phones. Flash makes you look 6-8 years less attractive (not that many working shooters couldn’t have already told you that), and big, wide apertures add attractiveness to your shots. No, really, keep it at f3.5 or lower, kids.

Oh, yeah, and apparently people using Panasonic Micro-Four Thirds shooters like the GF1 or GH1 are just way totally sexy. Or something.

They break down how they collected everything in their post, which is worth reading in detail before running off and making big scandalous claims that Canon shooters are homely. Seriously people, be responsible with tantalizing data taken out of context. We’re obviously not to be trusted with it, so it’s up to you.

external link

Panasonic to Debut 3D Conversion Lens for G-Series Shooters

Not got quite enough scratch shoved under the mattress to buy one of those 3D-ready camcorders Panasonic’s talking up? We feel you. Did you purchase one of Panasonic’s very nifty Micro-Four Thirds G-series cameras with a good video mode, like the GH1 or G2? Yeah? Well, boy-howdy, you’re in luck! In addition to the camcorder, Panasonic is promising a 3D lens converter for its G-series mounts by the end of this year.

For those scratching their heads and looking blankly at their screen, the idea is the lens splits one image into two, the same way we’d see it with two eyes. So, the left- and right-halves of your sensor are recording slightly different versions of the same scene. You lose half your horizontal pixels, but you gain 3D. Ta-da!

Now, while any Micro Four Thirds shooter could mount this (Olympus’ Pen series uses the same mount), at this point a lot of the functionality will be in the firmware, so until we hear anything otherwise, we’ll assume this a Panasonic-only thing, k?

Winners in Olympus E-PL1 Contest Announced

The winners of Olympus’ recent E-PL1 contest have been announced. 6 finalists are getting a free Olympus E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera and five grand to flesh their video proposals into real projects. Then, one of those six will be chosen as the grand winner and the creative staff sent to the Olympus-sponsored US Open Tennis Championships, where their work will be aired on the giant video board at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Not too shabby.

All six video proposals are on Olympus’ YouTube channel. Or in the press release. Both linked below.

source external link

Panasonic’s Micro-Four Thirds Camcorder A Little More Real

Last seen a while back as just a concept rendering, Panasonic’s Micro Four-Thirds camcorder the AG-AF100 has resurfaced today with a short PDF outlining the most general of planned features and including a new product shot with a bit more real-world detail worked in. What’s in there? Well, it’s going to have two SD/SDHC/SDXC card slots, which’ll let you hold up to 12 hours at the very highest quality setting. That highest quality setting will be AVHCD PH mode, if you’re interested.

It’ll record 1080:59.94i/50i/29.97p/23.98p r 720:29.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/23.98p. It’ll have HD-SDI out, and XLR 2 channel input. And yeah, it’ll have a 4/3 sensor, which while often criticized in the still sphere for being smaller than comparable APS-C sounterparts is down-right huge compared to video-standard 2/3″ sensors. It’ll accept any lens the rest of the Micro Four-Third family does (native M4/3 lenses, and basically anything else with some form of adapter.)

Apparently the Panny link for the PDF keeps going down. DPReview is hosting a copy, and we’ll host one here, too. Click the image below.

New Pany GH1 hack

So Derek just shot me over a link that I think needs to be shared. Looks as if somebody hacked the GH1 to make the video ability even better. Looks like it might even surpass the Canon 5DMKII. 50 MB/sec. Wow. Here is the link: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/how-to-hack-panasonic-gh1-to-shoot-super-high-quality-24p-video-and-more/

What will the GH2 do? Will it matter?

Olympus M.Zuiko 14-150mm Reviewed

Olympus’ M.Zuiko 14-150mm f4-5.6 zoom, the 28-300mm equivalent super-zoom for its Micro Four Thirds Pen system, is the subject of the newest lens review over at Imaging Resource. Those of you who’ve been in photography a bit will know that super zooms, that have to contains optics that switch from wide angle to super-tele, are always a bag of compromises. If you’re wondering just how Olympus managed those compromises in this budget lens, hit the external link.

external link

Sony NEX-5 hands on preview/opinion

I just got my hands on the new Sony NEX-5 camera. And I like it. A lot.

This is Sony’s answer to the Panasonic and Olympus micro 4/3 cameras and the answer is huge. The first thing you notice is the sensor. It’s a regular APS-C size sensor that you find in most digital SLR’s today. And it makes a difference. The low light, high ISO ability is spectacular! The new Sony E-mount only has a few lenses at this time, but I bet, just like the Micro 4/3 mount, there will be adapters available in no time for all the popular mounts!
read more

back to roberts imaging ›