South Korean lens manufacturer, Samyang has launched its first Micro Four Thirds lens, a 7.5mm f3.5 fisheye. Samyang promises more lenses very soon.
With 11 lenses already in its kitty, Panasonic plans four more lenses in 2011. First to be launched is the 25mm f1.4, a lens demanded by lots of Panasonic users as a fast, bright, standard optic. In markets like the UK, Panasonic currently has a 11.1% share of the D-SLR market. Meanwhile, Leica, Panasonic’s lens technology partner, has denied that it is planning a mirror-less camera.
Famous singer George Michael crashed his car into a camera shop in London whilst he was high on drugs. Capital Radio, a London radio station got Michael to apologize to the shop owner on air.
Sanyo cameras will be christened Panasonic, we learn reliably. One of the worst kept secrets of the imaging industry is that Sanyo (along with Hon Hua of Taiwan) is the biggest OEM for manufacturers like Olympus, Nikon and Ricoh. Get ready to see a Panasonic Xacti shortly!
Canon seems to have ruled out the introduction of an ILCC in the near future. According to Canon, ILCCs have been introduced by manufacturers who could not compete in the D-SLR market. Presumably, they were referring to the likes of Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony who have failed to make an impression with their D-SLRs. With its recent new launches in the D-SLR market proving to be huge successes, Canon can afford to take a wait and see stance.
Legendary French picture agency, Sygma went into liquidation and took with it up to 12 million images held in its archives. Corbis (owned by Bill Gates) had bought Sygma in 1999 but could not arrest the downward slide. The liquidator added fuel to the fire when he mentioned that he was unable to return the photographs. Hopefully, Corbis will intervene.
Image sharing website fotopic.net went into liquidation after being impossible to access for a few weeks. With it have gone millions of images from users who had exhibited or stored their pictures with the site.
Panasonic digital cameras now include technology that can identify Panasonic batteries. Firmware upgrades have been made to existing Panasonic cameras to prevent the use of other “unauthorized” batteries. Panasonic claim that some aftermarket batteries could overcharge, overheat or short circuit.
Sony has stopped production of the NEX-3, less than a year after its launch. No reasons have been given.
If your budget permits, go in for some more lenses that will help you to capture fine details. An example would be a prime lens like an 85mm f/1.8 or a telephoto zoom like Canon’s 55-250mm f/4-5.6 USM IS lens.
Remember, reliability of your equipment and consistency of your results are two factors of prime importance if you are to succeed. Penny-pinching will not help.
Finally, our advice piece of the month. Don’t , we repeat, don’t get into the megapixels race. Instead, a relatively low pixel density combined with a good processor and excellent optics is the best choice.
H. S. Billimoria
