This is certainly not a spectacular product announcement but a really interesting one for the mass market. Sony released that nice little new NEX-F3 camera and a new 18-200mm super zoom lens. Here is a list of useful links to learn more about the new stuff:

Preorders:
NEX-F3 is available for preorder at BHphoto (Click here)
Sony 18-200mm NEX lens preorder at BHphoto (Click here).

Previews:
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Techradar, Focus Numerique (French), Imaging Resource, ThePhoBlographer,

Image samples:
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Imaging Resource, Flickr Australia.

Press release:
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Focus Numerique (French), Photoscala (German), DC.watch (japanese).

Here are two new sexy accessories for two sexy Fuji cameras :)
The Korean company Gariz announced the new X PRO 1 leather case you can right now found them on eBay (Click here). You can have it in three different colors!
And Fuji also announced the WCl-X100 0.8 wide angle converter that will ship in June for $350. It converts the 35mm lens in a 28mm lens.

Nice!

The Wall Street Journal (via Engadget) reports: “Myoung Sup Han, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business at Samsung Electronics, and uncovered an interesting fact: the company is in the process of converting production lines at its main camera plant in China. Lines that once produced fixed-lens cameras will instead turn out compact system cameras, as the company aims to expand its presence in the more profitable mirrorless market.“

I guess this is a good move from Samsung because the smartphone market is eating up the compact camera sales. I hope Samsung can release some great stuff at Photokina. Unlike Canon/Sony/Nikon they have nothing to loose by releasing super featured cameras for a decent price!

Preorders
Leica M Monochrome is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Leica X2 and accessories are available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and listed at BHphoto (Click here).
Leica 50mm Summicron is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

Previews
M monochrome at Dpreview
X2 at Dpreview
Image samples of the Monochrome on Leicas website.

Interesting notes
Dpreview writes: “There are drawbacks, of course – the ‘headroom’ found in Raw files comes mainly from the fact that bright regions have usually only over-exposed one of the three color channels, with usable data still available for the other two channels. With a true mono sensor, any overexposure is absolute – once the channel has clipped to white, there’s no chance of recovery.“

Press releases
Leica M Monochrome at Dpreview, Photoscala (german), Focus Numerique (french).
Leica X2 at Dpreview, Photoscala (german), Focus Numerique (french).

The Leica event in Berlin just started (now at 18:45 Berlin time). L-camera-forum.com (Click here) has a nice list of tweets to follow live the product announcement. The presentation will be very long (almost two hours) and you will have to wait a bit to see the new B&W camera :)
Here are my live updates with the most recent news on top:

UPDATE_29: Leica is finally introducing the new cameras. And the new sis now officially spreaidng over the web. I am no ending my live updates and going to eat mei Weisswurst :)
UPDATE_28: A new pic of the camera by Photoscala.
UPDATE_27: The Leica forum Tweets keeps you updated about the M Monochrome presentation.
UPDATE_26: Finally they announce the M Monochrome Leica! We alreayd know the price and specs because fo the Rangefinderforum leak :)
UPDATE_25: It’s 20:48 Belrin time and the event restarted!
UPDATE_24: Now the dinner is ongoing since almost an hour!!!
UPDATE_23: 10 minutes after my last update…still no news. The dinner time is so damn long!
UPDATE_22: The guys in Berlin are still at DInner. Eating Wurst and drinking Weizen I guess. All that in the middle of the Leica event. Germans really can’t make an event without a break for a beer :)
UPDATE_21: It’s not me being slow with updates…there is a dinner break at the event in Berlin!!! At least we already got the specs and image of the camera via leak :)
UPDATE_20: New M camera has been Leaked !!!! Here it is at Rangefinderforum!
UPDATE_19: What? There is a break for some food :(
UPDATE_18: Picture of the people inside the hall.
UPDATE_17: 17 updates here and still no real camera news. Leica is doing all soooo slow and all sooo Black and White :)
UPDATE_16: Famous photographer Barbara Klemm is on stage.
UPDATE_15: Meantime the biggest Leica Forum website crashed. Shows a blank page only. A sign that there are many guys interested to see the new M mount camera :)
UPDATE_14: Again lot of general talk from the Leica bosses. It will take some time until they unveil the new stuff!
UPDATE_13: And here is the pic of the big bosses: Photo by Photoscala
UPDATE_12: Now the big bosses from Leica are on stage (Kaufmann, Schopf and Erfurt)
UPDATE_11: That’s going to be long. Also Mr. Liefers (one stage) talks about the B&W philosophy…boring :)
UPDATE_10: Rich Sultans from Asia is also at the event…. Look at the Photo at Photoscala :)
UPDATE_9: There is a lot of general talk about B&W photography. Still no news about the new camera…
UPDATE_8: Music is gone. Presentation starts!
UPDATE_7: In case you don’t know who Till is look here: http://ow.ly/i/CmQH
UPDATE_6: Still no talk, there is music over music (now Till Brönner)
UPDATE_5: Music of Morricone and on backgound Black and White images :)
UPDATE_4: Photoscala is also tweeting live with pictures.
UPDATE_3: More pics here: Leicaforum
UPDATE_2: You can see some pics from the event here: Skydrive
UPDATE_1: All the big ones are present (like Steve Huff and so on). You can see pics here: Lforum.

Oh no! We here that again! For years now Samsung is stating that they want to become the “Number One” in the mirrorless market. I hoped they would stop to talk like that after their NX system wasn’t able to gain any significant market share. Be aware that in my opinion the NX system has a great potential! Samsung has a huge sensor knowledge and they have proven that they can do superb lenses! But I don’t like all these big words repeated lately again at Techradar (Click here): “Samsung will continue to introduce a wide array of products to assume leadership in the CSC market“.

Nobody will believe them if they keep saying that :) I care to repeat that I would really like Samsung to release some very innovative product. They have the uniqe chance to create a system from scratch without to have to defend a pro business like Sony and Canon. So just do it!

The German company announced not one, not two but sixteen(!) new adapters for the Fuji X system! Check out the full list of adapters at Novoflex (Click here).

And Dpreview (Click here) posted the Fuji X PRO 1 studio samples. I will let you judge if the Fuji can really beat current Full Frame cameras (a part of the super resolution Nikon D800).

P.S.: Some new X PRO 1 tests: Fuji X PRO 1 red performance comparison canon Nikon at Dpreview Forum (Click here). X-Pro1 + Voigtlander f4 25mm Color Skopar images by John Smith (Click here).

In stock status check:
Fuji X PRO 1 body is in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Jessops UK (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 18mm f/2.0 in Stock at Amazon (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 35mm f/1.4 in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Fuji X 60mm macro f/2.0 in not Stock at Amazon (3-4weeks) but is in Stock at Digitalrev (Click here). Mike Kobal made a short NEX-7 versus Fuji X PRO 1 comparison.