Guess who won the RED DOT design award…the K-01 :)

The famous RED DOT design award has been won by Marc Newson designed Pentax K-01!  Even if I don’t like the design I am happy that Pentax won it. It’s nice to see companies trying new ways of thinking a camera. Here is the official motivation:

“This year, the PENTAX K-01 was selected from 4,515 applications submitted from 58 countries as one of the Product Design winners.
The PENTAX K-01 is a lens-interchangeable digital camera with super-high-resolution image quality supported by approximately 16.28 effective megapixels, a top sensitivity of ISO 25600, and full HD video recording capability. Designed by world-famous industrial designer Marc Newson, its clean, geometric body signifies a bold move by PENTAX to create a truly original and innovative design. By incorporating the K mount — a lens mount extremely popular from the days of film cameras — PENTAX allows the user to mount any one of 214 lenses (as of April 2, 2012) onto the K-01 camera body, assuring endless possibilities in visual expression and creativity.“

Source: Photoxels.

Nine new X mount adapter from Rayqual (X PRO 1 at Amazon UK)


Rayqual really didn’t waste any time and is coming out with a great ammount of new adpaters for the Fuji X PRO 1! And they are fast too! Starting from today(!) you can use all these lenses on the Fuji: Leica M, Nikon CY, Yashikon CFD, Canon FD, Pentax K, Olympus OM, M42 screw, Leica R and Exakta-Kodak.

Rayqual adpaters are usually available for purchase on . But I still din’t find any of the new adpaters for the X system.

Source: Rayqual (via Fujirumors).

P:S.: The X PRO 1 is still on the top positions of the Amazon US sales ranking (Click here). And now it is for sale at Amazon UK too (Click here). Let’s see how well it will do there.

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).

Mirrorless news roundup with weird GXR-Chinon combination pictures!

DC.watch (Click here for the translation) posted that cool picture of the Ricoh GXR with the old Chinon AF 50mm f/1.7 lens (released back in 1982).

Let’s keep talking about the GXR. Bjoern Uttpott (Click here) posted a nice set of images taken with the 50mm Sonnar lens.

And now some K-01 news:
Pentax K-01 Mirrorless CSC Full Review (ePhotozine).
Another K-01 review at Photographyblog (Click here): “Therein lies the K-01’s main problem. While it may look refreshingly different, the Pentax K-01 falls unsuccessfully between two stools – ultimately we’d either buy a similarly sized DSLR or a much smaller compact system camera in preference to the K-01.“
K-01 hands-on at DC.watch (Click here).

Sony:
New Sigma lens test by Slrlensreview (Click here).

Panasonic:
First movie entirely shot with the AG-AF100 at Imdb (Click here).

Panasonic GF5 announced. Sony NEX-F3 is next!

After multiple leaks the Panasonic GF5 is finally here and already available for preorder at Amazon (Click here). Full news and reviews coverage is available at 43rumors (Click here). If all the rumors I am getting are correct than the next new mirrorless camera announcement will be from Sony in a couple of weeks. The new NEX-F3 (NEX-C3 successor) should arrive. It will be even smaller than the NEX-C3 but not as small as the GF5.

One more thing: Leica announcement is on May 10th and than one more announcement from Samsung is also coming…

Sony launches the NEX-FS700. Panasonic to counterattack on Thursday!


We are getting closer to the NABshow in Las Vegas and Sony is the first company to announce a new mirrorless camcorder! The NEX-FS700 you see here on top looks quite..well…unbalanced with that 18-200mm E-Mount lens on it :) Sony missed it to introduce some new high quality NEX zoom lens for filmmakers. With the 18-200mm that camera is pretty much like a Tiger in prison, or a Ferrari driven by Massa or a Djokovic forced to dance ballet :)
That said here is the full press release including specs: Sony Europe. There is no info about the price yet. But early rumors said it would cost around $8,000.

But good for Sony that also Panasonic seems to not be fully awake from the hibernation. Their new 12-35mm and 35-100mm X zoom lenses have been delayed again and will hit the stores by end of summer only. nevertheless Panasonic will introduce a new AG-AF camcorder on Thursday April 5th (yes that Thursday). Also the GF5 will be announced along the new camcorder. But that is not really a surprise anymore as specs and images leaked a long while ago!

P.S.: Canon si going to introduce a new “mini” C300 camera.

Canon G1X interview at DC.watch


DC.watch (Click here) had a long interview with the team that developed the Canon G1X. Interesting that they said a G1X camera with interchangeable lens would have not been possible to develop. Panasonic proved with the 14-42mm X lens that it is possible. The Four Thirds sensor size has been used for an optimal miniaturization of the body and lenses. And than they got an easy answer about the possibility to make a G1X camera with interchangeable lens mount: “I think it’s technically possible“. Yeah of course, question is only when you will do it! :)