This is the kind of news we knew it would come :(
Kodak filed Chapter 11 for bankruptcy and this means that they will now try to restructure the company. You may have noticed that Kodak is suing Apple, Samsung, Fuji (and some other companies) because of patent infringement. They are trying to find some money here and there.

This is really not good news for people like me that uses Kodak film for their work (I own the ). Really a bad day for the photography history!

Here is the press release:

Jonathan Martin from Pentax has been interviewed by ePhotozine (Click here). When asked about the how well the Pentax Q has been received he simply answers that is it a great camera. I guess this means that it isn’t exactly a hotseller :)

What’s really important are the following two statements: When asked about a possible new mirrorless product from Pentax he said: “2012 is going to be a very exciting year, and that news is already out there, although we can’t go into details.“. This sounds like a clear “YES” to me.

And here comes the news I got from one of my trusted sources. He said that Pentax will launch a new mirrorless camera system at the CP+ show in Japan (mid February). He also heard that it will be launched with one pancake lens. I hope more sources can soon give me more details about the system. Stay tuned!

And Amateur Photographer (Click here /via Ricehigh, via Noisycamera) reports that Ricoh is considering the release of a K-mount module.

P.S.: Also Sony, Panasonic and Olympus will launch new cameras and lenses right before the CP+ show!

Zone Numérique (Click here) got the final X PRO 1 price info via Fujifilm France:
– body only: €1,590
– 18mm and 35mm lenses: €579
– 60mm macro lens: €629
First kit (body + 35mm f/1.4) available in 2 months.

The only thing we miss now is more preorder options! Right now I only found Expansys USA (Click here), Expansys Canada (Click here), Henrys Canda (Click here) and Expansys UK (Click here). You can get notification at Amazon US (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

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(Thanks Mistral)

There is a new interview at Imaging Resource (Click here) with Kazuto Yamaki, Chief Operating Officer of Sigma Corp. The few interesting points are:

1) People are interested in high quality lenses, so primes are becoming more popular everywhere in the world.
2) for compact system cameras, we think the Sony system and Micro Four Thirds are the categories that we should support.

The most important point is that it looks like Sigma wants to develop lenses that will work on booths systems, NEX and m43. This will save them some money but in my opinion that is not the right approach. For three reasons:

1) Lenses designed for m43 could be considerable smaller.
2) Focal lengths are different. If you design a 16mm lens, this will become a 24mm on the NEX and a 32mm on the m43.
3) Every systems needs different lenses. There is a different need for lenses for m43 than for NEX.

Don’t know what you think guys :)

Image courtesy: Quesabesde

Focus Numerique (Click here) just posted the Canon G1 X ISO test and it looks like a real top performer! The Canon G1 X is Canons (first) counterattack against the current mirrorless systems. It provides a unique solution, top image quality (with big sensors) in a compact body with retractable zoom lens. I am really curious to see if the camera will sell well. Preorders are already up at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). The only way to measure the popularity right now is the Amazon Ranking (Click here). It’s on position 31 in the compact camera category. Probably not a good result for now!

More info about the G1 X:
ePhotozine,
Techradar,
ThePhoBlographer,
Quesabesde first impression (in spanish).
Hands-on by DC.watch (japanese).

Video on top: Just watch what the Lady says at minute 3:45 :) You can bet this is a mistake! (via Fujirumors).

Fujifilm announced a “real” X Pro 1 lens roadmap (via Techradar). There will be 28mm f/2.8 and 23mm f/2 will prime lenses and 70-200mm f/4.0 Image + 12-20mm f/4.0 IS lenses. The maximum aperture hasn’t been 100% chosen yet. But as you know we alreayd posted the possible final specs. These are the lenses coming in 2012:
-14mm f/2.8
– 18-72mm f/4.0 with IS (Image stabilization).
These are the lenses coming in 2013
– 28mm f/2.8 pancake
– 23mm f/2.0
– 72-200mm f/4.0 IS
– 12-24mm f/4.0 IS
And there are still two more unkown lenses to come within 2013.

More Fuji news:
Now that we all know theat the X PRO 1 exists (LOL) stores are lowering the rice of the Fuji X100. It sells for $1,117 only at Amazon (Click here). At the moment of writing there are only eleven cameras left in store!
First look at Trustedreviews.
All Black X100 pics at Photographyblog.