TheNakedCamera spotted a small plugin called Lightroom Dashboard. It’s made by a single person named “Cheyne”. The APP analyzes all your pictures and shows you in beautiful stats:

your most common apertures
your most common focal lengths
your photo volumes over the past 2 years
how much usage your lenses get
how much usage your cameras get,

Cheyne promised to develop further the new app to include plenty of more features.

The curious and very small Polaroid Cube+ camera can finally be preordered at Amazon US (Click here). Let’s see if that one will become as popular as the also very new GoPro Hero 4 session.

Digicameinfo spotted the registered name of a new Olympus E-M10II camera. We expect this camera to be announced in July/August alreayd. This means the MFT crowd will enjoy a double camera announcement this summer from bot Olympus and Panasonic!

Fujirumors spotted an explanation from Fuji why they don’t go Full Frame. Fuji Manager Takashi Ueno says:

We gave a lot of thought to this, and reached our conclusion that APS-C is the best format for the optimum balance of body size and image quality.

Higher image quality can be achieved with full frame sensors, but in order to maximize the use of the sensor size, the lens will be very bulky and heavy.

With the power of FUJINON lens, we can achieve the full frame image quality with the APS-C sensor. We learned that the disadvantage can be recovered with the lens performance through various simulations.

Here is an example. It is generally believed that the lens performs at its best with 1 to 2 stop down from the maximum aperture. We tried to break the norm. Because if there is such belief, then the lens is very unlikely to perform at its best from corner to corner with the aperture wide open. But if we can break the norm, then we will achieve bokeh and sharpness that is equivalent to that of a full frame with 1 to 2 stop down. We can achieve the image quality that is equivalent to that of full frame.

Which is better? An f/1.4 lens on a full frame sensor and then used 1 stop down to prevent degradation in the image quality in the corner or an f/1.4 lens on an APS-C that see no degration in the image quality at its maximum aperture value?

You cannot really see the difference in bokeh between the APS-C wide open and the full frame one stop down. However, if the APS-C is wide open, then the shutter speed will be twice as fast as the full frame resulting in be less blur caused by hand shake or subject movement. If the picture becomes blurry, then the high image quality becomes meaningless.”

I have to say I do NOT agree with Fuji. Don’t think their X-Trans sensors can keep up with the Sony sensor technology madness on cameras like the A7s and A7rII. They definitely should go Full Frame or even Medium Format if the don’t want to remain in the very niche. Full Frame is already becoming mainstream with cameras like the A7 selling for less than $1,000!

The next great review from TCST team.

The Leica Q can be preordered at BHphoto.
 

The announcement party isn’t completely over yet. There is one one thing to come from Panasonic before the hot Summertime season….or Winter time if you live on the wrong side of the planet :)

Panasonic is likely to introduce a new FX300 superzoom lens with 1 inch (Sony) sensor. There is also a rumor about a new MFT telephoto lens.

After the Panasonic announcement we expect Sony-Olympus-Nikon-Canon to have new announcement in September and October.

Sony:
Sony updated the A7, A7r, A7s FE cameras The start up time is now faster. But the big update is for the A6000 which now gets XAVC-S recording!
Enter your model name and download the software on Sony sites like Sony US, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony Italy, Sony Spain, Sony Holland, Sony Belgium, Sony CH, Sony Austria, Sony Portugal, Sony Sweden, Sony Norway, Sony Finland.

Olympus:

E-M1 firmware info:

• The “Underwater” function was added to Picture Mode.
  • *We recommend setting Custom Menu G/ + WB to OFF.
• The “Live View Boost 2” function was added.

E-M5II firmware info:

The “Underwater” function was added to Picture Mode.

• * We recommend setting Custom Menu G/ + WB to OFF.