Ken Rockwell: “The Canon EOS M is the world’s first serious mirrorless camera.”


The picture of the naked EOS-M chassis via CSCmagazine.

The famous Photoblogger Ken Rockwell has pretty much a very clear idea: He said that the Canon EOS-M is the “world’s first serious mirrorless camera“.

You may are thining what the heck is wrong with the rest of the mirrorless systesm: “By “serious,” I mean professional grade. Sony, Samsung, Olympus, Panasonic and other third-tier brands offer lots of mirrorless cameras, but then aren’t pro grade; they are just consumer electronics products and usually only with smaller 4/3 sensors (or smaller) and/or lens mounts often with few advanced lenses available.

No comment guys, I am neutral….very neutral (LOL) and will leave any positive or negative comment to you!

P.S: Unposted before. Spanish EOS-M hands-on by Quesabesde. Some thoughts by Cinema5D.

Canon EOS-M preorder links:
Full presentation page on Amazon (Click here).
EOS-M Black at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M White at BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M 22mm pancake at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M 15-55mm kit lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M adapter at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M Flash at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

A new EOS-M video roundup (with official commercial!). And updated preorder list.

What you can see here on top is the first official EOS-M commercial posted by Canon Germany. And there are more youtube videos for your eyes….these are all youtube links: First look by Digitalcameraworld. First look by Amateur Photographer. Preview by Dpreview. A commercial via Warehouseexpress.

I also updated the preorder list that now includes the Adorama links:
Full presentation page on Amazon (Click here).
EOS-M Black at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M White at BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M 22mm pancake at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M 15-55mm kit lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M adapter at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
EOS-M Flash at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

POLL- Don’t forget to vote:

Leica Monochrome reviews roundup…

Today we talk a bit about the Leica Monochrome. Yes, this is a post for reach people only :)

First of all BHphoto (Click here) reports that the $7,950.00 Monochrome will start to ship from August 28th. Focus Numerique posted a Leica Monochrome review by Alexander Maller: “The images are impressive. There are many, many, many details from what I know with film. The sharpness is excellent and the images are searched and really beautiful especially in the small details like hair, skin.“.
ISO Test: Leica M Monochrom vs. Leica M9 at RedDotForum.
Leica M Monochrom Hands-On Preview at ePhotozine. They also posted a Leica X2 Hands-On First Impressions Review (ePhotozine).
Leica M9 unscrambled at PetaPixel.

Now really, who of you guys preordered that camera? I can’t wait to see a FF mirrorless for $3,000. That’s what I want!

Four new Fuji X PRO 1 reviews to read!

If you can’t get enough of X PRO 1 reviews than enjoy the next four links:

Dpreview: “the X-Pro1 is a very good camera, with excellent design and image quality, let down by a few small but significant operational bugs and quirks.

Neocamera: “Paired with one of the three excellent XF-mount lenses, the X-Pro1 produces some extremely sharp large prints up to ISO 6400 and even remains usable for mid-size prints until its maximum ISO of 25600.

Digitalcamerareview: “Make no mistake, I really like this camera. The image quality and particularly the high ISO performance are just marvelous. But with midrange DSLR money involved I’m just not sure that the overall higher and more balanced performance of the DSLR doesn’t trump the ISO card of the X-Pro 1.

Luminous Landscape posted an interesting Hands-on: “Their designs are brilliant, build quality is very high, and optical quality second to none. Now they just need to refine their functional execution to have class-leading products.

As you see the X PRO 1 is a camera that polarizes a lot. Fuji needs to work on the weaknesses of the camera and find a way to price it a bit lower. Than they will have an even greater hotseller!

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).

Fuji 60mm macro gets tested at Photozone. 18mm at Photozone and SLRgear.


Image courtesy: Photozone

The well known lens review website Photozone reviewed two Fuji X lenses. The 60mm macro f/2.4: “The Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R macro is the best of the three initial lenses for the X-mount.” And the Fuji 18mm f/2.0 (here): “It is certainly a cool little lens for the Fujifilm X-Pro mirrorless system. After all small is beautiful these days. However, performance-wise it is a bit of a mixed bag.

And SLRgear tested the 18mm f/2.0 lens: “very good performance, even when used wide open, and excellent performance when stopped down just a little. If you’re an X-Pro 1 user, this is another lens that definitely deserves a place in your bag.

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).

Fuji X PRO 1 RAW sensor tests and problems…

When Fuji launched the X PRO 1 in January the main excitement was for the new sensor. But any time you see some innovation you really need to test it to see if it delivers what it promises. Sandy McGuffog from Chromasoft wrote a couple of articles about the Fuji X PRO 1 sensor. Click here to read part one, part two and part three.

The conclusions are pretty surprising: “The hard truth is that any interpolation engine is going to have trouble with pixels that are spread out, not aligned, and unevenly spaced.” and “So my conclusion is, sorry to say, that the Fuji X-Pro1 X-Trans sensor doesn’t deliver the Fuji promise of outperforming similarly sized sensors. In fact, it underperforms similar DX sensored cameras – with the official SILKPIX raw developer, the underperformance is too slight to be noticeable under normal circumstances, but is still there if you look closely

Also ReidReviews tested the X PRO 1 sensor. His article can be viewed only by subscribers but in sort he says that at High ISO the files are very clean but also have less color detail.

I am not posting this to denigrate Fuji. Quite the opposite. The Fuji X PRO 1 is a great camera but still…not perfect!

Mirrorless news roundup…(with Fuji RAW conversion tests).

Fuji X RAW:
As you may know Adobe now supports the Fuji X RAW file conversion. Here are three links to first tests:
Diglloyd posted a first image using the new Adobe RAW converter. Soundimagesplus posted a full Adobe converter test: “ACR is obviously a much more responsive and flexible programme, but it does seem that the unique nature of the sensor means that some of my normal techniques may not work so well. Interestingly, I have a preset saved that defaults to the parameters in the previous version of the Camera Raw plug-in, and I felt that I got slightly better results.“. Some watercolor effect after ACR conversion shown at Fredmiranda.

More mirrorless news:
Will the DSLR die? Will small cameras rule the world? (Visualsciencelab).
How to Improve Photography Without Upgrading Gear (RobinWong).
Canon G1X review at ThePhoBlographer.
A German NX20 review at Cnet Germany.
Zeiss 18mm F4.0 vs Fujinon 18mm F2.0 at Photoheadonline.
Full Fuji X PRO 1 review by Thom Hogan at Sansmirror.
A very exotic Fuji X-Pro1 + MIR-1 37mm F2.8 lens test at DC.watch.
How to get the most out of your Fuji X Pro1 for street photography by Mike Kobal.