Here it is the new Sony RX100 high end compact camera! It has been leaked at Digicaminfo. And the specs are very interesting:

• 13.2X8.8Mm Exmor CMOS sensor type 1.0 effective number of pixels 20.2 million pixels
• Monitors – LCD (4:3), 3.0-inch, 1,229,000 dots
• Lens Vario-Sonnar T * is
• The focal length is 30-108mm (4:3) equivalent 35mm, 29mm-105mm (16:9)
• The brightness of the lens is F1.8-4.9
• Minimum focusing distance is 5cm, wide-tele 55cm at the end
• The standard number of shots (conforming to CIPA) 330 sheets / min – 165
• 30-valve second shutter speed is 1/2000 in the manual
• ISO sensitivity (100 and 80 in the expansion), NR ISO125-6400 by Auto: Auto ISO125-25600 in the
• Second continuous shooting is 10 frames / second 2.5 frames / continuous shooting in priority mode in normal mode –
• Still images JPEG, RAW
• 1920×1080 60p AVCHD video 28M
• Size 58.1X101.6X35.9Mm
• The weight (including battery and Memory Stick Duo) 240 g
• Color: Black

The Nikon 1 is a huge hotseller in US (here is the ranking) and Sony is now ready to fight back! They will soon announce a High End Compact Camera that features a 1 inch sensor just like the size of the Nikon 1 sensor. But it will be more compact also because it has a fixed and retractable zoom lens!

The camera should be announced on June 6th (Wednesday). Let’s see if we can leak the camera specs and images before that date!

Canonrumors reports (with a low ranked rumor value) that Canon will announce a “well specced” mirrorless camera along a “couple” of lenses.  But you may would think this would be a higher end model but according to CR sources this is not a ““pro” level mirrorless. The pro mirrorless cameras would arrive later within the coming 12 months.

Canonwatch was the first to report about a mirrorless camera announcement in June. But specs still are relatively unknown. The only thing we heard is that it has a modern design similar to the Nikon 1 models.

According to sources from Photogizmos Pentax is changing the strategy and “they will soon be discontinuing future development of “normal” point-and-shoot cameras in favor of specialty cameras like the Ultra-Rugged WG series, Ultra Compact interchangable lens cameras like the Q series and coming soon, an incredible 360 degree Digital camera.“

That 360 degree camera sounds really intriguing!

P.S.: Digitalcamerareview posted the full K-01 review.

A few months ago Mr. Stefan Daniel (Director Product Management at Leica Camera AG) had an interview with Leica Blog (Via Megapixel) said that optical viewfinder will get less and less important. This of course led us all to believe that the time may be close for Leica to launch a mirrorless camera with electronic viewfinder. But according to our (very good) Leica sources there will be NO camera like that at Photokina. Plans for EVF cameras have been pushed forward to 2013. Too bad, really hoped Leica would be the first camera maker to launch a Full Frame camera with Electronic Viewfinder. That camera could have been a lot cheaper than the Leica M series also because they would get rid of the expensive and spacious rangefinder mechanism.

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Reminder: These are the hot points from Mr. Stefan Daniel interview with Megapixel:
1) “The experience with the very successful Leica X1 leads us to the opinion that a Leica with an interchangeable lens should have at least an APS-sized sensor.“
2) “I think that the quality of the 1.4MP finders is already very good, and sometimes even more accurate than an optical finder, think of white balance or exposure. Over time, as technology is improving, optical finders will get less and less important. The X100 finder is a very nice concept and well executed.“
3) “Offering additional functions such as video and live view would extend the usability of the M camera significantly. CMOS is a prerequisite for it, therefore it will be the technology of the future.“

Our trusted sources denied that the Pentax Spain teaser has to do with a new camera (mirrorless or DSLR). They will announce some kind of local news that will definitely not be exciting :)
That said we expect Pentax to announce a lower end mirrorless camera within the next months. It will be priced below the K-01.

So what to epxect now? Canon? Are you here? :)

The Japanese blog Egami (Click here) spotted a new Nikon patents containing a couple of new Nikon 1 lens specs. We have the 10mm f/2.8, the 32mm f/1.2 and the 7-13mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. But the patent discloses a surprise….drumming….Nikon unveils that lenses up to f/0.7 aperture are possible! Of course this is a patent and you know well that 90% of the stuff they describe will never become real. And honestly don’t know how much sense a lens like this would make. Anyway, I know of one lens, the Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 used by Stanley Kubrick (more here on Wikipedia). And at f/0.75 aperture you can find plenty of lenses on [shoplink ‘f 0.75 lens’ ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

So is the impossible…possible?