As you all know Olympus is facing a serious time because of the accounting fraud accusations. Olympus shares lost almost two thirds of their value. And now Bloomberg (Click here) reports that: “Fujifilm, which makes equipment for medical scans, has been reported as a possible bidder for Japanese camera maker Olympus Corp. Yamamoto, who also is a board member at Fujifilm, declined to comment on a possible buyout of Olympus today. Fujifilm Chief Executive Officer Shigetaka Komori said last month it was too early to discuss Olympus issues while the third-party panel was still probing the fraud at the camera maker.“

As usual these are very wild rumors. So don’t care to much about it….yet.

I am sure that Pentax is/was working on an APS-C mirrorless camera but I don’t know if the plan changed after the Ricoh acquisition. Anyway, here is again a new rumor via dpreview forum: “According to my source, Pentax will release a 35mm full-frame DSLR and an APS-C EVIL (mirror-less) in 2012. No other details were given except that the source seemed to believe the full-frame model will likely use a Sony 24MP sensor.“

The new Ricoh GXR zoom module will use the same Sony NEX-5n sensor. Could be that they will use that sensor for the upcoming Pentax mirrorless camera too?

Samsung really doens’t care about leaks and is showing the still non existent NX20 camera in their Global Download Center. As we have told you before the NX20 will be announced in Janaury and feature a new 20+ Megpixel sensor.

Ricoh announced the release of the 24-85mm GXR module with 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor. But they didn’t unveil the aperture, the availability and the price. But the administrator of Ricoh Diary (Click here) tells that the new lens will have a f/3-5-5.5 aperture and sales will start on January 20. And he also tells: “Further it should be relatively big as it will not collapse like the Olympus m4/3 kit zooms for example. The release was planned for the end of this year but the flooding in Thailand caused delays with the Sony sensor production so it has been pushed back slightly, the current planned dates are as follows:
– Full press release on 5th January 2012
– Displayed at the PMA & CES 2012 from the 10th to 13th January 2012
– Sales start 20th January 2012“

It sounds like the module will have the same sensor of the Sony NEX-5n!

With a bit a suprise Christian Sorega announced that Ricoh will soon (Monday 28) announce a new zoom module. Accoridng to Photorumors this could be a 24-80mm f/2.8 lens.

P.S: The japanese blog Egami found a Ricoh patent descirbing a new module with image sensor stabilization.

The Leica Camera Blog reports that Leica will announce some new “surprise product” in 2012. And we are not talking about the pre announced mirrorless system only. Dr. Kaufmann “told us that they haven’t been discussed or discovered by Leica Rumors or the Leica Forum until now.“.

After reading that I checked back some strange rumors from unknown sources. They might be false but it’s the only rumor I got that haven’t been posted by anyone. The rumor says that Leica could use Fuji organic sensors for their next cameras (including the M10). I repeat, the rumor is from unknown sources but what’s true is that Leica will no more rely on Kodak sensors. And Fuji organic sensor technology looks very promising….

A japanese deisgner recreated that Olympus Fuji LX image on the base of the leaked images. I think it’s a very reliable reconstruction of the final cameras.

For comparison only: Below you can see the front of the [shoplink 100018]Fuji X100[/shoplink].

P.S:
There are price drops on the Fuji X100. Check at [shopcountry 100018].
And the Fuji X10 is finally in Stock in most stores: Check at [shopcountry 100018].