EISA award winner prize for E-M5, X PRO 1 and NX20.

The European EISA agency released the name of the winners of the 2012 awards. There are thee categories of mirrorless cameras and those are the winners:
European Compact System Camera (Winner: Olympus OM-D E-M5)
European Advanced Compact System Camera (Winner: Samsung NX20)
European Professional Compact System Camera (Winner: Fujifilm X-Pro1)

For the record, EISA uses the deifnition “Compact System Camera” instead of our more popular definition “Mirrorless”. And as it happens every year…everybody wins a price…Nikon, Canon, olympus, Panasonic, Samsung and so on :)

By the way, the best mirrorless lens is the Panasonic 12-35mm X zoom.

Plenty of new Samsung reviews (dpreview, sansmirror and more!)

Some big websites finally gave some attention to Smasung NX cameras! Here are the links to the very latest reviews:

Dpreview tested the NX210: “The NX210 is slightly let down by long buffering times in raw mode and the JPEG engine’s noise treatment at high sensitivities but overall it is a powerful photographic tool with a good feature set for its class and enjoyable to use.“

Also Cnet USA tested the NX210: “I like the NX210; I enjoy shooting with it. But I think there are too many confusing choices for automatic operation, and the JPEG quality needs to be better.“

Sansmirror tested the NX1000: “A very competent camera that keeps (most) things simple and straightforward. There’s little to fault and much to praise here. Other than the clunkiness of the WiFi add-on and the fact that the iFn button seems more gimmicky than useful, this is a very strong contender for a basic mirrorless camera. “

German Samsung NX20 review at Cnet.de. NX100 test at ePhotozine.

Now let’s see if Samsung will finally release some explosive new NX stuff at Photokina…. I am talking about the nice protype images they showed us once!

Sony NEX cameras hack project officially started! Olympus announcement next week…

 

Vitaly Kiselev announced the new NEX and Alpha hack project in collaboration with the hacker called “Someone1.00”. The official forum can be seen here: www.nex-hack.info. Great news for all NEX owners! And we are also curious to see how Sony will allow programmers to work on the new NEX-5R and NEX-6 cameras that are “rumored” to have Application support.

Meantime Olympus will have a new announcement next week. No big deal, we expect the 60mm macro to be released (this lens was already shown in May).

Photokina 2012: Will the new camera world spin around application support and Android?

We all had the feeling that this had to come sooner or later and actually I am surprised it took so long! The iPhone success already showed us for a long time now that connectivity and application support is the way to go. And it looks like one of the Big Things that will arrive this year at Photokina is exactly that…

First Nikonrumors reported that the new Coolpix S800 will be bases on Android! Than SonyAlphaRumors learned that the new NEX-5R camera will have an application support and full Internet connectivity. This is also something Samsung said that they would do as soon as they can and a couple of months ago Panasonic also said that they are “investigating” the technology.

So finally we are going to see something new on the software front. Question is, who will find the best way to introduce this innovation?

Canon patent for improved phase-detection AF (for the next Mirrorless Camera?)

Egami (machine translated) found a Canon patent for an improved phase-detection AF. Higher accuracy is obtained by better propagation of light. The patent text also suggests, the method should improve accuracy when light is falling in with a low-angle incident. Another fact is very interesting: the patent refers to smaller pixel size, i.e. you can pack more pixel on the sensor. So, given that a phase-detection AF is particularly useful on a mirrorless camera, could that indicate that Canon is working on a higher resolutions sensor (with an improved AF) for its more pro-oriented mirrorless camera that we expect to be announced later this year? I think that’s plausible. If Canon is working on a mirrorless camera that is more pro-oriented than the EOS M, this cam will most probably have a higher resolution.

  • Patent Publication No. 2012-151215

    • 2012.8.9 Release Date

    • 2011.1.18 filing date

  • Existing techniques

    • JP 2002-314062

    • Conventional techniques beam separation is insufficient, Ranging Accuracy is poor

      • Scattering effects due to wiring

      • The smaller the angle of incidence, it is difficult to detect

      • Smaller pixel size, the value of F becomes larger microlenses (dark), they spread the light next to almost the same in the size of the image pixel size and pixel diffraction

  • And waveguide

    • The waveguide, depending on the angle of incidence of the light flux, there is a characteristic (waveguide mode) is different states of light propagation in the waveguide

  • Canon ‘s patented

    • Consisting of waveguide waveguide and vice

      • Guiding light of two different incident direction: waveguide

      • Vice waveguide: one for each waveguide comprises a waveguide two sub-

    • Can be detected by the photoelectric conversion unit specific, the incident light at a particular angle

    • Impact of wiring

      • The incident light to propagate the core portion of the waveguide, reducing the impact of wiring

    • Low-angle incident light, by using the corresponding waveguide mode depends on the incident direction

    • Small pixel size, support by limiting the distribution of the emitted light

      • Achieved by suppressing the spatial width confinement in the waveguide propagation of light sub-

Canon: The EOS-M is made for women. No plan to make FF mirrorless (for now)

Image courtesy: DC.watch.

DC.watch (Translation here) interviewed the Canon team that developed the EOS-M mirrorless camera. Here are some interesting bits from the interview:

1) From the beginning the goal was to make the EOS-M as good as other EOS DSLR cameras. And to make ir small and light.
2) First goal is to reach a 15% of the mirrorless market share in Japan (by October).
3) Shutter from the EOS DSLR series has been minaturzized to fit into the EOS-M
4) GX1 sales are still strong (production is 30.000 units per month).
5) A Four Thirds sensor would bring an even further advantage in miniaturization but Canon wanted to make it fully EOS compatible.
6) We chosed to have Phase detection pixel on sensor because that technology works better than COntrast AF on moving objects.
7) EOS-M mount can NOT accomodate a FULL FRAME sensor. And there is no plan for a FF mirrorless.
8) No plan for now to make an adpater for FD lenses.

Interesting. They also said the main target are women :)

Canon EOS-M preorder links:
Full presentation page on Amazon.
EOS-M Black at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto. In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK.
EOS-M White at BHphoto. In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK.
EOS-M 22mm pancake at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
EOS-M 15-55mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
EOS-M adapter at Amazon and BHphoto.
EOS-M Flash at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.

New Nikon J2 and 11-27.5mm lens officially announced.

It’s a bit strange to announce a new camera and lens in early August but this certainly means that Nikon has a lot of stuff to announce before Photokina :)
Here are the links to the new J2 and 11-27.5mm:

Preorders:
Nikon J2 at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Nikon 11-27.5mm at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here)

Press release:
Nikon J2 at Dpreview, Petapixel, CSCmagazine (spanish),
Nikon 11-27.5mm lens at Dpreview, CSCmagazine (spanish),