New rumors about the upcoming second Pentax mirrorless system.

There is a new rumor about the second Pentax mirrorless system. It’s coming via tmcnet.com:

“Ricoh Co. is considering fully entering the mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera market in a bid to boost its digital camera operations, informed sources told Jiji Press Saturday.
A new mirrorless camera will be developed by Pentax Imaging Systems Co., which the Japanese office equipment maker will acquire on Oct. 1 to take over the Pentax brand, the sources said.
Mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, which are smaller and lighter than conventional single-lens reflex cameras, attract a wide range of consumers including young women.
A super compact mirrorless camera was rolled out under the Pentax brand in late August. But it was rather designed for beginners with a small image sensor, which converts light captured through lens into an electronic signal.
Equipped with a larger sensor, the new model will allow for a wide variety of photo styles, such as making out-of-focus areas in a shot much more blurry, the sources said.
Among other Japanese makers, Panasonic Corp. and Olympus Corp. are already offering mirrorless cameras featuring large sensors.
Ricoh will offer characteristic compact cameras under its own label, while trying to bring the Pentax brand on par with Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc. in interchangeable-lens cameras, Ricoh President Shiro Kondo said.“

Don’t know how much sense it makes for Ricoh to develop and maintain three different mirrorless systems! Let’s see if the rumor will become true…

Canon asking questions about Mirrorless.


Click on image to enlarge!

Canon customers received a survey asking questions about mirrorless cameras! The survey is available here but you need an access code: http://advisorypanel.vovici.net/se.htm. Anyway, the guys over at Canonrumors managed to get some screenshots of the survey.

What will be the result of the poll? The results will be kept secret by Canon Managers but the result will be one only. It is inevitable, Canon will make a mirrorless camera. Don’t be shy Canon! :)

 

Pentax Q reviews

The image on top is from Quesabesde (Click here) which wrote a full Pentax Q test. But here are plenty of more reviews and hands- on at BJPonline, Photography Blog, DPhotographer UK, Amateur Photographer and WhatDigitalCamera.

That little tiny camera is already a hotseller in Japan (See BCNranking) but I cannot imagine that camera to sell well in “western” countries. Anyway, this is up to you. My job here is to give you all latest reviews ;)

New Nikon patent discloses a 10-100mm mirrorless lens.

The japanese blog Egami found a new Nikon patent that descirbes the characteristics of a new 10-100m f/4.5-5.6 lens for mirrorless cameras whcih on the new 2,7 or 2,8 crop sensor will become a 28-280mm lens in 35mm terms. Egami summed the rumored lenses + patent description and those could be the lenses coming from Nikon:

P.S.: There are only ten days to go until the REAL Nikon mirrorless system announcement! :)

Nikon mirrorless system is called CX. The first cameras will be named Nikon V1 and Nikon J1.

According to Nikonrumors there will be two mirrorless cameras form Nikon (the V1 and the J1). The only difference between the two is that one has a self timer :)

Those are the specs:
10.1MP
ISO range: 100-3200 (with H1-6400)
CCD sensor (not sure about that) – the whole mirrorless line will be called CX, similar to DX and FX
phase and contrast AF detection
Both cameras will have 2.7x crop factor
3 in. LCD screen
The J1 model will have a built-in flash
The V1 will not have a built-in flash but it will have a multi-accessory port which will support external flash and a GPS device
There will be no traditional flash hot shoe on both models
There will be a F-mount adapter
Both cameras will probably be made of plastic
Full HD movie with many additional features
EXPEED 3 processor with 600 megapixels per second processing power

The four mirrorless lenses are (most with choice of colors, except the 10-100mm):
10mm f/2.8 pancake lens
10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens (very short and portable)
10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR
30-110mm VR

Reuters: Nikon mirrorless camera for $900-$1,300 with lens.

Click on image to read the japanese text.

Reuters reports: “The company will price the mirrorless camera plus lens at 70,000 yen-100,000 yen ($900-$1,300), which is on a par with rivals’ offerings.“. But as you see form the image on top Nikon just released an official statement saying that “we didn’t release any information”.

If the camera has a 2,7x crop sensor that price range may be a bit to high or not? Anyway, let’s see what Nikon will announce on September 21!