The E1 camera is so small, there is barely any room on the body for its two-character name.
This is only a slight exaggeration for the slight camera with large ambitions and an impressive list of specs that could make it legitimate competition for GoPro, the reigning king of the Point of View camera market.
Startup camera company Z says its E1 is the world’s smallest Micro Four Thirds 4K video camera with interchangeable lenses.
Cameras, cameras, cameras. German photographic trade show Photokina is just around the corner, and the big names are outing their latest models before the news pipes get completely clogged with the tangled hair and soap scum of new releases. So this week we have a bunch of cool new cameras and accessories, including a GoPro harness for your pooch, along with the usual mix of gadgets designed to make you want to part with your cash.
Load up your manly new leather tote with dreamy camera filters, stick a handmade lens on your Leica, slip into a hideous, advertising-overloaded shirt from Rapha and jump on an outrageously expensive bike that’s unique selling proposition is its paint job. What could be more fun this July 4th weekend?
Panasonic, maker of everything from vacuum cleaners to bikes, can now count itself as a maker of awesome lenses. The brand-new Leica 42.5mm f1.2 for Micro Four Thirds cameras is not only impressive specs-wise (it’s an ultra-fast 85mm equivalent portrait lens) but by all accounts it takes some pretty amazing pictures.
Let’s make a little wager. I’ll put a $1 on the fact that most people who buy the tiny new Panasonic Lumix GM1 will never change its lens, instead opting to use it as a rather cool little compact. Not that this is a bad thing entirely – having a Micro Four Thirds sensor in a body smaller than that to the sensorially-challenged Pentax Q10 is great. But it’d be a shame not to stick Panasonic’s near-legendary 17mm ƒ1.7 lens on this baby and drop it in your pocket.
If you happen to have a bunch of Four Thirds lenses lying around, and your in the market for a new camera, then Olympus has you covered: The new OM-D E-M1 is an SLR-style body which will accept old Four Thirds lenses, as well as new Micro Four Thirds lenses. And more importantly, they actually work, and focus at a decent speed.
I know, I know. This is technically the third post I’ve written about the Panasonic GX7. But it’s also the first post since it has existed as anything except a Schrödinger’s Rumor.
The GX7 is Panasonic’s best-looking Micro Four Thirds camera to date, in terms of both styling (it’s retro-hot) and design choices. It’s also priced to go up against cameras like Fuji’s X-series, at $1,000 for the body alone, and $1,100 for camera and 14–42mm (28–84mm equivalent) kit lens.
All Panasonic’s hopes of a surprise launch of its GX7 camera have been dashed. The Micro Four Thirds body has now been fully leaked, with what look to be official pictures and specs. And what a camera. If you have had your eye on one of Fujifilm’s retro-styled but ultra-modern x-series cameras, but already own a clutch of Micro Four Thirds lenses, then this camera may well be for you.
You gotta love the destruction of the point-and-shoot camera industry at the hands of the cellphone. After years of trying to woo us with more and more hard-drive-filling megapixels, camera makers are finally being forced to give us what we actually want. And it doesn’t hurt that these features are exactly those things that are difficult to put into phones: Big sensors and – now – viewfinders.
The latest convert looks like it’ll be Panasonic, with the newly-leaked GX7.
There's one camera accessory which you probably never, ever use — unless you're a professional who carries several cameras: the body cap. This protective plastic disk is most likely in the back of a closet somewhere, waiting inside the camera's box for the day you sell it and the cap is needed once again.
But Olympus thinks that it can tempt you with a fancy body cap. What's more, it thinks that you'll pay £70 for it (around $114). Behold: The 15mm ƒ8 "body cap."
