Yashica EZ F521 - A new digital rangefinder from Yashica!!

Okay, I lied, but it's close enough to get me very excited. exemode announced a new Yashica branded digital camera EZ F521. It sports a fixed 42.53mm (35mm equivalent) f3.0 lens. That's my favorite focal length, though I wish the lens could be faster. Sensor size is small (1/2.5) but the resolution is a not-overly-aggressive 5 megapixels. The thing I like the most is of course the retro styling. They even kept the Yashica font that gives it the perfect classic feeling. The only problem is that the lens is fixed focused (1.5m to infinity). The EZ F521 will beginning selling in Japan for 7980 yen. Can't ask for much at this price I guess (some Pentax lenses have their prices almost doubled over this past year...). More details at the official site.

DCC Leica M3 is golden

There is no better way to start of the New Year with GOLD. This camera came out last year but I only just saw the news about it. It's the Minox Digital Leica M3 Gold Edition. Talk about luxury!

Not sure what to get that Wall Street executive who has everything? This camera is plated with 24 carat gold, and has the name Leica on it. It is simply the peak of extravagance!

Actually, it is fairly cheap for a cool camera like this. For around $350, it's not bad at all. Just think about how much Gold costs these days :)

Related

• Minox DCC Leica M3 (5MP) Review

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 - wow that was quick

It was just last month that the Micro Four Thirds format was announced, and today a new camera in this format is already previewed at DPreview. I'm sure this has seriously disrupted business planning at Canon and Nikon. This new camera is the Panasonic G1.

The G1 is basically a prosumer camera with interchangable lenses. It sounds bad to the DSLR lovers but it's a blessing to anyone who want quality without the bulk. It replaced the viewfinder with a huge live view screen. The artificially small and dark viewfinder has always been the marketing tool to get people to buy a more expensive SLR, now the market is turned upside down for sure. The one thing that might bother people is that the normal phase-detection autofocus is replaced by contrast autofocus, so AF speed might slow down. I do have to say the entry-level cameras from all manufacturers all seem to have AF problems, so maybe contrast AF is not such a bad thing (and it's really what-you-see-is-what-you-get since you can see much more clearly what is in focus using the big screen). One striking is that this camera will come in 3 colors: black, blue and red. I think a red camera is so cool. A camera with color might make people less nervous too, which is never a bad thing.

Micro Four Thirds bridges the great digital camera divide

Today, an announcement from Olympus and Panasonic sent shockwaves through all the photography forums. The traditional gap between point and shoot and DSLR has been crossed. High quality, compact digital camera is now possible with the Micro Four Thirds format. This format standardizes a mirrorless interchangable lens digital camera with the same sensor size as the Four Thirds system. Imagine, a digital rangefinder with perfect framing, not made by Leica. Entry-level DSLR buyers will be delighted to find a much smaller camera delivering the same quality images, with a big LCD for easy composition. How many times have you heard people complaining about the small and dark viewfinder on entry-level DSLRs? This new system has the potential to steal A LOT of sales from Canon and Nikon. Watch out!

On a side note, we will probably see a Panasonic-made Leica-branded digital rangefinder in the future, but I think it's quite obvious Leica will exist only in name from now on.

Links

• Dpreview has lots of pictures describing this new format