Hasta La Gadget!

Well, lookie here, a couple of little firmware files have wandered into our midst. Panasonic gets credit for the most interesting with its 1.11 update for the DMC-G2, offering a “performance enhancement,” an improved AE lock that holds even when using the touch shutter, and support for the new H-FT012 lens we recently played with — the one that adds a third dimension to your otherwise 2D shooter. Pentax, meanwhile, has a 1.01 update for its K-5 that will let you capture 20 RAW images in a burst, which a lot more than the eight it can grab currently. Then there’s “improved stability for general performance such as exposure range on HyP mode,” which sounds awful nice too. Both are available now, so mosey those SD cards on over and click on through.

Panasonic and Pentax pack a pair of pickled firmware updates, DMC-G2 gets 3D, K-5 better bursting originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, Panasonic, take a look over here. This is how you upgrade a successful, well designed camera. You add almost no changes, boosting the maximum ISO from 3200 to 6400, for example, and perhaps tweaking the color and shaving some weight to make it look a little different from its predecessor. What you don’t do is take possibly the best camera you ever made (GF1) and dumb it down until it is little more than a point-and-shoot with interchangeable lenses (GF2).

Olympus did it right, and the paragraph above contains almost all the tweaks it made to the already good Pen EPL-1. In fact, the new camera does’t even get a new name, just an extra letter: EPL-1s.

A bigger change is the new kit lens, the 4-42mm II ƒ3.5-5.6 which shrinks down to 454g (one pound) and gets a video-friendly silent AF motor which is also faster to focus than the old model.

The EPL-1s can also be had in a nasty burgundy/red colorway.

The new kit is launching in Japan, hopefully making its way overseas soon.

Olympus Pen Lite [Olympus Japan]

See Also:

• New Olympus Pen Adds Flash, Loses Good Looks
• Olympus Pen EP-2, Now in Retro-Tastic Silver
• CES 2010: Samsung Joins Rangefinder Fray With Large-Sensor NX10 …

If yesterday’s preview of the GF2 wasn’t enough for you, here’s a little more eye candy to feast upon. We paired up Panasonic’s all-new Micro Four Thirds shooter with the GF1 that preceded it and collected a nice little gallery for your perusal below. The major difference between the two is in their dimensions — the GF2 feels a lot closer to your typical compact camera — though there are plenty of smaller modifications as well, such as the refashioned grip on the camera’s right side, the replacement of the jog dial up top with a stereo mic array, and the introduction of a luminous iA button for switching on the intelligent auto mode. The back of the GF2 is also quite a bit tidier, which has been achieved mostly by eliminating some buttons in favor of the touchscreen interface. Check it all out below or jump past the break for some video action.

Continue reading Panasonic Lumix GF2 vs. GF1… fight!

Panasonic Lumix GF2 vs. GF1… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How do you follow up on an almost perfect camera? If you’re Panasonic, and that camera is the mirrorless, lens-swapping GF1, then you forget about incremental updates and just ruin everything.

The new GF2 tosses many things that were good in the compact, Micro Four Thirds GF1 in the name of miniaturization. But first, what’s new? The GF2 gets an update to the Venus Engine image processor which boosts the maximum ISO to 6400, a touch-screen, which now controls almost everything, and an upgrade to the HD video mode, now shooting 1080i and 720p at 60fps, with a built-in stereo microphone. The 12.1MP sensor, however, is the same one found in the GF1.

Gone are the mode selector dial on the top plate, along with the very useful drive-mode lever that surrounded it and offered quick access to burst, self-timer and bracketing modes. Also missing are most of the buttons on the rear-panel. The camera keeps the multi-function D-pad along with the playback and quick-menu buttons, but loses the AF/MF selector, the AF/AE lock and display buttons and also the dedicated depth-of-field preview button.

All these functions are now shifted off to the touch-screen, which has the same 3-inch, 460,000-dot resolution as the GF1. The menu system has been completely redesigned (thank God), and some neat functions have been added. For instance, you tap on a face and to focus and the GF2 not only sets the exposure mode to “portrait” but can also lock on and follow the subject around the screen.

Clearly Panasonic is positioning this as a step-up for compact users, not as the do-anything pro camera that was the GF1. And what do we get for these sacrifices? A few fractions of an inch shaved off the size (4.4 x 2.7 x 1.3-inches vs. 4.7 x 2.8 x 1.4-inches) and a weight saving of a half an ounce.

The kit lens has also changed, from the lovely 20mm ƒ1.7 of old to the 14mm F2.5. You can also pick the adequate 14-42mm zoom, just as you could before, or pick a box that includes both.

If you currently own and love your GF1, there really is nothing to see here. If you’re thinking of buying the GF1, you still should, as this new camera is something completely different. In fact, it might be worth keeping an eye on what Olympus does with its Pen series, as from now on that seems it may be be the only way to get a proper Micro Four Thirds camera with actual buttons.

Price TBA, the GF2 will go on sale in January 2011.

Press release [Panasonic]

PAnasonic GF2 Hands-on video [Which? UK]

See Also:

• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …
• Hands-On With Panasonic's Leica-Lite GF1
• Tiny Panasonic GF-2 Spotted on Paris Billboard

Rumors have been swirling around an imminent update to Panasonic’s GF-1 for the last week, but now we have a photograph of the Lumix GF-2. The word from the snitches and stool-pigeons on the street has been that the GF-2 will be tiny, and will keep the same sensor as the current GF-1.

As you can see, it is very small, with some reports claiming that it will be smaller than Sony’s NEX cameras, the current kings of the mirrorless slimming contest. This photograph was snapped by a French reader of the 43 Rumors site, outside the Salon de Photo show which opens in Paris tomorrow. This rings true: every year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ad billboards betray new products days before the show begins.

But you want more details, right? The GF-2 will sport a new image processor, record “Full-HD” and will come equipped with a touch-screen. Looking at the photo, it appears that the size reduction might come at the expense of utility: Apart from the shutter-release, there appear to be almost no controls on the top plate, and certainly no dials. I guess the touch screen will fold these into some slow-to-navigate menus instead. A shame, as the controls on the GF-1, which I have and love, are pretty great.

Panasonic may also be offering a new kit, with a 14mm ƒ2.5 lens instead of the 20mm ƒ1.7 found on the GF-1.

Hopefully Panasonic won’t mess this up. We should find out tomorrow, as the same rumor sources point to an announcement in the morning. Availability of the new model is not expected until 2011, so if this does turn out the be the LX-5 with interchangeable lenses it appears to be, you can still snap up the awesome little GF-1 before it ships.

Panasonic GF2 image spotted in Paris [43 Rumors]

See Also:

• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …
• Hands-On With Panasonic's Leica-Lite GF1