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…and why it means nothing at all for the EVIL cameras market while the camera itself is quite good?

First of all, because newly announced Olympus E-PL1 is not really affordable. Yes, it will be cheaper than any other EVIL on the market, at least till the midsummer, but there were and there are several DSLRs that are cheaper than $599 (that’s how much Olympus asking for E-PL1). Sounds good in the press release but could be considered like some kind of cheating.

The second is that Olympus E-PL1 is definitely simpler than all the previous Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras but probably not the right way simpler. Take a look at E-PL1 rear side. What do you see? Exactly! A point-and-shoot.

While it seams to be a good idea to make a low-end bridge camera, which is supposed to be the link between point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, to look like a point-and-shoot, it emerges a very important question: Is it right to treat Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens cameras as a bridge solution between amateurish point-and-shoots and pro DSLRs?

And the third, to summarize: Olympus E-PL1 is a great addition to Olympus line-up and the whole Micro 4/3 but it can’t shake EVIL market not only because it’s not the kind of product that shakes something but also because there is no real market yet. We need to wait for at least the second model in Samsung’s NX system line-up.

Thanks to Olympus, this waiting will be promising. E-PL1 makes market hotter and Samsung should consider to challenge E-PL1’s price tag or even a $500 mark.

So, the first of Samsung NX has just hatched. With a crack and pop sounds a dozens of hands-on previews have emerged. Most of them are just “I squeezed this lil thingy at the show, can’t post any pics though”. But some of them are real preproduction (beta firmware) NX10 previews.

What deserves the careful attention? First of all, the samples. There are not so much of them yet. Korean 1, 2 and 3. Next should be preview from DPreview and theirs own samples gallery. And the last but not least – Samsung NX10 vs. Panasong GF1 noise comparison here.

What’s great about Samsung NX10? Well, not much actually. This is the only APS-C EVIL camera on a horizon yet. It has a nice looking simple and sturdy body (yet not too compact and way too much DSLR-like). It has a normal pancake lens in a roadmap, and it will hit the shelves simultaneously with the first body. Colors are very “Pentaxian”. The several years of working with Pentax gave Samsung a good idea how natural colors should look like.

The rest little things are little. The picture a way too samsungish in terms of very aggressive noise reduction algorithms that are killing too much details. Also, the rumored price of $699 is a little too much for an entry-level EVIL camera, though it’s noticeably cheaper than any of Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras.

The good news is that Samsung – unlike Olympus – is dropping their DSLR operations. I guess it wasn’t a hard decision since all they did was just copying Pentax cameras and rebranding Pentax lenses. So now Samsung will concentrate all digital imaging division efforts on NX system and the fruits of this efforts are promising to be really fascinating.

A few days ago I have bought a new “notebook”, or better to say, walk-around camera. I’ve spent a couple of hours reading about newest offers from the leading point & shoot digicam manufacturers and found that the market is pretty hot. There are a lot of good little cameras today. Sony W200 and Panasonic FX100 both built on the the quite good 1/1.72″ 12 Megapixel sensor, and they are both not the newest models in the range so could be found pretty cheap – less than $400 in Europe. Canon A650IS has the same 1/1.72″ sensor as Sony W200 plus swivel LCD and much better lens but costs more – over $500 here. Fujifilm F50FD 1/1.6″ 12 Megapixel SuperCCD ultra compact is also could be found for around $400.

I have almost prepared to spent four+ grands for my new day-to-day companion but my attention was caught by Canon A720IS 1/2.5″ 8 Megapixel point & shoot which is priced less that $300 today. It has all the same manual settings and the same zoom range as the Canon A650IS but lacks of swivel LCD and powered by two AAs – not four. Also it’s 20% smaller and just a little bit lighter.

I have downloaded a dozen of full size samples from the both cameras and found that the real difference in image quality (in terms of details and dynamic range) is not worth the almost twice price difference. It’s even hardly noticeable most of the time. So the Canon A720IS became my final choice. And here is my own quick review of this nice and cheap compact digicam.
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…well, sort of. Just Flickr mashup. Bat very useful one.

Sigma has shown a stylish brown leather case for DP1 camera in Seoul, Korea. Here you can find the photos of the DP1 in that case at Aving Nertwork. It reminds me the old rangefinders’ cases. They were very useful and comfortable.

Imaging Resource have posted two Sigma DP1 samples. The one with the test scene (indoors) and the one with multi target. As expected, sharpness in the center of the image is exceptional. Though, a little fall of to the edges is visible. Look at the brush and the scale on the right side.