/1001/noisy/cameras/

Curiosity factor: Ricoh GR Digital (APS-C) review by Ming Thein

The action continues to be exciting today as we have our first photographer priority review of the new APS-C Ricoh GR Digital big sensor prime. It comes from talented professional photographer Ming Thein.

The Ricoh GR Digital is available for pre-order for $800 at Amazon and Adorama and B&H Photo which has a May-15 in-stock estimate, but please keep in mind estimates are only estimates.

Pentax+Ricoh have managed to disrupt the price point set forth by the Big Sensor Primes of the other digital camera manufacturers, as the Fuji, Leica, Nikon big sensor primes all go for $1000 or more. A couple of the Sigma DP Merrills are now going for $800 but the Sigmas are a niche within a niche within a niche.

The $1000 Samyang Tilt Shift Lens: Pixel-Peeped, Sampled and In-Stock Nao in both Samyang and Rokinon flavors

Samyang continues to challenge the lens market status quo and one of their latest challenges is a $1000 tilt shift lens. We have more action on this curiosity lens as follows:

The Lens Rentals blog posted part #1 of their evaluation of the lens, with pixel-peeing data included from Imatest! Stopping down aperture orgasm charts included!

Next up, 17 real-world full-size samples published at Pop Photo. To get to the samples, check the Gallery, take a deep breath, look at the right side of the page, look for the scroll bar within the page (not the browser scroll bar), scroll down and find the link that says "Click For Full Res". This exercise is simpler for pictures that don't have long descriptions.

Rokinon: In-Stock for $1000 nao!
The Rokinon flavor of these lenses are currently in-stock for $1000 in the following mounts:

+ Canon: Amazon (3rd parties) and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ Nikon: Amazon (3rd parties) and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ Sony Alpha: Adorama

Samyang: In-Stock for $1000 nao!
The Samyang flavor of these lenses are currently in-stock for $1000 in the following mounts:

+ Canon: Amazon (3rd parties) and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ Nikon: Amazon (3rd parties) and Adorama

+ Sony Alpha: Adorama

Cameraholic Digest: Fuji X100S, GH3, NEX-3N, SL1 samples, GF6 RAW, E-M5 No Low Pass? etc

It's the miracle of not falling behind! Actually able to post a new Cameraholic Digest episode quickly! Here we geaux with the latest action and a few things that fell through the cracks in the weekend edition... For the previous 145 episodes, check the Cameraholic Digest archives... Completed lens reviews, as usual, can be found at the Lens Reviews stream...

Big Sensor Primes
+ Fuji X100s field report by Luminous Landscape
+ looking to find the X100S in-stock? follow the Stock Status site

Camera & Lens Reviews pages updated (19 cameras, 10 lens reviews)

The updates at the Camera Reviews stream and the Lens Reviews stream are completed. We added 10 new lens reviews (9 interchangeable and one "fixed" lens) and 19 digital camera reviews which you can see on page #1 and page #2.

Also Published During This Weekend
+ new Newsbytes round-up: a newsy round-up
+ first new Cameraholic Digest in 2+ months!
+ new Opinion Soup covers the last seven days
+ new round of specials added to the Camera Deals blog early on Sunday
+ we trimmed the front page of the blog as it became almost as long as the Great Wall of China

Opinion Soup: Google Glass, EVF vs OVF, Lenses, Megapixel Myth, Bag Quest, Jealousy, Loner vs Team, Fair Use, etc

If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Opiners. As usual, please note opinions are those of their opiners. We try to feature a wide range of opinions for a variety of reasons, it doesn't mean we agree/disagree with every post posted here... For previous episodes, check the Opinion Soup archives.

Cameraholic Digest: Duels, SL1, RX1, A58, NEX-3N, GF6, X20, MX1, etc

It's been a while since we had a new Cameraholic Digest but we are having one right now! We are obviously not able to cover the last 70 days in a single post, so this one covers things that happened this week... If you are interested in completed reviews that were posted during the last 70 days, you can find them at the Lens Reviews stream (noisylenses.com) and the Camera Reviews stream (only serious/interesting/advanced cameras; noisyreviews.com).

In this edition, we break the cameras down in a hybrid fashion, by sensor size and lens type, but comparisons are grouped together to simplify the rest of the post.

Newsbytes: Kodak Film Division, Canon 5DMk2 firmware, new Yongnuo, etc

Newsbytes is a round-up of news and newsy items! We break them in multiple categories to make reading and scanning the list easier. A giant list of links is usually harder to skim/scan/digest... Also, please note we can't post everything about everything. There's so many things happening, we can only catch and post some of it all.

Leakage: Olympus E-Pen E-P5 gets captured in China

The Olympus E-Pens are getting closer to finding a new leader. A leakage at the Chinese Mobile01.com revealed a not-yet-released Olympus E-Pen E-P5 mirrorless camera. The situation is recapped at dpreview and discussed in the dpreview comments.

Fuji X100S gets a May 15 in-stock estimate

We have just updated the Fuji X100S stock status page and we have some semi-good news for Fuji X100S hunters. The listing at B&H Photo now has a fixed date as a release estimate, May 15! Previously it was a floating 2-4 weeks. At Amazon, it remains at the very nebulous "1-3 months" estimate... As usual, please keep in mind, estimates are only estimates and they do change over time... For a refresher on the camera, check the list of completed Fuji X100S reviews.

Leakage: Sony Uber Cybershot Phone with 1/1.6" Exmor stacked sensor and G lens

Sony is trying to make progress in the world of uber-phones and a new leakage at VR-Zone.com reveals a new "Sony Honami" uber-phone with a 1/1.6" Exmor RS stacked sensor and a Sony G Lens. This uber-phone is so camera-ish, it will have Cybershot in its name. This sensor size is about that of the likes of the Panasonic LX7, Canon S110, Olympus XZ-2, etc.

New Cameras of 2013 Reference page updated (Surprise: Fuji has half of the compacts with RAW!)

The New Cameras of 2013 Reference page is now updated with the new cameras announced during the last 60 days or so. This reference page too fell behind during the falling-behind-a-thon of early 2013. Once again, all apologies for falling behind (this sentence seems to appear in every other post these days!). Lesson learned from this: the best way not to fall behind is ... not to fall behind :)

A total of 118 new digital cameras were announced in 2013 so far. Give or take because it's getting harder to track some of the regional and entry-level models. The chart below breaks it down by category. For this counting exercise, superzooms are defined as fixed lens digital cameras with an optical zoom ratio of 10x or more. As you can see, the superzooms maintain a very fragile majority among fixed lens digital cameras (53 out of 104)

New Samsung NX2000 mirrorless camera bundled with 20-50, Flash and Lightroom

A new Mirrorless Princess was born today! The new Samsung NX2000, which, judging by the model number, is a step above the entry-level which is occupied by the NX1000.

It has a 20mp APS-C CMOS Sensor with the DRIMe IV Image Processor, 3D Still and Video Capture Capability, a 3.7" 1,152 kilodot Touchscreen display, 1080p video, Wifi and NFC, 8fps burst mode, etc.

One thing that Samsung is turning into a regular feature with their latest NX cameras is that they are including not only a zoom lens, but also an external flash (SEF8A Flash) and Adobe's Lightroom software.

Press release parade at dpreview and Imaging Resource and Photography Blog and Engadget et al.

Opinion on this new announcement by Sans Mirror. Spoiler alert: the blog-post title is: "Samsung Still Low On Self-Esteem".

The NX2000 with the 20-50mm zoom lens and external flash and Lightroom software bundled together will be available in black or white with a starting price of $650. Pre-orders available at B&H Photo.

(ENDED) Scott Kelby's Live Adobe Interview and Sneak Peek starts at 4pm NYC time

Between 4pm and 5pm New York City time today, Scott Kelby had a live interview and sneak peek with Adobe's Tom Hogarty today May-1-2013. It was a live broadcast at Kelby's The Grid website or directly on UStream.

If you missed it, it should become available for everyone else to view within 24 hours at the The Grid website and the Kelby's Grid iTunes page.

New Wacom Cintiq 22HD graphics/drawing tablet with multi-touch announced

Touch screens are making their way into more things, including graphics aka drawing tablets for digital artists and retouchers. Wacom announces the new Cintiq 22HD, model DTH2200, with a multi touch display. As the model name suggests, this is a "22-inch class" display. "Class" typically means rounded up when measuring screen size :) Please note this is wired (USB) device, it is not a tablet like an iPad, so you can't be running out and about with it!

Press release parade at Engadget and Photography Blog and Imaging Resource and /Gear and Fotointern.ch et al.

The press release price is $2,500. This price is premium of $500 over the non-touch model already in existence. Amazon has a price of $2,800 for the touch model with a 2-4 weeks release estimate, but it is not unusual for initial listing prices to be off until they get corrected.

Speaking of graphics tablets, the previous non-Touch model was briefly compared to the Modbook Pro (speed-readers, Modbook, not Macbook!) at Tech Crunch Gear.

Also speaking of graphics tablet, at the other end of the Wacom spectrum, the Wacom Bamboo Capture Pen and Touch Tablet (CTH470) is currently on sale for $73 with free shipping.

Legal News: Second Circuit sides with remixer of a photograph

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, surprisingly perhaps, handed the remixer of a photograph in the on-going Patrick Cariou vs Richard Price case a victory. Richard Prince re-mixed from Cariou's photography book "Yes Rasta". The latest updates in the story are featured at Paid Content and Art In American and/via The Verge.