E3 at a ridiculous price!!!!

[pauljolee]

I have been to Lakeside shopping centre today on an unrelated issue but while I was there I popped into Currys Digital to look at the boys toys and saw the E3 with a 'Priced to clear' tag of £879!!!!!!!
My 10 day old £1239(albeit with HLD4)E3 from Warehouse Express that I thought at the time was a bargain is now getting some serious abuse and manhandling.
Why oh why couldnt I have waited until now to get it but no I am a man and I have to have it there and then and even worse I could have got it today and I still would have got the freebies from Santa Olympus!!!!!
Which incidently I opted for the 25mm pancake,FL36R and swingbag......Good choice?

[Photocracy]

Was it a one off ex demonstrator, or did they have stock to clear? The usual pattern when a new model is about to be launched is that SE kits appear with one of the cheaper lenses. It could be that the E4 is closer than we thought.

Yes, I think you made a good choice with your freebies. In particular, the 25mm pancake is really nice.

[pauljolee]

Thanks Rob,I just phoned the store and it is ex display and is the last one so if anyone wants a bargain!!

[Craftysnapper]

Yep same price at the Curry super store near me Junction 9a M6. I've still gone for the E-30 though.

[Photocracy]

That does seem to suggest a trend. They can only be clearing out their E3 demonstrators if something else is in the pipeline. On this anecdotal evidence, I recklessly predict the E4 will be upon us within 6 weeks. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my camera strap.

[Photocracy]

Will Rob have to eat his camera strap? Will the E4 be with us by Saturday 2nd May (6 weeks away)? Cast your vote.

[huwevans]

I recklessly predict the E4 will be upon us within 6 weeks. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my camera strap.

Does Sir require any sauces?

[RogerMac]

I am the other idiot who voted yes. However I think that whatever it's called it will in fact be the E3mk2 - a relatively small makeover to bring it up to the E30 image standard.

I suspect that the next big advance in FT will not be in the mainstream but will be rather interesting and possibly in the E3xx series

Roger

[Photocracy]

I recklessly predict the E4 will be upon us within 6 weeks. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my camera strap.

Does Sir require any sauces?

Well, I'm optimistic my crystal ball has done me proud, but keep the horseradish at the ready just in case!

[Rugby_Nut]

I recklessly predict the E4 will be upon us within 6 weeks. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my camera strap.

Does Sir require any sauces?

Well, I'm optimistic my crystal ball has done me proud, but keep the horseradish at the ready just in case!

I trust your camera strap was indeed tasty

I must confess that the recent announcement of the new Pany GH1 passed me by really. Read the headlines and assumed it was a G1 with video. What I've only just realised is that it has a completely new sensor. It being a total of 14mp but effectively allowing you to shoot at 12mp in 4:3, 3:2, 15:9, and 1:1 formats. As I understand it, you cannot use all 14mp but regardless of which format you choose, they will all be approximately 12mp each. That in itself is quite innovative but I've also discovered that imaging resource have just included their standard test images taken by the GH1 on their website. It would seem that Pany have found almost an extra stop of ISO performance with the new sensor (i.e. G1 ISO400 quality = GH1 ISO800 quality, etc). Now this isn't exactly earth-shattering since my tests some while ago concluded that the E-30 had about a one stop advantage in high ISO performance over the G1 anyway.

However, I would hazard a guess that the new E-? will be developed using this new sensor and will bypass the new'ish 12mp sensor altogether. Oly announced a while ago that they had no intention of increasing mp beyond 12mp in the near future and that they were going to concentrate on better high ISO performance. At the time that made perfect sense to me. A sensor (system) that could accurately use every one of those 12 million pixels would generate a very fine image indeed (the ff sensored Nikon D700/D3 being excellent examples). Oly and Pany are relative newcomers to the digital SLR market and are, without a doubt, playing catch up with the big 2. But I see a major commitment to the 4/3rds system from both companies.

Methinks therefore that the new E-? has the potential to be very interesting camera indeed. So, in the spirit of Photocracy, I'm going to throw the proverbial camera strap in the air and predict that the new E-? will:-

1. Be announced later this year (October?).
2. Will allow you to change format at the 'flick of a switch' between 4:3, 3:2, 15:9 and Square (oh yes!), all at 12mp and no loss of resolution. (It will be interesting to see how this works in the viewfinder!)
3. Improve ISO performance by 1 stop and possibly as much as 2 stops.
4. Up to 8 fps (why not? the sensor is optimised for video).
5. Better auto-focus (I think Oly have learned a lot about auto-focus in recent times, i.e. by trial and error!)
6. XD slot replaced by a second CF slot or SD (pretty please...)

So there we have it! My camera strap is at the ready although I prefer HP Fruity Sauce to horseradish

[Rugby_Nut]

NOTE TO SELF: do research carefully before opening gob via post

Got the now and the future a bit confused. The new Pany sensor will offer 4:3 format at 12mp, 3:2 and 16:9 at approximately 11mp each, and 1:1 at 9mp (which by my reckoning makes it basically a crop of 4:3, so may be not so useful).

The new sensor design allows for a later sensor to up the resolution of the 3:2 and 16:9 formats to 12mp each. The 1:1 format will not change from 9mp.

Apparently

[Photocracy]

Sorry, it's been a while...

That camera strap gave me indigestion!


Rob

ps. Undeterred by my wild speculation falling flat on its face and with even more foolish confidence, I now predict the E3 successor will be launched in September; failing that, March 2010; failing that, June 2010; failing that I'll give up.

[Benchista]

If I were a betting man, March 2010 would sound good to me.

Now, how about a new line in edible straps?

[Photocracy]

If I were a betting man, March 2010 would sound good to me.

Now, how about a new line in edible straps?

I think you're on to something there. Strawberry flavour anyone?