Mirrorless Camera News

Shutterbug just returned from a trip to Thailand where we got to visit the Sony Technology factory in Chonburi, which manufactures Sony cameras, lenses and other imaging products. While we were not permitted to shoot photos or video in most of the factory, Sony did allow us to record the below clip of factory workers meticulously assembling, testing and boxing up Sony A7R II cameras.

Leica is going back to the future (again) with its newest digital rangefinder, the full frame, 24-megapixel M10. With this new model, which is the follow-up to the Leica M (Typ 240), Leica has trimmed the size of the M10, making it 4mm (1/8-inch) thinner than its predecessor. Part of that size reduction is due to the fact that Leica has gotten rid of the 1080p HD movie capture mode that was available on the previous model.

Leica today unveiled an innovative mirrorless camera, the Leica TL, which offers an impressive array of features and a gorgeous titanium-anodized body crafted in Germany from a solid block of aluminum.

Not one to shy away from special-edition models, Leica recently introduced the M-P “Grip,” a $15,000 “irresistible work of art” designed in collaboration with Rolf Sachs that’s essentially a Leica-MP mirrorless digital camera (with a very nice Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH lens). But if you can’t afford this masterpiece because you’re bidding on the Ansel Adams Arca Swiss 4x5 that’s up for auction, there’s always this silver metallic Leica M3 candy-tin replica (above right) for $40.

The big news from Olympus this morning was the introduction of their new flagship mirrorless camera, the OM-D EM-1 Mark II. But the company had more in store with the launch of the compact Pen E-PL8 mirrorless camera and three new lenses.

Panasonic announced today that it’s developing the new Lumix GH5 mirrorless camera, which will be capable of recording smooth, high-precision 4K 60p/50p and faithful 4:2:2 10-bit 4K video “for the first time in the world.” The Panasonic Lumix GH5 will also features “6K PHOTO,” which extracts approximately 18-megapixel still images from ultra-high-quality video with approximately nine times the pixel count of Full-HD.