
So Pentax have finally announced their much anticipated re-entry into the medium format field with the 645D. But it won't be available until May, and then only in Japan, so it's too early to move it out of the vapour-ware category just yet!
But this is still an exciting announcement for gear-heads ;-) The market for medium format gear has contracted considerably over the last few years with now just Hasselblad and Mamiya/Phase One left as the main players (though a few other company such as Leaf still make backs for the Mamiya/Phase One system). So a second brand new medium format system (after the Leica S2, although that system still seems like vapour ware to me!) in just the last year or so is quite something.
Pentax stop producing all their medium format equipment in 2009, and it stopped being available in Europe in 2006. This effectively means they are starting again from scratch, at least outside of Japan. The new camera has a suggested retail price of 850,000 yen (approx. £6350). So the price look attractive too, though of course you still need fairly deep pockets, but that was ever the case for medium format!
It also means that at the moment there is really only 1... just just 1...! lens you can buy brand new to go with your lovely new 645D, and that is the new (deep breath) Pentax smc D FA 645 55mm F2.8 AL[IF] SDM AW. The 55mm lens has a suggested retail price of 100,000 yen (approx. £740).
The new camera has a 44x33mm sensor, which is considerable smaller that the 56x41mm size of a traditional 645 film negative. This means that the 55mm lens is effectively a slightly wide standard lens with a 35mm equiv. focal length of 43mm.
I have to admit I find that 55mm lens interesting... I wonder why they made it 645 full frame? One of the problems for both Hasselblad and Mamiya is that they both make backs with a wide range of sensor sizes, so it's difficult for customers to get an easy handle on what field of view any particular lens will have. I would hope that Pentax will standardise on 44x33mm, so a 55mm lens will always be a slightly wide standard lens. But then they go and make this a lens that will cover 645 full frame where it will definitely be a wide-angle (albeit of the moderate variety).
And of course Pentax have now given us an SLR camera with effectively just one lens (that can be bought new). It will be interesting to see how they develop the lens line.
One thing they definitely need is wide-angle lenses. Even if you currently own the widest existing lens, the 35mm, that is only a 28mm (35mm equiv.) lens on the 645D (OK there was the 33-55mm zoom, but that isn't much wider). And that is quite a hunk of glass... will they give us digital only lenses that take advantage of the reduced image size to cut weight, like the DA limited lenses for APS-C? In other words are they just going to give us 645 D-FA lenses, or will we get 645 DA lenses too?

First up is Olympus's latest Micro 4/3 camera, the E-PL1. The new camera is designed as a low cost introduction to the M4/3 system. You get most of the same specification as the E-P2, but with a smaller body featuring simplified controls, so you'll have to do more digging around in menus than you would with the E-P1 and E-P2. But by way of compensation you do get a built-in flash unit. Olympus have also launched a new low-cost version of their 14-42mm kit lens with a plastic mount to go with the E-PL1.
Next up is the second of Olympus's new M4/3 lenses, the very compact 9-18mm ultra-wideangle zoom.
Finally from Olympus we have the 14-150mm all-in-one M4/3 super-zoom.
Next up we have Canon proving that you can launch a camera without a having the announcement leaked widely through-out the internet first. Of course Canon are also proving that the mega-pixel race is very far from over! The 18mp 550D seems to have taken everybody by surprise, possibly because no-one really thought a 3mp bump from the 15mp 500D was remotely necessary. Of course Canon have also taken the opportunity to add that other useless-but-necessary-from-a-marketing-point-of-view feature, HD video.
Finally Nikon have announced two new professional full-frame (or FX if you're going to insist on using Nikon-speak) lenses. The first is a new 16-35mm ultra-wideangle zoom. It is the first lens of it's type to feature built-in image stablisation. You can also be fairly sure that this lens will be just a tad larger than Olympus's newly announced M4/3 equivalent ;-)
The second of Nikon's two new lenses is an untra-fast f1.4 24mm wide-angle.

Pentax have announced a new macro lens in the shape of the smc Pentax D-FA Macro F2.8 WR. The lens is interesting for a number of reasons:
I have to admit I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April the first when I first read about this. It seems that Ricoh has announced a new system camera with interchangeable 'lens units'. Lens units?! What the *!*? is that I hear you shout! Well a lens unit is a lens and a sensor in a single sealed unit. This effectively means that each time you buy a lens you are buying about two thirds of a complete camera. The camera body contains the main controls, a back-of-camera monitor, a pop-up flash unit and various other bits and pieces, while the lens unit contains the lens and sensor.
Thursday last week Olympus officially the latest m4/3 camera, the EP-2. As expected the new camera is a very limited evolution of the EP-1. There seems to the just 3 differences: