Olympus has placed a teaser on their websites indicating that their 1st revolutionary Micro Four Thirds camera will be available in the northern hemisphere Summer (mid-2009) and you can sign up to be emailed when it is announced.
Will it be like the Panasonic G1 or video-enabled like the GH-1?
I am willing to bet that unlike the Panasonic’s optical lens-based image stabiliser, it will have a built-in image stabiliser, and it is likely to have the E-620 style flip out LCD and art filters and 12mp sensor.
Will it have the Panasonic electronic viewfinder, or will it have a rangefinder-like optical viewfinder?
How revolutionary will it be given that Panasonic GH-1 is quite revolutionary already being the only still camera with interchangeable lenses which is optimised for video with autofocus – and face recognition to boot?
I just hope they bring out a wide aperture portrait lens such as a 50mm f/2 macro designed to work with contrast detect AF, as then, that is about all I would need with Panasonic’s 14-140mm and 7-14mm lens, although a sharp 16mm f/2 or f/2.8 lens optimised for street photography (giving 32mm eq. focal length and with easy to read focus distance for zone focusing) would be nice.
The rumours at 43rumors.com suggest the Olympus MFT camera will be 12mp with built-in IS, with Leica m like shape, no built-in flash and a 17mm f/2.8 lens.
I’m very excited about the m4/3’s standard. You can get updates on rumors about the standard over at 43rumors.com.
Gary,
Olympus Australia has a pre-release Pen Digital and doing the rounds, every one who sees it has to sign a non disclosure statement. As I haven’t seen it and any information I have is from teasing out of the people who have. I have just bought a Sigma DP-2 but am about to sell it because the new micro four thirds Olympus is a much better built camera.
There might be some for sale by the end of this month or at the very start of July. I am about to order the new Voightlander 50mm f1.1 and a micro four thirds adapter. To get a fast pocket camera for low light street photography.
This camera will start a revolution, so call me on the weekend and I will get your name on one of the first.
Adam, will see you next week about ordering the 50mm f/1.1 with the Panasonic GH-1 – I need video capability in one of my cameras and the GH-1 has the best video of all dSLR-like cameras.
Will be interesting to see what Olympus comes up with in Micro Four Thirds – I really wish the GH-1 had in-built CCD-shift image stabiliser though 🙁