Shrinking Cameras – the new Micro Four Thirds
Today Panasonic and Olympus announced a new standard (with products to follow soon) that promises to be one of the biggest, and most exciting, digital camera developments of the year. Why is this so important? This system will result in DSLR quality in a much smaller form factor for both bodies and lenses. The downside? No viewfinder.
This new system will thus serve as a bridge between point & shoot users and higher-end DSLR users. More interestingly for many photographers, this should finally allow for a very portable, interchangeable-lens system that produces image quality without compromise. The system will use the same sensors as current Olympus and Panasonic DSLRs, resulting in excellent image quality. Certainly systems are out there with higher image quality (full frame Canon and Nikon systems, for example), but the current Four Thirds sensors can produce excellent desktop printer-sized prints (say, 16×20’s).
How does it work? It gets rid of the viewfinder and the SLR of DSLR – meaning no mirror, no mirror box. This also allows the distance between the lens and the sensor to be reduced.
Ok, so what does this all mean for you? Well, we have to guess somewhat since specific products have not yet been announced, but it will likely mean a very small, lightweight camera with tiny, almost-pancake lenses, that is also relatively cheap. You won’t get the utmost in image quality (though arguably far better than anything pocketable outside of Sigma’s DP-1) and you won’t get an optical viewfinder – you’ll instead either use an LCD screen or electronic viewfinder. You’ll probably get built-in image stablization, but even if you don’t, it will be easier to handhold since there is no mirror slap (since there is no mirror!).
The standard also discusses much about high definition video capability, so this system will likely be another early step in the convergence between still frame cameras and video cameras. You can see more detailed discussion of the system at DPReview and at the new Micro Four Thirds site.
- Jim Nickelson
September 12, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] Panasonic announced today the first body and lenses in the new Micro Four Thirds system that I blogged about a little while back. As you may recall, Olympus and Panasonic announced a new standard that [...]