A new source claims to have received some info about the next Olympus Micro Four Thirds pro-camera: “I had a longish talk with a person from Olympus, and after mentioning m43, and lens, he hinted to me that in a month Olympus will have another “yummy” product (it will be a m43 body), and that their development plan for m43 will definitely move to pro m43. He said that they have already made enough basic lens, and that they will move to pro grade now. I know the guy for a longish time now, and I think there is high possibility that this new product will come out in stated period.”
UPDATE: A second new source said hat there will be a new camera next month, M43rds, based on a similar principle of the Fuji X100 (Click here to see the camera)
UPDATE2: A third new source said: “I just read your new post regarding a new Olympus M4/3 to be announced in December. This is very interesting. Actually, I went to a photo show about one month ago… I was very very interested to buy the [shoplink 17163]E-5[/shoplink] + 12-60mm. However, I found the camera way too big for my needs. After a long and interesting discussion with the Olympus guy, I told him that I was also considering the Pentax K-5. So, he asked me how long I would wait for a new Olympus camera if something new was eventually coming (like a high end m43) … My answer was: No more than one more year! So, he simply told me: Wait until the end of December or mild January for an announcement by Olympus and few more months before being able to buy the product. ”
Taken together, I thing you got a very exiting news
Please keep in mind that both sources are new! Now I am asking my trusted sources if you can confirm or deny the rumor I posted above. Please contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com. Thanks!
For now the rumor has FT2 value only:
Reminder: Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct
67 Responses
Bring on the good stuff Olympus. I am still happy with my E-PL1, I just lack the 20mm which is on my wishlist! 🙂
I really hope Olympus will get their high(er) end mFT camera right, but there’s no way they’ll introduce it in December.
Anyway except for videographers now is exactly the moment NOT to buy any m43 body.
Santa, just bring me lenses for Christmas 😀
…… and Panasonic will follow shortly after with their stuff no doubt. Fantastic news though if it happens.
Like Tobias, I LOVE my EPL-1 (after many many embarrassing months of condemning it as a toy, before picking one up and getting swept away) so any advance will be drooled over
Bring it on Oly, bring it on!!! A simplified PEN with a fixed lens similar to an X100, would do me 🙂
A fixed lens camera would not interest me.
I want a higher-end m4/3, like the first rumour hinted at.
Me too, even though I hope that it is Panasonic who is going to announce the so called “pro m43”. Because i’m using Panas m43.
Better to have that real advanced body come from Olympus instead of Pana:
1. Olympus E-1 had more inspired better overall design than clinging to film design DSLRs and these wannabe mirror-box EVF bodies so without limitations of mirror and optical viewfinder they could do even better while keeping size compact.
2. While in film cameras only possible place for stabilization was in lens with todays technology that’s bad excuse for not having it in body and need to buy stabilized lenses.
While there’s slight chance that maybe in some temporary mental disorder Panasonic might get design/ergonomy right instead of marketdroid driven oversize TV screen in fake mirror box I doubt that they’ll do inbody IS because they would probably need to get license from patent holders.
Same here. Is it a m4/3’s camera or a fixed lens camera with a 4/3’s sensor? If it’s the latter I have no interest. I’d rather have the Fuji X100 due to the larger sensor alone; not that I’d bu any fixed lens camera in the first place 🙂
Fully agree.
With 4/3 essentially dead in the water continuing lack of high end mirrorless body will cost Olympus markets both in bodies and lenses.
Full Pro-level body would be rather much to ask and improbable this soon after E-5 but there’s major vacuum already in semi-pro bodies when looking any of these EVF/mirrorless formats.
Removal of mirror and replacing OVF with EVF would allow even decreasing size from E-30 while improving ergonomy compared to mirror bodies and these uninspired claimed to be advanced mirrorless bodies of Pana/Samsung/Sony.
That’s the spirit!! Keep up the good work and rumor admin!!
And get enough rest. We need you for the long haul that will be 2011.
I am really waiing for oly cam announcements to solidify my investment into 43s.
Did your source indicate whether the possible new PEN is fixed focal length, or fixed lens zoom?
Within a month probably means a bit over a month (Jan. 6th), but a fixed lens camera with a 4/3 sensor? And what would be the advantage over an EP2 with a pancake? No, I don’t think so. This must be the advanced compact camera with the a bigger sensor (LX5?).
Anyway, early next year (Jan-March) should be the important time to see what Olympus’ plans for the future. 2010 has been a quiet year for them with a lot of re-thinking their strategy. We’ll see what they come up with. I hoping for some nice surprises.
A fixed lens Pen would be idiotic.
m43 matters because of the lens system, not because it is some magical sensor size.
Well, I consider the LX5 a half-decent camera – EVF being the major omission. But it is already fast enough to be usable.
If Oly can bring fixed (zoom) lens compact camera with speed and sensor matching the m43, but size matching the LX5, I’m definitely interested.
If it has a fixed lens, it’s NOT m4/3.
If pro doesn’t mean big, but pro specs, I’m in. Skip the fixed lens, please …
Can someone explain to me why to develop a fixed-lens camera when u can have E-P2/L/GF1/2+Pancake?
That’s a fixed-lens, but not necessarily a fixed-focal-length-lens. 😛
Li, I don’t believe that would happen
1.If they will produce fixed zoom then it would be bigger then GF2+14mm lens! besides oly have new super compact 14-42 lens
2.I doubt they will produce a Hybrid-VF with a zoom lens (it would suck compared to fixed lens Hybrid-VF like X100)
frosti7, that means an OVF (or Hybrid-VF) would only make sense with fixed-lens and they are not yet capable of (or willing to) building that kind of VF into E-P2/L/GF1/2-like camera. So I think this camera is not pointless.
A OVF/EVF is really only practical with prime lenses – like the Leica M9 which uses bright lines for composition. However, restricting yourself to prime lenses doesn’t mean that a camera that uses an OVF needs to be fixed. You can have different sets of bright lines for different focal lengths.
Exactly fixed lens with fixed focal lentgh! otherwise the OVF are very unreliable (look at G12 for example, 80% reliable)
yeah that 2nd source may just be talking about the high-end zuiko lens Point N Shoot and mistaken it for a Pen w/ fixed lens
I’m waiting for THAT camera 😀
Why?
I think it will be a Compact Camera with Zuiko lens
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1009/10092010olyzuikolenscompact.asp
Im also waiting for the high end compact Olympus camera.
Question: How much smaller would a camera be with a fixed lens 14-42 mm compared to lets say gf2+ olympus 14-42 mm compact zoom lens?
After a month with NEX and still shooting my 5D and EP1, I can say I REALLY love my EP1. The NEX is good, but no IBIS and the balance with a legacy lens is just a bit off kilter. I just NEED n EPx with higher res LCD and please, some more out of the sensor (mostly DR, though lower noise would be fine).
And an AF portrait lens (around 50 or 60mm, 1.2 or 1.4), but with a reasonable MFD.
Okay, if Oly gonna release something new, it must be before Japanese new year (1/1/2011) where most people in Japan get their year end bonus, otherwise, the most appropriate time will be Sakura season (to Western and end of the world, that’ll be about end of first quarter/Easter/Spring festival period). Logically thinking, Oly Japan just announced E-PL1s two weeks ago, I very much doubt about the rumour and if it’s really true, we’ll see a brand new brew (including sensor) that will essentially kill sell figure of E-PL1s except price difference is huge.
something like 14MP, built in EVF and focus/ISO performance like GH2 would be ideal to me.
I would buy GH2, but without IBIS is useless for me (I own 14-54 II, OM 50 1.8 and OM 135 f2.8)
Non-detachable-lens micro four thirds doesn’t happen. Four Thirds is a standard, and none of the partner companies would be permitted to market a camera as Four Thirds or Micro Four Thirds unless it had the appropriate lens mount.
To do so would effectively sabotage the other participating companies, and they wouldn’t stand for it.
Good news.
New Year, new Kodak Sensor.
the E-5 and can be removed
I’m really hoping for a pro m43 camera. With great IQ and handling like the E-5.
+1
Question…
What would be the point to work on a rugged mFT camera now that they just released the E-5?
They better design a replacement for the E-620 that focuses the 43 lenses correctly.
It would also be wise to wait to have a greater sensor technology and AF system before releasing a third pen.
Eventually, not to forget the photokina, it is likely that the camera released will be the Zuiko branded compact, a someone already mentioned further down, a kind of LX-5.
Sorry a fourth pen, I almost forgot the E-P1.
I agree with you!
We need a mirror less replacement of the E-620 that focuses the 43lenses and the new micro four thirds lenses correctly too!
(With video could be nice… my own wish. =)
When I first heard about the possibility of a fixed-lens, large sensor compact, I was already disappointed and frustrated with Olympus. If they indeed mimic the x100’s design (i.e. dials, dials, dials + vf) in such a camera, it will be a slap in the face to m4/3 users who have been waiting for years for exactly that sort of camera, with interchangeable lenses (Leica’s offerings don’t count).
Pro m4/3 cameras and lenses would, of course, be more than welcome.
I would love to buy a m43 camera built to the rugged specs of the E-5, but with the HD video capability of the GH2. Oly’s IBIS and dust shaker would sure be nice, in a rugged m43 pro spec body.
Could it be a Small-Sensor-Zuiko-Zoom? ala LX5?
The real LX series successor is called the GF2 instead of LX5, hahaha
needs flash for wireless flash control
needs 1080p video with equal moire control of e-pl1 but with more detail and resolution and a better codec canon h.264 mov
needs EVF built in to have free hot shoe
needs dials
higher resolution screen like e-5
swivel would be great and weather seeling too if its made of light materials
peaking for manual focus lenses and one button focus assit like e-pl1
fully agreed!
I am waiting and hoping for either pany or Oly to produce a Pro-level speced M43rds Cam; hopefully we will have all the standard features like Magnesium-alloy body, weather seels, & proper HD 1080 video. I would also like to see pany incorporate better camera to external flash options. Better flashguns with wireless capability and additional accessories as well. Who ever is the first to produce the Pro-level M43rds Cam, will be the “Game-Changer….”
In fact what we need is simple, an Olympus E-5 with m4/3 mount and the OVF replaced with EVF, that’s all
and we don’t mind it turns out to be a modular design 😉
I don’t think that is the point of m4/3. An EP1/2/GF1 sized/styled with integrated EVF fits the m4/3’s concept better.
Different needs and tastes could be satisfied with two m4/3-lines
– The E-Pl1s and GF1 – line
– The new professional Olympus EM-1 line (Olympus Electronic Masterpiece in honor
of the OM-System – Olympus Masterpiece)
Umm…OM was short for Olympus Maitani. Named after the man who designed it (as well as the Pens and XA ultra-compacts) Yoshihisa Maitaini.
Dear Canard!
You are absolutely right!
“OM was short for Olympus Maitani. Named after the man who designed it (as well as the Pens and XA ultra-compacts) Yoshihisa Maitaini.”
But in some photographic magazines the “vulgo” after the presentation of the OM-1 in the year 1972 was “Olympus Masterpiece”.
Perhaps with the slogan:
Olympus EM-1 (system) – Ultimate Performance in a lightweight Design …
Until Olympus is ready to contract a new, better m43 sensor, they shouldn’t release any new m43 camera. Can you imagine.. E-P1,E-P2,E-PL1,E-5,E-?? all with the same sensor. Even if it is a DSLR shaped body for m43, get a new contract for a sensor FIRST! I would rather wait…
Cmon admin, what camera is coming out? What’s it gonna be…… Stop torturing us, pull some strings please and let us know.
Olympus please help us…. Will it be the premium compact, or will it be the modular FT/MFT we’ve been hearing about? Should I buy the E-5 or wait for this? Or maybe both?
Wait for it… then complain about the price and compare it to the Nikon D7000 LOL
Lets make all these suggestions about what Oly should do a month before this new camera is to be unveiled. That makes a lot of sense. Oly shouldn’t have any problem incorporating these suggested features on short notice when they’re about to actually launch the thing. Bravo internet experts!
Or give it the E-5 treatment:
“All we want is a 12 megapixel camera with good build quality and excellent resolution.”
Months later:
“What?! Only 12 megapixels in a weatherproof body?!”
People, dont forget that Olympus can’t make a better camera then E-5, because it would be very stupid marketing realising m4/3 pro body. If they will do that, that means new users in the m4/3 zone and even less in the original 4/3. It would be like destroying something in order to biuld something new on it. I have a list what would satisfy but I hope it won’t be so soon because then Olympus would look really desperate
well some say the E-30 was better than the E-3 aside from the weatherproofing. while IQ-wise it may still be debatable, on the features the E-30 definitely had the advantage.
but of course the E-3 and E-30 didnt get realeased between a few months… hehehe
“People, dont forget that Olympus can’t make a better camera then E-5”
Rubbish, of course they can. And I hope they do.
They can but at the same time can’t. It would be logical to do that so soon. I was thinking something about July – in that time new technolgy would be invented/used and the E5 would be a past story so everyone would concentrate on the m4/3 pro body.
From the E-5 point of view, it doesn’t really matter if Oly makes a good m43 body, because they still don’t have many good m43 lenses around. The 9-18 is their only m43 lens that is well received, and most of their 4/3 lenses are not optimised for CDAF.
People who are going to buy an E-5 won’t be tempted by a pro m43 body until the lens lineup is good enough for their needs. But a high end m43 body will help Oly compete against the GH2, against which it doesn’t really have an answer right now. So a high end m43 camera won’t be stealing market share from the E-5, it would instead grow Oly’s m43 share.
The 75-300 and 14-150 m.Zuikos have both been well recieved by the reviewers. They’re ceretainly not inexpensive consumer level junk for the entry level crowd as you’re statement suggests.
Gripes aside, 12 MP is plenty for me. I’ve seen the E-5, and if the micro four thirds offering has similar resolution and performance, that will be perfectly adequate for my purposes.
Heck, they could go to 20 MP and it would hardly have any effect on its usability, but if high sensitivities suffered for it, I’d wish for 12 MP or less.
I’ve seen firsthand how low-quality glass performs on a 24MP camera. It’s not pretty. Any camera that can connect to my 14-54 II and produce the results of the E-5 is not a good camera, it’s a great camera.