• Olympus micro Four Thirds system

In a few weeks time, the photography world is going to be abuzz with news, reviews and coverage of Olympus’s much anticipated micro 4/3 camera system.

Olympus created much hype and publicity with a retro-like prototype mockup of a micro 4/3 camera a few months ago. It looks extremely compact and retro. Not much bigger than compact point-n-shoot counterparts. Size alone is the biggest selling point for Olympus provided the production model doesn’t deviate much from the prototype in terms of style and size. The point of micro 4/3 is to reduce the size of a camera with interchangeable lenses to as small as possible. Something which Panasonic (G1 and GH1) failed to achieve IMO.

I am really looking forward to it, to be frank. A compact camera with interchangeable lens sytem, small enough to be pocketable, is going to be well-received by the public. What worry me most is Olympus might capitalise on this and charge a big premium on its novel product.

Image quality wise, it won’t challenge the best Canon or Nikon dSLR in terms of sheer resolution and noise resistance. But that is a trade-off I’m prepared to sacrifice.

As for lenses, I’m hoping Olympus will come up with some good quality fast f2 primes. I assume this camera will see much use in dim lit places for me. And I’ll need a fast lens to minimisse noise and shake. If Olympus integrates an in-camera anti-shake system, that’s a bonus.

Well, I guess all we can do now is to wait for official announcements from Olympus. Let’s hope they start of with the right product at a reasonable price point. Given the amount of hype and anticipation already generated on the market, Olympus has a huge hurdle to satisfy the expectations of the photography crowd.