Olympus SLR boss Toshiyuki Terada has said that the company will make no more entry-level SLRs. Speaking in an interview, Terada said that "We do not have concrete plans to replace the E-620 and other recent SLRs."
But don't worry, Olympus isn't about to dump the SLR category altogether - yet. While Terada says that "the entry level SLR class can be completely replaced by the Pen system in terms of performance," the company will continue to support the higher-end SLR market for the immediate future.
In fact, Olympus plans on adding ever more powerful cameras to the Pen lineup and sending all of its customers, even the pros, over to the mirrorless Micro Four Thirds format. And that's not all. Olympus is also planning on a new range of high-performance compacts.
The first of these cameras will appear next year and will have a very fast lens and "good image quality in comparison to other compacts." It will also have an electronic port that will be compatible with existing Micro Four Thirds accessories, such as the plug-in optical viewfinders. It seems that the sensors will be smaller than those found in the Micro Four Thirds bodies, but the machine translation (from Polish, which I find impossible) makes this unclear. Any Polish readers care to help out?
I guess there are no surprises here. The mirrorless format is better than an SLR for the majority of photographers, and Olympus has always been a leader in next-gen camera tech. One thing is certain: now that film-shackled camera design is finally being abandoned, we might start to see the full potential of digital photography.
We talk to Toshiyuki Terada of Olympus [Fotopolis via Photorumors via Photography Bay]
*Photo: The original Pen Digital prototype
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See Also:
- Sony Fights Micro Four-Thirds With Lens-Changing Compact
- Cosina Joins Micro Four Thirds Team, Announces ƒ0.95 Lens
- Olympus 600mm Zoom-Lens is World's Tiniest
- Olympus Chief: No More Four Thirds Lenses
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