Yesterday (read here) we told you that the Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3Olympus E-3 successor could become Olympus first “modular” camera.

With the help of our readers we discovered that our Olympus guru Maitani had already developed such a prototype long time ago (for film cameras).

You can find more about it here: maitani-fan.co.cc
“The MDN prototype was the first Olympus SLR designed to be a full-featured, multi-functional system that could be used for a wide range of purposes by assembling different units, each with a single function. It was developed before the OM-1.
For example, the film is in a single film pack, and the shutter provides just the focal plane shutter function. The mirror is a mirror and has just one function. The user can combine the desired functions to create a single camera.
In designing a system that can be put together in any configuration, it is extremely difficult to design the mounts used to connect the items.
There is also a cheap, mass-market camera as one of the units in the system. Three units are combined together to create a camera. This is the MDS. This camera is made first and later becomes the M-1 or OM-1.
M=Maitani, D=dark box, N= normal, S=simple”

43rumors wants to thanks the Maitani Fans for mantaining such an important website about our legendary inventor!

Our friend Tyson Robichaud analyzed the current situation of MicroFourThirds and in general mirrorless system. He ends his post with an open request to Panasonic and Olympus:

“My plea to both Panasonic and Olympus:
Panasonic: Now offering 3 different “small” dSLR style body lines that are barely smaller than a Rebel? Really? This is ludicrous in my mind….Please continue to advance the GF platform
Olympus: Please oh please have someone redesign your menus and interface.
To both (my rant): For the love of all that is holy, get some new, fast, reasonably affordable, small lenses to market to compliment the kit lenses you’ve already released.”

I do agree with his “analysis” and you?

Read the article: tysonrobichaudphotography.wordpress.com

Download the Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 Plug-in: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_6.1

Reminder: The new Adobe CS5 suite is now shipping! On photoshopuser.com/cs5 you can see a very well done list of the new features.

USA:
Adobe CS5 suite on Adobe US / Amazon / BHphoto / Amazon Canada

Europe:
Direct links to the pre-order page on Adobe UK / Adobe Deutschland / Adobe France / Amazon Deutschland / Amazon UK / Amazon France

Asia:
Amazon Japan

Press release:

“The new Olympus Viewer 2 is designed especially for photo editing, picture sorting and selection, and RAW image file development.

It offers the same ability as the previous Olympus Studio 2 for image management and the development of RAW format image files with Art Filter effects (with RAW files from relevant cameras), as well as the e-Portrait and movie editing functions of both Olympus Master 2 and Olympus Studio 2.

Product features

• Flexibility in selection and management of images with thumbnail view at a glance and colour sorting marks

• Light Box function for comparing different images with magnification of the same area of those images

• RAW development into high quality images with detailed adjustments

• Editing with ” before ” and ” After ” comparison viewing

• RAW development with Art Filter effects o Only for RAW format images taken with Olympus cameras incorporating Art Filter functions

• “e-Portrait” function for the images taken with the Olympus cameras that incorporate the same function

• “Beauty Fix” function for the images taken with the Olympus cameras that incorporate the same function.

• Compatible with PEN Lite E-PL1

• Compatible with Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard

• RAW development with the “Gentle Sepia” Art Filter effect o Only for RAW format images taken with the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL1

• RAW development of “Diorama” and “Cross Process” Art Filter effects for the RAW format images taken with the Olympus PEN E-P1”

Download page: http://support.olympus-imaging.com/ov2download/index/?Lang=ENU

We expected the Sony NEX cameras to be cheaper than MicroFourThirds so we compared the current prices with other (compact!) mirrorless cameras:

Camera+prime lens combos (cheapest on top / click on the product name to visit the shop):
Sony NEX3 + 16mm Lens ($549 on Adorama)
Sony NEX5 + 16mm Lens ($649 on Adorama)
Panasonic GF1 + 20mm Lens ($844.16 on Amazon)
Olympus E-P2 + 17mm Lens ($1,029.95 on Amazon)

Camera+kit-zoom
Olympus E-PL1 + 14-42mm Lens ($549 on Amazon)
Sony NEX3 + 18-55 Lens ($599 on Adorama)
Sony NEX5 + 18-55 Lens ($699 on Adorama)
Panasonic GF1 + 14-45mm Lens ($749.99 on Amazon)
Olympus E-P2 + 14-42mm Lens ($899.99 on Amazon)

The only cameras that seems to be overpriced are the GF1 and the E-P2. But you also have to consider the features. The GF1 has a built-in flash, allows the use of the optional electronic live viewfinder, faster autofocus and better ergonomy and buttons. The Olympus E-P2 has Built-IN stabilization and also a very high quality electronic live viewfinder
The Olympus E-PL1 is the cheapest item in the camera+zoom section. To bad they do not offer the E-PL1+17mm option.

The NEX is cheap, but not cheaper than MicroFourThirds. I guess the real battle is about image quality and features!

P.S.: Interesting:
After 36 hours amazon has still no Sony NEX product and if you search for Sony NEX you will get a MicroFourThirds advertising instead of NEX :)