For some months we received info about a possible future Olympus and Kodak partnership. Now we received small details about a Kodak sensor which could be used inside the next Micro Four Thirds cameras. We learned from one of our trusted sources that the Olympus-Panasonic sensor agreement will expire by early 2011. That agreement didn’t allow Olympus to use other non-Panasonic sensors. Once the agreement ends Olympus has the choice to renegotiate the agreement or to sign a new partnership with Kodak. That could be one of the reasons why Olympus didn’t release any new [shoplink 14830]PEN[/shoplink] (or the rumored modular cameras) at Photokina.

According to the info we received the Four Thirds sensor has 16 Megapixel and true electronic shutter. Two of our sources claim to know that there are already working prototypes!

We have to warn you that we are talking about prototypes that might will never be produced for the mass market. I am not sure yet if Olympus will give up Panasonic in favour of Kodak. But I trust my sources when they say that Olympus is currently re-thinking the future sensor partnership.

Kodak recently announced the 29Megapixel W-RGB Interline Transfer CCD which is supposed to be used with the next [shoplink 17539 ebay]Leica M9[/shoplink] successor. Although this is not the “Kodak-Olympus sensor” we are talking about, it might be of interest to see some of the features (via ImageSensorWorld):
– The TRUESENSE technology is claimed to provide a 2x to 4x increase in light sensitivity compared to a standard Bayer color sensor by adding panchromatic pixels to the standard RGB elements that form the image sensor array
– The new sensor is also available in a regular Bayer and monochrome versions (Cool!)
– electronic shutter

For all Olympus readers. We are currently collecting info about the following three main rumors:
1) Modular camera
2) Olympus-Kodak partnership
3) New Super43 camera system

If you have some info you can share please contact me at 43rumors@gmail.com or use the contact form on the right sidebar. Thanks!

If mirrorless is eroding the DSLR market share, camera-phones are eroding the compact camera market. So it comes with no surprise that Olympus will buy the ITX phone corporation:

“TOKYO (Nikkei)–Olympus Corp. (7733) said Friday that it will launch a tender offer for ITX Corp. (2725) to turn the cellular phone sales unit into a wholly owned subsidiary. Olympus currently holds an 82.07% stake in ITX. The cost of acquiring the ITX shares that it does not own will likely come to about 7 billion yen. The tender offer will begin Thursday and end Dec. 27. The offering price is set at 60,500 yen a share, which translates to a roughly 34% premium over ITX stock’s closing price on Friday.”

Just a speculation: Would you like if future PEN cameras would be able to connect (via mobile Internet) to your social network to instantly share pictures? I know Sony and Samsung are working on that and thisould be another reason why Olympus is acquiring the ITX shares.

P.S.: The Panasonic LUMIX Phone will be available next February in Japan (Akihabaranews)