During the latest months I received many mails from people asking me to talk a bit about future mirrorless systems from Canon, Nikon and other companies.
I thought it would be good idea to write one single post to share all I know about the future mirrorless sytems.

A personal note:
I admit, I am not a brand loyal person. I like good cameras, not brands :)
I love the Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000Pentax K1000, the Nikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FENikon FE system, the Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7Mamiya M7, the Canon 550D (T2i) and many other cameras.
And I am very curious to see what’s coming from the competition!

So what should we expect from Panasonic, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Samsung and Pentax?

Canon:
First of all I invite you to follow the canonrumors.com website. I am sure they have far better rumors than we about future Canon stuff.
According to our sources Canon will be the last big brand to present their mirorrless system. A mirrorless concept/roadmap could be unveiled on Photokina but my sources do speculate with the official release of their system in 2011. Some speculation: It could use the same APS-C sensor used for the Canon 550D (T2i). Do not expect something revolutionary. They will simply pick-up some of the best tecnology from current mirrorless systems and put their sensor in a new Canon system.
My future interest in the Canon system? 7/10

Nikon:
Our friend Peter from nikonrumors posted many Nikon related “mirrorless” patents. According to his sources Nikon will use a small sensor (smaller than the MicroFourThirds sensor!) for their mirrorless system. Also my sources do confirm that we should not expect too much from Nikon.
My future interest in the Nikon system: 5/10

Pentax:
They have zero resources for developing their own mirrorless system. And the partnership with Samsung is very weak. I really hope Pentax can survive but I don’t see a bright future for them :(
No vote (but I would love to see a Pentax mirorless system!)

Samsung:
They are putting a lot of money for the development into the NX system. The problem is that they have no tradition, no experience and people do not really trust them. Anyway they are currently trying to learn from their mistakes and I am sure that over the long term they will be able to release some interesting cameras (like the compact NX100). The partnership with Schneider-Kreuznach sounds also very promising.
One more thing: I bet they will be the first to create a mirrorless fullframe system!
My future interest in the Samsung system: 7/10 (and if they make a fullframe system: 8/10)

Sony:
Unlike Samsung they will soon release some nice compact cameras. The problem is that (as usual) Sony will create a strong closed proprietary system. Also the hotshoe is proprietary :(
And I don’t like their relation with the Alpha-folks. An example? They didn’t manage to release one single firmware update for their Sony Alpha cameras.
My future interest in the Sony system: 6/10

Panasonic and Olympus:
Yes, here we are! What’s the future of MicroFourThirds? In my opinion everything depends from the development of the lens system. If they will be able to release some nice lenses only few will switch to other mirroless systems. And according to my sources both companies are working very very hard in that direction. I expect many new lenses to be announced at Photokina. Olympus will announce some nice primes and Panasonic is focusing their development of cheap-good quality lenses (like the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7).
My future interest in the MFT system: 8/10

Please keep in mind that my judgment is based on rumors+speculations and not on facts.

Once again thanks to all of you sending me rumors and news!

P.S.: Sorry if sometimes I do not answer you. At the moment I am really busy at work. Feel free to add me in google chat. You can contact me at any time!

Cheers
Ale

Minister Niihori Kenichi (Canon Camera Business Unit) “said that Canon has no plan yet to develop a new system and still discussing whether this mirrorless system is just a hype / temporary phenomenon or the real thing.”

I bet Canon is already developing their system!

Source: Radiantlite

According to EosHD a new Panasonic GH1 hack allowed to increase the bit rate to 24Mbps!

The Hacker is called “tester13” and you he is active on dvxuser.com

He even doesn’t own the Panasonic GH1. So may you help him to buy one by donating via paypal  (click here -> the money goes directly to him not to 43rumors!)

Do you have an idea on how to make pressure on Olympus and Panasonic to create cross-compiler environments?

In his latest post (click here to read it) explained the importance of having “open mounts”.

Some excerpts:

MicroFourThirds: “One of the things that is pushing their success amongst current DSLR users is that you can get a mount adapter for virtually any mount.”

About Samsung: “They simply don’t see the mount issue that’s holding them back. Where Olympus is quietly encouraging mount adapters, Samsung isn’t.”

The future: “it’s a game of keeping losses to a minimum to slow the contraction that happens after market saturation. I know I’m repeating the same thought, but the solution is simple: redefine what a camera is. Right now, Panasonic and Olymus are closer to doing that than Nikon and Canon.”

Let’s see how Thom Hogan would redefine the camera:

• “Modular. Remember that non-stop technology march? Well, we can completely junk our equipment every time a sensor generation comes down the pike, or we can just replace the sensor module. Which would you prefer?
• Programmable. This necessarily doesn’t mean you, the user, has to write programs. It means that there’s a known API to the underlying hardware (and modules!) and a way to take advantage of it. Whatever you need to do, there should be an app for that, not a dedicated feature with restrictive parameters.
• Communicating. The camera sits in the middle of so many processes and initiates most of them. But right now we’re using Sneaker Net to communicate (that’s an reference to the old practice of taking a disk out of your computer and going down the hall to put it in another one in order to move files). But here’s another thing: cameras should be able to communicate with other cameras, other camera accessories, and things outside the camera world, all simultaneously. Right now most of the communication that is done by our cameras is proprietary, highly restricted, and often sequential.“

I would love to see such a camera system and you?