In September 2010 Nikonrumors found that image. After a couple of days we were all pretty sure that this was a joke. In the meanwhile Pentax announced their Pentax Q mirrorless rumor and the memory of the Nikon leak cam back in our minds. Now the German Systemkamera-forum contacted me to say that trusted sources confirmed them that Nikon will indeed launch their Q system that uses exactly the same Pentax Q sensor! Suprised?

P.S.: Check the Pentax Q specs at BHphoto.

Image on top: A Canon mirrorless concept design (not a real camera!)

Finally we can give you some mirrorless news from the Canon front! According to the Reuters agency “the world’s largest maker of digital cameras, is exploring the possibility of launching a mirrorless model, featuring many of the capabilities of an upmarket single-lens reflex camera in a more compact body, a senior company executive said.”

Masaya Maeda, head of Canon’s camera division said “We are considering the technical aspects…We will launch an interesting product next year“.

Wondering if Canon will make an ultrasmall sensor mirrorless camera like Pentax or go for APS-C. Let’s see!

Takeshi Higuchi, head of the company’s camera division, said in an interview with Reuters on Monday that “The launch of a mirrorless camera, which has an electronic viewfinder, making it lighter and more compact than a professional-style single-lens reflex camera, would be an extension of Fujifilm’s effort to move upmarket and would put it in direct competition with Sony.”

And: “in digital still camera unit sales, Fujifilm says it is currently in fifth position behind Canon, Sony, Nikon and Samsung, but adds it is confident that its plan to boost sales 25 percent to 14 million units this financial year will gain it the No. 4 spot.“

Within one month the new minaturization war “produced” the the (pictured on top) and the . And according to a new source Samsung will join the competition! Take it with a grain of salt until our trusted sources can confirm or deny the specs.

The source saw a poster of a new Samsung NX1000 camera. The poster had the script: “Small, thin and light… technology with a smart touch“. The camera that was described is a small NX DualView with a 4″ AMOLED touch screen and front 1.8” LCD, WiFi and UI SmartMotion.

A wonder if a camera can be small if it uses a 4 inch(!) screen. Unless it has no buttons at all on the back of the camera!

P.S.:
Sony NEX-C3 images, specs and price at .
Panasonic GF3 images, specs and price at .
Olympus E-PM1 images, specs and price at (not availale yet for preorder!).

So here is the new Olympus E-P3! That camera along the new E-PM1 and E-PL3 + the new 12mm and 45mm pancake will be announced on Thursday 6GMT time. Below you can see more (blurred) pictures from the E-P3 (via Photorumors). You can follow the announcement live on 43rumors.

Fuji is enjoying a huge momentum thanks to the Fuji X100. And the Fujiguys (Twitter) already promised that there will be new exciting Fuji stuff coming in September. They didn’t unveil what we should expect but one thing is sure, Fuji officially said that they are working on a mirrorless system with interchangeable lenses. The question is, when is it coming? An unknown source told Photorumors that Fuji will announce three new cameras in September:

1) another fixed lens large sensor camera
2) a new advanced compact camera like the Panasonic LX5 ().
3) and here is the surprise……there will be probably “some kind of a mirrorless solution with a sensor probably smaller than APS-C, something in the m4/3 range.“

Just wishful thinking? I hope to get some reliable info from my sources as soon as possible!

Meanwhile Fuji released the new firmware for the X100 you can download here: http://www.fujifilm.com/support. Check Fuji X100 price and availability at [shopcountry 100018].

The latest “leaked” Sony NEX lens roadmap does display some changes we didn’t expect. First the Zeiss 24mm gets smaller and is half stop slower than expected (2.0 instead of 1.7). This might be a response to the lack of panacake lens expressed by many NEX users. Than the 50mm f/1.8 disappeared and made room for the 40mm f/2.0 lens with OSS (In lens stabilization). And than we have the long expected 55-210mm OSS zoom. There is no word about the availability yet. What looks a bit strange is that the 30mm macro looks also like a pancake!!! What a mess is that?