Few weeks ago Nikon announced that they are working on a new mirrorless system. Today Reuters published the statement made by Mr Maeda from Canon. He said the company was working on a smaller version of its upmarket single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras in a bid to compete with the new breed of mid-range so-called “mirrorless” cameras. Maeda did not give further details of the new camera, including whether the internal structure would include a mirror.

Competitors have made high-quality cameras more compact by removing the mirror that enables the user to look at the actual scene through a viewfinder, creating a new market segment that is popular in Japan and which analysts say may grow rapidly.

“It’s not a question of whether or not you have a mirror. There is a consumer need for good-quality cameras to be made smaller,” Maeda said. “We will meet this need.”

He denied this would be difficult without removing the internal mirror, adding that Canon had produced very small SLR cameras in the past.

Source: Reuters

(Olympus M43 lens roadmap from November 2009) Click on picture to enlarge.

Now that the LX5 has been leaked we have to go back to our usual 43 and M43 rumors :)

We are trying to filter the rumors we do receive and day by day we feel that we are getting closer to the final correct lens and camera roadmap. We learned that Olympus will announce a minimum of four new MicrFourThirds lenses at Photokina. We have been told that there should be two new primes and two new zooms. One of our source told us the 50mm and the 70-300mm would come at Photokina (but we still have to confirm the rumor with a second source). The Olympus roadmap itself shows also the 12mm(?) wide angle lens and the 8mm(?) fisheye (Panasonic just announced the 8mm f/3.5 ED Fisheye Lens)

Reminder: We are almost certain that Panasonic is working on very fast new primes (faster than f/1.4). The first prime is expected to be on market by end 2010 early 2011.

According to Bloomberg Nikon Corp. plans to introduce a new type of single-lens reflex camera as early as this fiscal year, President Makoto Kimura said.
The “new concept” model will probably have an enhanced function for video recording and may adopt the so-called mirrorless structure, Kimura said in an interview today in Tokyo. “It could be any time this fiscal year or the following year, as new models are starting to sell,” he said, declining to specify when the product will be available.

I just found a new Sony NEX-7 rendering. This is not the real camera but a product of imagination ;)

UPDATE: The author of the rendering is Qing Xiang (http://timberwolf.zenfolio.com)

Reminder->There eas a rumor a while go that said that the NEX-7 would be announced at Photokina and:

“Design totally different to NEX5/3, and more bigger size
Spec unknow yet
Support XDCAM recording format
soonest release is on Sept, unless Panasonic announce GH2“

The following includes questions and answers at the Conference for the Medium Term Management Plan on June 18, 2010 (Source: Nikon.com). The most interesting part is here:

Q: What can you tell us about the new-generation digital cameras?
A: Although we considered a variety of so-called mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras for the digital SLR camera market, we discern the appropriate timing for the launch of our new-generation digital cameras based on the direction of the market demand.

Come on Nikon, you can do it ;)

According to photorumors.com “First we will see APS-C mirrorless lenses for Sony NEX and Samsung NX. Tamron is designing 2 compact zoom and one macro:

* Compact standard zoom: 24-50mm f/3.5-5.6 VR
* Compact telezoom: 75-200mm f/4.5-6.3 VR
* Macro: 90mm f/3.5 VR“

And via 43rumors.com we learned that DSLRphoto wrote a facebook post which says that Tamron could soon make m4/3 lenses. The only issue I see with that “rumor” is that Sony is the major shareholder of Tamron and I don’t know if they really want to make the m4/3 sys

read the original post written in spanish: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DSLR-Magazine/91408188189