(Olympus Pen F series film camera to possibly form the basis for the new Oly M4/3)
On Friday, we briefly talked about the prospect of Ricoh introducing the next digital camera basing on the design of its legacy film camera. Could this trend has been set already? The popluar Chinese forum Xitek has posts leaking out the next Oly M4/3 to invoke the retro design of its film Pen F camera. The googlish translation is as follows:
[2009.6.15】 OLYMPUS official M43 machine will be released, on sale in early July
[2009-05-22 10:33 add the following]
Open this with hope that the M43 to share Olympus information, see 6.15 high hopes for olympus M43 was able to give a pleasant surprise?
[2009-06-01 15:41 add the following]
[43rumors] 
(The possible front view of the new 4/3)
Olympus Pen E-P1 Olympus Pen E-P1
May 31, 2009 Micro Four Thirds, Olympus Rumors
Possible specs
- 12 Megapixel
- 100-3200 ISO
- BodyIS
- 3.0 LCD (no swivel) with new improved liveview (IS will work while you use the liveview)
- Same autofocus as the Panasonic G1
- Video 720p
- 2 models, one in silver-black, one beige
- thicker than the G10 or DP2 - 17mm 2.8 lens and 14-42 kit lens - US990$ body+kit lens
[2009-06-02 16:16 add the following]
[43rumors draft of the new machine] 
![674227_1244107964[1]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ht_17wiSoBo/SiqooWxvteI/AAAAAAAAC14/BG2hlAAs3M0/s1600-h/674227_1244107964%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "674227_1244107964[1]")
[2009-06-05 11:54 add the following]
Olympus Pen E-P1 Olympus Pen E-P1
On sale early in July, 120x70x35mm 300g
Colors, silver and white of the two kinds of prices close to ¥ 90,000 Single Lens plus two second half of the sale of 120,000 to ¥ 130,000
Lens, 17mm F2.8 sale between 4.5-5 ¥ 10,000 pancake and 14-42mm F3.6-sell about ¥ 35,000
SD card recording pixels 13M RAW JPEG RAW + JPEG
1280x720 7min Video recording
And embedded electronic Liveview shake correction
3 LCD
11 area AF
ISO 200-6400
(Shutter speed?) 60-1/4000
[2009-06-06 15:06 add the following]
[43rumors] Side- and top-view
The following is a Pany's marketing research on the huge market for serious compacts. A good news for both the camera makers and serious compact lovers.
After reading the news, I have more question marks on what Ricoh and other makers, for that matter, are going to do to make the most of out this fad of retro design in this market segment.
Some extra pieces of information about the Pen F series:
Japan OLYMPUS "OLYMPUS Pen" available for sale to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the series. A special website is open for visit:
http://photofan.jp/camera/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&topic_id=6427&forum=2
Olympus history> the history of the camera> 1936-1970> Pen series (camera)
http://www.olympus-global.com/cn/corc/history/camera/pen.cfm
http://asia.olympus-imaging.com/products/dslr/special/pen50th/pen/
Olympus History> History of Cameras> 1936-1970> Pen Series
http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/history/camera/pen.cfm
Recalling the history of PEN having OLYMPUS PEN GALLERY
http://homepage1.nifty.com/olympuspen/index.html#TOP
Related Links Site
http://homepage1.nifty.com/olympuspen/link.htm
Mr. Rice himself a long time to talk about the United States PEN OM XA
http://www.geocities.com/maitani_fan/home.html
Comments
Have you seen this "Will It Blend?" video where they throw an Olympus E-620 DSLR and a Stylus point-and-shoot into a blender? It seems like they're trying to get DSLR image quality into a point-and-shoot body. That's what Olympus is promising with their Micro Four Thirds camera.
http://tr.im/Blendtec
Nevin