micro four thirds

Olympus today continued the game of cat-and-mouse that is the land of Micro Four Thirds cameras with their new PEN EP-2. The new shooter, which comes on the half-iversary of the EP-1, is chasing Panasonic's much-lauded GF1 but feels unlikely to overtake it.

Panasonic was the first out of the gate with a Micro Four Thirds camera, a system that promises SLR quality in small packages. It was Olympus, however, that hit small-body sweet spot with the EP-1. Today, Panasonic announced their own realization of the Micro Four Thirds promise with the svelte Lumix DMC-GF1.

Sometimes looking to the past to inspire designs of the future is inspired by nothing more than fashion, but sometimes, it actually serves a functional purpose. Enter Olympus's freshly announced EP-1, which recreate a form factor we haven't seen a lot of since the film era: a sleek, compact body with interchangeable lenses.