Panasonic to design and make its own Four Thirds standard cameras

An interesting announcement was jointly made by Olympus and Panasonic today, restating Panasonic's commitment to the Olympus-conceived Four Thirds "Designed for Digital" interchangeable lens digital camera standard. Panasonic first revealed its involvement in the Four Thirds bandwagon at the beginning of last year. Until today, despite friendly statements from Fujifilm, Sanyo, Kodak and Sigma, Olympus has been alone in launching Four Thirds-compliant cameras, though Kodak has provided sensor chips and Sigma now has several compatible lenses on sale. This latest announcements offers more insight into Panasonic's Four Thirds plans and conjures up some fascinating possibilities.
Today's statement lists three main points:
1. The two firms agree to jointly develop technologies and devices related to SLR camera systems (including camera bodies, interchangeable lenses, and related system peripherals) based on the Four Thirds System standard.
2. The two firms will individually develop digital SLR system cameras and related system products that incorporate the abovementioned technologies and devices.
3. With the aim of promoting widespread adoption of the Four Thirds System standard, the two firms will encourage other firms to participate in, and develop products for, the Four Thirds System standard.
The announcement also states: "The aim of the agreement is to meet the needs of the rapidly growing global market for digital SLR cameras by fusing Olympus’s industry-leading SLR camera technology with Panasonic’s advanced digital AV technology, and by developing innovative new design concepts for next-generation digital SLR cameras."
The news will no doubt be welcomed by Olympus E-System E-1 and E-300 camera owners. With backing from Panasonic, only a catastrophic failure within Panasonic, one of the world's biggest consumer electronics manufacturers and Olympus, could now see the Four Thirds standard fail to establish itself. Panasonic's move could also serve as a catalyst for those that have made a commitment in name-only, as well.
Most fascinating of all is exactly what will Panasonic eventually come up with? Some how, a conventional DSLR, with a reflex mirror and no live preview, doesn't seem to fit the Panasonic design psyche. I'm betting on an interchangeable lens camera with an electronic finder. Sony gave us a good idea of how this could be done with the DSC-F828. Sony, too, is rumoured to be entering the interchangeable lens market. After all, Sony supplies a large proportion of existing players with their DSLR sensor chips
And then there is that key relationship between Leica and Panasonic to consider. Maybe Leica lenses for Four Thirds cameras isn't such an outlandish idea after all.
And is all this too-little, too late? Industry figures show that 1.2 million+ DSLRs were sold world-wide in 2004 and that figure will more than double this year. 2007 projections suggest that 5.5 million sales can be expected. It seems that the market has hardly been touched.
Let's also not forget that the major annual photo industry trade show, PMA, is just five weeks away, this year returning to Orlando, Florida, after two years at Las Vegas. The Olympus/Panasonic announcement seems timed for this event. We'll be there to bring you all the key show news updates live from the show.