Olympus just made the biggest announcement of the year. They took the mirror out of a DSLR and called it "Micro Four-Thirds".

Yes, that's right, a baby DSLR. A point & shoot camera but with interchangeable lenses. A pocket-able camera that delivers DSLR quality and control. A 21st century rangefinder street camera. A go-light adventurer's dream come true.

Yes, it will have an electronic viewfinder, and this will never be as good as an optical viewfinder, but even EVF's have advantages. (on-demand magnified manual focus) The only real drawback will be no traditional autofocus, but Olympus has pioneered the "fly by wire" system for years so if anybody can do it, Oly can...

Finally, I will be able to own a P&S-sized camera, but be able to slap on an f/1.4 prime when I need to, a 1:1 macro when I want to, and so on and so forth. In fact I can't imagine owning a high-end P&S camera anymore. How will they be able to compete, when a micro-4/3 camera can offer ultra-wide lenses, fast-apeture lenses, super-telephoto lenses, all with pro-quality, no-compromises sharpness etc...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08080501microfourthirds.asp

Wow. Nikon's (secret) DX P&S's just got taken to the cleaners! I wonder if Nikon or Canon or anyone else could ever dare compete with this. Nikon and Canon in particular are too busy fighting over the world's TINIEST segment of digital camera sales- full-frame DSLR's.

Olympus just secured their share of a HUGE market... If they make a model with weather-sealing, I'll buy one in a heartbeat!!!

=Matt=